One Word That Can Shift How You Experience Any Emotion
There’s this little word that’s been sitting with me lately.
One syllable. Three letters.
The.
And I didn’t realize how powerful it was until years ago—back when I first started working with my very first life coach, Gina. (She’s still a dear friend and soul I treasure.)
We were talking about overwhelm.
And I said what so many of us say, without thinking:
“I’m overwhelmed. I feel so overwhelmed. It’s just… I’m overwhelmed.”
She looked at me gently and said,
“What if you tried saying, ‘I feel the overwhelm creeping in’?”
And something shifted.
It was so subtle, but so immediate.
That one small word—the—created just enough space between me and the feeling.
It let me observe it without becoming it.
It let me feel it without fusing with it.
It reminded me that overwhelm is something I experience, not something I am.
And that’s everything.
When you say, “I’m overwhelmed,” you’re reinforcing it. You’re matching an “I am” identity to something you don’t even want.
Over time, that language wires itself into your nervous system. It becomes the loop, the trigger, the emotional addiction—one you might not even realize is still running the show.
But when you say, “I feel the overwhelm,”
or “I notice the frustration,” or “I can sense the anxiety rising,”
you reclaim your power to choose how YOU respond.
You are not the emotion.
You’re the one experiencing it.
And there’s so much freedom in that knowing.
So I want to offer that to you today:
If something uncomfortable is rising…
If you're feeling stuck in an old loop…
If a familiar emotion has crept back in...
Try adding T H E in front of it.
Try naming it without owning it.
It’s a small shift, but it’s one of the most powerful moves you’ll ever make.
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