How are you feeling? Vocabulary & expressions to answer this common question!

Hi.

I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and the lesson today is on the subject of "Physical and Mental Health".

Okay?

So, physical, your body; and mental, your mind.

Okay.

And health, how you're feeling, whether it's good or bad.

Okay.

For physical health people talk about that a lot, but for mental health people maybe

don't talk about that so much because it's maybe more embarrassing sometimes.

But it's important to know these words.

And you probably know the basic ones, like: "feeling well", "feeling ill" or "sick", but

it's good to have other words as well to describe different ways that you're feeling.

Especially if you're going to see the doctor, you need to be able to explain as clearly

as possible how you're feeling so that the doctor can help you.

Or if you're just talking to a friend, it's important to be able to explain how you're feeling.

Okay.

So, we'll start with the physical health, then, and looking at the positive ways.

If you're feeling really well, the ways of saying that.

Okay?

So: "feeling well", obviously.

"I'm feeling well.", "I'm feeling good."

"Feeling good" is a little bit more colloquial, more informal, but you'd say that to your friends.

-"How are you?"

-"Oh, I'm good. I'm feeling good."

Okay?

"In the pink", I think maybe this is a little bit old, old-fashioned, but people sometimes

say: "Oh, I'm in the pink."

And I think it refers to pink cheeks on your face, so maybe you have to be a white person,

really, to be able to say this.

If you have pink cheeks it suggests that you're healthy, you can see the blood in your face,

so that suggests oxygen and good health.

So: "in the pink", that's what it means, even if people don't use it very much anymore.

Okay?

Just a straightforward one, if you say: "I'm in the best of health",

"I'm very lucky. I'm in the best of health."

If someone has a lot of energy, and this one is an idiom,

if they say they're full of beans:

"Oh, I'm feeling full of beans today", it doesn't mean...

It doesn't mean that literally they have eaten a lot of beans, but it probably comes from

the fact that beans are a very healthy food, and they give you energy, and maybe protein.

I don't know all the ingredients, but if someone is full of beans it means they're jumping

around, and lots of energy, and...

So you might say: "Oh, he's full of beans today", but it doesn't mean he's been eating

beans literally; it's an idiom.

Okay?

Another one that people use is a little bit old-fashioned again:

"full of the joys of spring",

the season, spring, because it's the time when everything starts growing and

new life and everything, and joy means happiness.

So if you're full of the joys of spring, if you say:

"I'm full of the joys of spring today",

it may be because the sun's shining and you're feeling healthy, you're feeling good, happy,

lots of energy.

So that's the joys of spring.

And finally for this section: "I'm feeling on top of the world."

So right up there on top of the world, another idiom.

It doesn't literally mean...

You'd have to be up on the Arctic to be on top of the world, which wouldn't really be

a very comfortable place, but: "on top of the world" just means you're really...

You feel you're on top of everything.

You're in control of everything and you're feeling good.

Okay?

Right, well, those are all the positive words we have in this lesson, and all the rest are negative.

We have negative for the physical health and negative for mental health, because probably

we take mental health for granted and if we're in good mental health we don't really need

to say much about it.

So, anyway, if you have to go to the doctor because you're not feeling well, these are

the kinds of words you could use.

Okay.

"Not feeling well", "I'm not feeling well."

And then the doctor says: "Well, what exactly is it?"

So that's why we need a few other words.

"I'm feeling ill.", "I'm feeling sick."

Sick, sometimes you feel like being sick, vomiting, but also in a more general way,

if you feel sick it doesn't literally mean you're going to vomit.

It's just generally not feeling very good.

Okay.

"Tired", if you have no energy: "I'm feeling tired."

Or: "I've been feeling tired for the whole... A whole week.",

"Worn out" is another meaning for tired.

"Worn out" is more colloquial.

"Worn out", it's like with clothes.

If you get a hole in your elbow of your shirt, it's worn.

So, if you physically are feeling worn out and tired, it's like a hole in your shirt.

You know, you just need to recover.

"Worn out", "exhausted", that's a more extreme word for being tired.

"I'm feeling exhausted."

Or: "I've been feeling exhausted."

