How can an individual express emotions in a positive way?
Do Now: Create a list of emotions you have felt today.
Class notes
Emotion: a feeling- a reaction to a situation that involves a person’s mind, body and behavior. The most common emotions are:
Love- includes romance, love between family members, friends, etc. Deep feelings of affection and concern
Anger-
Fear-
Guilt-
Happiness-
Sadness-
How is each emotion typically portrayed?
There are both positive and negative ways to deal with each of these emotions. For example, anger may motivate someone to try to change things, or it may cause more conflict. Fear may help people run from harmful situations, or it may cause someone to avoid the fearful situation instead of confronting it. Guilt may keep someone from doing something wrong, or it may make you doubt yourself and your actions.
Skills for developing good emotional health:
Communicating emotions appropriately
Developing healthy, supportive relationships with peers and adults
Knowing how to cope with stressful situations
Setting short term and long term goals and taking action to achieve them
Advocating for health and helping others
You are going to work on one of the above skills that helps develop good emotional health- communicating emotions appropriately.
Throughout your life, people or situations will trigger emotional responses. Whether it is a pleasant emotion or a troublesome emotion, human beings are emotionally expressive. Identifying our emotions through words can help us and others better understand our feelings.
Group activity: Have students choose one of the six common emotions. Have them create a chart on paper that includes:
How this emotion makes me feel
What this emotion makes me do
Healthy ways to deal with this emotion
Hurtful ways to deal with this emotion
People experience a variety of emotions in their daily lives. It is important to be able to identify how you are feeling so you can communicate more clearly.
Once you learn how to identify emotions you’ll be able to explore how to express those feelings in healthy ways. Good mental health includes taking responsibility for your emotions.
Communicating your feelings appropriately helps others understand you better, helps to alleviate stress, and allows you to develop and maintain long-term relationships, which all improve your health.
Class notes:
Ways to improve communicating emotions
I-messages
I messages are a way to appropriately communicate how you feel
Using the word “I” allows you to take responsibility for your emotions
I messages don’t blame or attack the other person
I messages sound like "I felt _____________ when you _______________"
For example, instead of saying "You never call me!" Say "I get nervous/upset when you don't call when you say you will." The I statement allows for a conversation to occur without placing blame or others getting defensive.
Self-Talk
By using self-talk, you allow yourself to think through the situation and prepare what you are going to say instead of acting emotionally in the moment. Self-talk allows you to see the situation from a realistic standpoint and communicate your emotions more rationally.
Body Language
There are two forms of communication, verbal and non-verbal.
Verbal- communicating through words (talking, yelling)
Non-verbal- body language, facial expressions, tone of voice (relaxed vs. clenched/tension)
In order to make sure that your message is clear, make sure that your body language is consistent with what you are saying verbally. Miscommunication and sending mixed messages are often a result of verbal and non-verbal communication not being consistent with one another.
Worksheet: What can I say?
Discussion questions:
How can I-messages help you communicate your feelings in an appropriate way?
How can self-talk help you understand your feelings before you express them?
What aspects of body language are important in communicating your feelings?
Summary: Think of a recent conflict you have had with a friend or family member. Write a dialogue of how this argument went. Then, re-write the dialogue using the skills you have learned in this class (I-messages, self-talk, body language). Do you think the outcome would have been any different?