I remember being confused by a therapist a few years back when she asked me to pay attention to my emotions to see what they were telling me. I'd had an earlier therapist urge me to feel my darned emotions instead of burying them, and it felt like a step backward to have to start analyzing them.
That isn't what she meant. She wasn't asking me to judge or overthink my emotions but rather to view them as clues or indicators to guide how I respond to things.
For example, if I feel hurt or angry or even guilty, that's a clue that something isn't right, and I can adjust how I am thinking about or responding to a situation (or both). If I'm feeling joy and excitement, I can see that as an indicator that I need more of whatever it is that brings joy into my life.
Emotions don't give us answers. We still need to use our cognitive skills to figure out what our emotions mean, but that is easier to do when we register our feelings and feel them fully.
The more we feel our feelings, the more comfortable we become with letting them guide us.