As a school counsellor I often tell other educators and parents to try and foster an environment where the full spectrum of emotions are welcomed and accepted. We know that raising emotionally intelligent children helps them manage their emotions throughout their lives. A good place to start is by educating kids on the range of emotions and allowing them a safe space to express them.
That is my logical brain speaking. My emotional brain often has a tough time listening to my logical brain. When my child or students are showing emotions other than joy I often find myself trying to ‘fix’ it. This often looks like trying to cheer them up, using distractions, entertaining, and so forth. This is not the best way of showing them that all emotions are welcome and often leaves me feeling exhausted and resentful. So how can we help children believe that all emotions are valuable? Music is one answer that I like to use. How many of the songs that you find yourself belting out in the car are driven by an emotion other than joy? Many top hits are fueled by grief, frustration, sadness, longing, etc. This week try getting every family member to pick a favourite song and then have a discussion at dinner around the emotions that fuel that song. See if you can find songs for multiple emotions and if you are really creative you can even try writing family songs for different emotions! For more ways to support emotional intelligence check out Dr. Laura Markham’s article: https://www.ahaparenting.com/parenting-tools/emotional-intelligence/steps-to-encourage Comments are closed.
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