Emotions are expressions of our deepest selves. However, they are oftentimes overlooked or totally ignored.

Licensed psychologist Jonice Webb, Ph.D. explained that acknowledging these feelings may be more challenging for those with families that discount sentiments.

“When you grow up with emotional neglect, you may learn that your feelings are irrelevant and burdensome,” she stated. “You may not get to learn some very important skills, such as how to name, put them into words, and manage or share them.”

Webb, the best-selling author of Running On Empty: Overcome Your Childhood Emotional Neglect and Running on Empty No More: Transform Your Relationships, likewise stressed the importance of finally listening to oneself towards healing your own life.

“Your emotions are the essence of who you are,” she noted. “They help you to know and trust yourself, connect and motivate you, and assist you in finding meaning to make sense of the world. They give you invaluable information that provides you with a roadmap for how to live your life,” she added.

The Benilde Well-Being Center (BWC) of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, sharing Webb’s goal to build awareness of the long-lasting, often invisible effects of childhood emotional neglect on people’s adult lives, highlighted the expert’s methodology to improve life.

Here are the points, published on PsychologyToday.com, one of the world’s largest publishing enterprise exclusively dedicated to mental health and behavioral science:

1. Live life in the present moment.

Reflect in the here and now. Become oriented of what’s going on inside of you and around you.

2. Be more self-aware.

Reconnect the brain to your body. Become integrated, which allows you to identify what you want and need.

3. Make decisions that better suit you.

Uncover your passion. Make decisions that align with who you are.

4. Care less about what other people think.

Self-doubt is common if you are out of touch with yourself. It makes you more vulnerable to other’s opinions.

5. Feel more connected to others.

Open up with your feelings. Otherwise, it will be difficult for others to connect with the real you.

6. Be more authentic and genuine.

Understand and embrace what’s going on internally and the external world will notice.

7. Improve setting limits with others.

Emotional awareness creates an invisible boundary between you and others that allows for healthy relationship boundaries.

8. Be in control of your emotions.

Acknowledge and process it. Figure out what to do next and hold power.

9. Feel energized.

Emotions are energy inside of you, which are meant to guide you to take action.

10. Have more direction and motivation.

Once you take note of this energy, the choices you make will come naturally.

11. Physical health improvement.

Being in touch with your emotions will lead to better sleep, less stress and other health benefits.

12. Feel more fulfilled with life.

You will garner confidence and ease in decision-making. You will be more connected to yourself and others.