There is a magical power we each possess: Our ability to feel. Feelings are magical because they help us perceive and create our reality. But this magical power does not come without a price. We have to feel our feelings. And that means feeling the hard ones too. One of Iphelia’s most important lessons is that feelings are messages. Paying attention to our feelings gives rise to awareness of what is happening inside of us and around us. And even if we don’t pay attention and learn from our feelings, they still have a very strong effect on us. Instead of sensing and sorting out the intricacies of our experience, we find ourselves reacting to our lives in very unconscious and unintended ways.

Learning about different feelings and their deeper meanings is essential for living a happy and meaningful life. If we are confused and powerless, we are not going to be happy. But if we feel clear about what is happening and know our choices, then we can feel the power of mages—willing our lives and our selves into beautiful forms that we can celebrate every day. To support this endeavor, I’ve created a resource to help folks of all ages begin to identify and better understand what they are feeling! Check it out!

 

The Interactive Empathy Knows Glossary

The glossary may be viewed in Alphabetical or Ideasthesial layouts. In the Ideasthesial layout, feelings have been organized as a network of associations. Inspired feelings are up high. Powerless feelings are down low. Before we can begin our ascent to say, Joy, Love, or Freedom, we have to find our power. This discovery occurs as some form of extreme emotional intensity usually recognized as Anger. This is just one of the many lessons listening to and interpreting the messages of our feelings has to offer.

Ways to use the iEKG

• Challenges: Think of the major challenge you are facing in your life at this time, then look at the grid and see if you can find a word/image that symbolizes how you are feeling. There will likely be more than one. Click on the tiles for insight!
• Aspirations: Visualize any experience you are seeking to have in your life at this time, then look at the grid and again see if you can find the feeling word/images that symbolizes your experience. Click for insight!
• Dreams: Sometimes we awaken from a dream that leaves a strong impression on us. Look at the grid and see if you can find the feelings that correspond with what you experienced in the dream. Consider when you are experiencing those feelings in your life or inside yourself in your own subjective thoughts and feelings. Click for insight.
• Empathy: Imaging someone you know and care for or someone you are in conflict with. Take a moment to consider what it is you imagine they are feeling. Then find the tile that best represents what you are imaging and click for insight!

There are as many ways to use this resource as there are people who engage with it. My hope is that this page will continue to develop and become a resource for therapists, parents, young adults, and all other human beings in relationship with one another. It’s even available offline since you can easily create printouts!

How the Glossary was Created

The Empathy Knows Glossary is a collage of feeling images drawn by Iphelia during the course of her story. I drew each image based on my own subjective experience of synesthesia—the experience of senses crossing over, allowing us to perceive the color of a smell or perhaps the shape of a sound. The images were then mapped using my experience of Ideasthesia—the perception of ideas having qualities that are universal to human experience, evidenced by universal archetypes, metaphor, art, and so on. The images give color, shape, texture, and motion to feeling experiences. Sharing them is an invitation for everyone to acknowledge and join in a conversation about the feeling dimension of our existence.

Want to learn more about the concepts of Synesthesia and Ideasthesia? Watch below or click HERE to watch this brilliantly animated Ted-Ed video!