Emotions

Our emotions enable us to make connections with the people around us and figure out what makes us feel good and what doesn’t.

They are our internal compass, helping us to figure out how a situation or a person makes us feel. This then helps us make decisions about whether we want to be in that situation or with that person and allows us to figure out what we do and don’t want in life.

It’s important to know that:

• Emotions come and go. Most of us feel many different emotions throughout the day. Some last just a few seconds. Others might linger to become a mood.
• Emotions can be mild, intense, or anywhere in between. The intensity of an emotion can depend on the situation and on the person.
• There are no good or bad emotions, but there are good and bad ways of expressing (or acting on) emotions. Learning how to express emotions in acceptable ways is a separate skill — managing emotions — that is built on a foundation of being able to understand emotions.

It takes conscious effort, and at Clanbeat we are supporting you with our check-ins, and our mood emojis and our reflections.

Exercise 1
Pick one positive emotion and track it for the rest of the day and in Clanbeat Your Planner. Make a note:

• What are you feeling? Eg Calm, Joy, Excited
  Label it eg #peaceful #Happy #Ecstatic.
• Set a mood (for example peaceful, Happy, Excited).
• Where do you feel it in your body?
• What was the action or activating event that caused you to feel that?
• Is the feeling easy or hard (notice is the feeling strong, mild or middle!)?
• Finally notice and make a note of where you feel it in your body.

Note for teachers – if you are using this with a class, if your students are not able to use words to express themselves ask them to use emojis.

Exercise 2

Ask WHY? To really understand ourselves and our emotions, it’s important to ask ‘Why we feel like this’. Sometimes the answer is clear – someone did something nice and it made you feel happy… and sometimes it’s not so clear, it might be that you are feeling angry or sad and its due to hormone imbalance or lack of sleep. Don’t worry if you can pinpoint the reason for each emotion, just ask the question, sit with it for a moment.

• Complete the Clanbeat check-ins daily for 1 week.
• Once you have answered your 2 morning or afternoon questions, go to personal reflection.
• Note down WHY? you feel that way.
• Note if there was an activating event (something that triggered the feeling, or caused you to feel this way).
• This might seem a little strange at first but it quickly becomes part of your daily routine.