Visiting Feelings

A CHILDREN’S BOOK ABOUT UNDERSTANDING THEIR EMOTIONS A beautifully illustrated children's book; a soft poem that is a lullaby to children in preschool or primary grades that takes a mindfulness-based approach to the many feelings that children will experience… 插图很美的一本小书 文字也比较直白 尽可能把各种情绪形象化 反复读 边读边想象边思考 可以让你静下心来 关注到自己的内心 As a culture, we tend to label the positive emotions as Good and the negative emotions as Bad. We can be almost phobic about “bad” or negative feelings – “I’m angry, that’s Bad” – although anger is no more or less a set of passing thoughts and sensations than joy. Some children (and adults) are more comfortable feeling angry, but have great difficulty acknowledging sadness. For some, sadness feels more acceptable than anger. In truth, they are all passing feelings, and they are all part of the human experience. Just like the old story about going on a bear hunt, we can’t go over them, can’t go under them – we have to go through our emotions. Learning how to process feelings is a skill every child deserves. Many adults are still working on the ability to experience a feeling, engage with it, explore where it lives in the body – all while knowing it is there for a visit but will not take up permanent residence. Dr. Rubenstein hopes children learn to appreciate that strong feelings can occur and they are just part of their experience, not their whole experience. Just like when we tell our kids their behavior might have been “bad” but they are not bad, we can feel sadness but not be consumed by it. This can help us meet any situation or set of feelings with greater equanimity.