![]() ![]() Sometimes it helps me to take a few deep breaths when I’m feeling overwhelmed. “I am feeling really angry and disappointed that we can’t go to grandma’s birthday party because mom is feeling too tired. I’m going to draw him a picture for when he gets home–do you want to help me?” “I just learned dad needs to stay an extra day at the hospital. ![]() Some parents think of it like narrating their inner thoughts: “Oh man, we are out of my favorite coffee! That makes me so frustrated.” Take it a step farther and explain how you cope with your feelings: Talk to your child about YOUR feelings! Modeling is the best way for kids to learn. Acknowledge how they are feeling and let them know in a calm way that you are listening to them. Give your child space to talk about how they are feeling. (We like this one, this one, and this one.) As well, you can engage your child in the emotions that characters you are reading about or watching might feel. Read books about emotions and feelings together. Talk, talk, talk to your child about feelings! How many emotions can they name? What are some of the different emotions they experienced today? What did you, the grown-up, feel today? Think about what your child is feeling and get curious!įear: What do you need to pay attention to? Validate those emotions in words and actions! ![]() Help your child label the emotions that they are expressing and to the best of your ability, validate those feelings:įor a baby, this might be taking a baby to a window to wave to parent at daycare when they are feeling sad or scared or, it is helping an 18 month old who is frustrated to be in the car seat or perhaps, your toddler is angry that their favorite cup is in the dishwasher or, a four year old is sad to leave a playdate. Here are some other tips to help a child learn about emotions: Tell your child that you love them no matter how they are feeling. Most importantly, let them know that all emotions are good emotions by validating and responding to them in a calm way. You can leave these on the kitchen table or on the refrigerator and have your child point to how they are feeling at breakfast or dinner, or when they are having a big emotion. It consists of a color-coded circular diagram dividing emotions into eight primary categories including joy, trust, fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger, and anticipation. This will help them as they navigate through a parent or other loved one’s cancer diagnosis but it is also a skill that will help them as they grow-up and navigate other hard things that cross their path.ĭownload these Feelings Wheels. The emotions wheel was originally developed in the 1970s by psychologist Robert Plutchik. When children are able to name how they feel, they are more able to manage their emotions. These wheels are tools for parents and caregivers to assist a child in labeling and naming emotions. Dealing with them can be a strength.A Feelings Wheel is a way to help children name their feelings. No matter what your Wheel of Emotions looks like, the concept is still the same - humans are capable of so many vast and complicated emotions. As stated in the resource about navigating Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions, the “deeper” you get on the wheel, the more intense the emotional response. He developed a wheel of emotions that looks a little different than mine, which you can find here. Robert Plutchik, humans can experience 34,000 distinguishable emotions. It’s better than “nothing.”Īccording to American psychologist Dr. It gives me some language to talk about how I feel. If I feel Stressed, do I also feel Overwhelmed or Out of Control? Do I feel both? Even if there isn’t one “perfect” label to sum up how I’m feeling, it sets me in the right direction. ( Do I feel Bored, Busy, Stressed or Tired?) Then, I can even go one step deeper. If I can’t pinpoint exactly how I’m feeling, but know, at the very least, I feel “bad,” I can then move on to the next layer. It makes it hard for me to process emotions in real time. It’s as if my brain is trying to protect itself, working in overdrive so I can still function. It makes it hard for me to identify how I really feel about things. Something happens in a TV show, and I cry as if it’s happening to me, suddenly unable to breathe by a fictional plot that is vaguely related to something personal.īut yet, as things are actually happening, it’s still hard for me to feel. One off-hand comment from a friend (combined with too many drinks), and I’m fighting self-harm urges in a public bathroom. A change in dinner plans leaves me sobbing on my bed. Then, it comes out in bursts of emotion, triggered by seemingly “little” things. It comes out in bad thoughts, like, “ I want to kill myself,” a sentence that sometimes (although, thankfully, not recently) runs through my mind, a placeholder for whatever negative emotions I didn’t process that day. For me, this rain can manifest physically through stomachaches and back pain no amount of stretching relieves. ![]()
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