Feel, Acknowledge and Accepting Emotions

Sometimes I am happy and sometimes not. I am, after all, a human being, you know. And I am glad that we are sometimes happy and sometimes not. You get your wisdom working by having a different emotions.
Yoko Ono

Dealing with emotions is a part of life and as an Early Childhood educator this is an area that we are constantly working on.

Last week I discussed with the children about emotions and spoke about how it’s just as fine to feel sad and angry as it is to feel happy and excited. I then added that the consequences of these feelings depend on how you express these feelings.

After this session I stood back and took a good look at myself and the advice I gave the children and thought to myself “do I apply this attitude to my own life”.  So over the past couple of days I have been looking at myself more closely and how my emotions effect my life now and in the past and those around me.

Growing up ,and even now at times, I have trouble coming to terms with negative emotions such as sadness, anxiety, anger and despair. I kept telling myself I was a bad person for feeling these emotions but I have learnt, as I am teaching the youth of today, these are important emotions and they don’t make you a bad person. That its ok to feel these emotions but it’s not ok to act out on them in a negative way such as violence, substance abuse or taking it out on others.

My career has helped me understand the basics of human emotions and what we apply to the children can be equally applied to us adults. We have to start teaching people that emotions are not bad, that emotions are a part of who we are, we just need to learn how to express them in a more positive manner. A good example is road rage; this is a major problem in our society. Ok, say you have been waiting in line at a drive through for a good decent amount of time and someone cuts in front of you, you know the type. You’re fuming with rage that this person had the audacity to cut the cue, what do you do? Scream and yell obscenities at this rude individual (not saying they don’t deserve it)? Ram them up the behind? Follow them until they pull up in a parking lot to confront them? These are some of the things I have seen or read myself. What if children witnessed this?

In the end, WE have to learn how to deal with these emotions positively so WE can model positive behavior to the next generation.

Our Furbaby Turns One!

“Whoever said diamonds are a girl’s best friend obviously never owned a dog.” ~ Unknown

To some a dog is just an animal, to me our dog is family; he is our baby just with fur hence why we call him our Furbaby. Today is a special day for him as he turns 1, our bubba is growing up! Happy Birthday Taki!!!!!

All my life I have been surrounded by animals and find that they are the best therapy for any ailments.  Our furchildren do not just end at Taki, we also have 2 cats, a moggy called Linc and a Birman called Tauro.  All three of these furbabies have helped us heal and get through some tough times including ill health, death and other tragedies.