Just generally you can say: "I'm not in the best of health at the moment."

That's a sort of general...

And then somebody would say: "Well, what exactly is wrong?"

This is a very general thing.

"I'm not in the best of health", without actually saying exactly what it is.

"Out of sorts" is a more colloquial, casual way of saying you're not really feeling well.

"I'm feeling out of sorts."

And where we had: "on top of the world", here we have: "under the weather",

it's as if the weather, it's probably bad weather-rain, cold,

horrible weather-and you're under it.

"Under the weather".

So it's getting a bit...

It's weighing down on you and you're feeling: "Oh, dear."

So that's physical, mostly physical words for not feeling well.

Okay, so let's move on now to the negative words for mental health.

Okay?

So, if you're not feeling yourself or you say: "I'm not feeling myself", it doesn't

mean literally you're not feeling yourself.

It means you don't feel right.

Something feels wrong.

So: "I'm not feeling myself at the moment."

That sort of thing.

You know something isn't right, but you don't know what it is.

Okay?

"I feel as if I'm losing it", meaning you're losing some sort of control of your life or

things in your work, you're losing it.

Okay? That's a very colloquial term.

Similar: "losing your grip", "I'm losing my grip."

This is your grip when you hold something.

So, that's the grip.

If you're losing your grip, you're not really holding things together properly.

You're not in control of the things you need to do in your life and your work, and so on.

"I'm losing my grip."

"I'm out of my mind."

Out, literally...

Not literally, but it's as if this is your mind inside your head but you're somewhere else.

You don't feel that you and your mind are working together properly.

I think...

I can't think: How else do I explain that?

But you can sometimes say: "I'm going out of my mind.",

"I'm going out of my mind."

I think there's a song with those words in it.

Okay, going out of my mind.

Similarly: "losing my mind", "I'm losing my mind."

or: "I think I'm losing my mind."

It means, you know, your concentration isn't working properly, you're having strange thoughts,

all sorts of things are happening.

You don't feel in control of your thoughts.

"Losing my mind".

If you've been upset by something that's happened and you can't come to terms with it.

Okay.

That sort of thing.

Then we have: "going nuts", which is a rather casual, informal, jokey kind of thing to say.

"Nuts", "Oh, he's nuts, that guy."

You've heard of the film, The Nutty Professor, "nutty" also means a bit strange.

Strange person, strange in the head we say sometimes.

So, "going nuts"...

If you're going nuts...

If you are nuts, you're already nuts.

If you're going nuts, you're gradually becoming nuts.

Okay.

Okay, more serious now: "worried".

To worry is always to have things on your mind, always thinking.

"Oh, I'm worrying all the time."

Or: "He's such a worrier.

That man is such a worrier. Worrier."

Not warrior, "worrier", "i-e-r".

Some people just do worry all the time.

They get one worry out of the way, one issue and then they replace it with another

worry or issue.

So some people are just like that. Okay.

And "anxious" is another...

"Anxious" is another word for "worry".

Someone who's always anxious, they're always thinking and thinking things are going to

go wrong.

Okay.

"Depressed" is a medical condition, really, used by doctors.

"Feeling low" is another way of saying that.

"Feeling low". Okay.

Your feelings are low.

You... Depression tends to go on for a period of time, so that's important.

If you're feeling depressed, that's what you say to the doctor and then they can do something

to help.

Okay.

Finally: "in a state", if you're in a state that's a little bit more nervous.

You're feeling nervous and you can't relax.

"Nervous" and you can't relax.

So if you say: "Oh, I'm in a state at the moment."

Or: "I'm in a bit of a state at the moment because something's happened,

I've lost my car", or something.

Just to be in a state because, you know, you can't relax until things get sorted out.

Okay.

Oh, "going nuts", another one for that is: "going crazy".

"Crazy" is another sort of jokey word, casual, informal word.

You might know a song called: "Crazy", okay, which I'm not going to sing

you'll be glad to hear.

Okay, so there we are, lots of new words for you.

So if you'd like to go to the website, www.engivd.com, there is a quiz there to test you

on some of these.

Okay?

And come back again soon.

So, see you then.

Bye.