Inside Out
Inside Out
That is what we were today. Inside out. We played inside and outside and sometimes our emotions were turned inside out. We had a lot of high emotions today. We tried putting our finger on what was causing the emotions to be escalated but couldn’t quite figure it out. We got a lot of conscious discipline practice today. Sometimes on Fridays we are tired just from a busy week ( Monday’s too from the weekend ) but that didn’t seem to the be case . Hopefully we will wake up from our rest time ready to conquer a few more hours of our day.
Inside out. Since we talked about emotions all week we thought it would be fitting to watch the movie ” Inside Out .” When I hear of facilities that have TV time I wonder is there enough tylenol in the world for that ? Children this age aren’t meant to sit still. Probably at home they are less distracted and it is easier for them to move around. When there are 16 children in one room the movement has to stay to a minimum. Can you imagine ? Just for the record, children were given the choice to watch the movie or play in the playrooms. We only had one little decide to play and when she realized she was alone she joined the group.
A professor at Berkley wrote there are four things to learn from this movie .
- Happiness is not just about JOY ! Happiness is one element of joy. There is also happiness in all of the other emotions .
- Don’t try to force happiness . Children need to experience all emotions. One emotion researcher actually found that people that experience all of the emotions actually find a deeper happiness.
- Sadness is vital to our well being. It is more than ok to be sad sometimes. Think about the times you have been sad. Most likely during that time is when you have made many important connections with the people you love . Did it occur to you that sadness is the hero in this movie ?
- Mindfully embrace rather than suppress strong emotions – even sadness and anger. Suppressing emotions is not healthy. So many times we tell children just to ” get over it ” and be happy. Much like JOY did when she drew a ” circle of sadness ” and told Sadness to stay in it I can’t help but think we do that with our littles sometimes.
Dare I remind you that we all know how to handle big emotions ? Last night we started with a small core group of families that are going to walk through conscious discipline together. We have set the next two meetings . Some of them are even hosting meetings at their home ! Join us !
So, yes , we did something we rarely do today . We watched a movie. I am not sure the littles learned anything from it but we can as adults. 🙂