What Are Feelings?
One afternoon, Stefina sat quietly under a tree near her school playground. Her teacher had just scolded her for not completing her homework, and Stefina felt something heavy inside her chest.

“Why do I feel this way?” she wondered.

Just then, she remembered a class where her teacher had explained how the human body works.

“If someone pinches me,” the teacher had said, “your skin sends a message to your brain through nerves. The brain reads the message and says, ‘Ouch, that hurts!’”

“That’s how I feel pain,” thought Stefina. “But what about the pain I feel inside? Like when someone says something unkind?”

Words Can Hurt or Heal
Stefina began to remember other times she had strong feelings.

The day a friend said, “You look weird in those clothes,” her heart had sunk.

But when someone once said, “You are so kind and smart,” she had smiled for the whole day.

“Why do words feel like a touch on the inside?” she asked herself.

She realized that her brain reacts to words just like it reacts to touch.
When someone says something harsh, her brain says, “That hurts.”
When someone praises her, the brain says, “That feels good.”

It was all part of what her teacher called “feeling-thinking.”

What Happens When You Name a Feeling?
Later that evening, Stefina felt angry at her younger brother for breaking her favourite pen. She shouted at him and then slammed the door.

But as she sat alone, she remembered something she had read in a small book:

“What happens if you don’t give your feeling a name?
Just watch it — not as ‘anger’ or ‘sadness’ — just watch it like you watch a butterfly.”

So she tried it.

She closed her eyes and noticed the heat in her face… the tightness in her chest… the fast beating of her heart.
But this time, she didn’t say, “I am angry.”

She just watched.

Watching Without Naming
Something strange and beautiful happened.
As Stefina watched the feeling — without calling it “bad” or “good,” “anger” or “pain” — it began to change.

It softened. It slowed down.
It felt like a wave that rose… and then quietly faded away.

“So this is what it means to really understand a feeling,” she thought.
“Not just to react, but to observe. To see it clearly, like a mirror shows your face.”

A Quiet Smile
From that day, Stefina tried something new:
Whenever a big feeling came — happiness, sadness, fear, or anger — she took a moment to pause and watch it without giving it a name.

She didn’t always succeed, but each time she did, she felt a little more calm.
A little more free.
A little more alive.

And with time, Stefina began to understand herself — not through books or rules, but through quiet watching.

And that, she thought, was the beginning of wisdom.

🌟Moral of the Story🌟
Feelings are like visitors — they come and go. If we watch them calmly without judgment, they lose their power to control us. The key to understanding yourself is not in reacting, but in observing with kindness and curiosity.