Mini Sparks of Meaning Session 2
Nina Jankovic from Spark Positive and iwibdus were back this week with more mini sparks of meaning.
Nina started the call with reminding us about last week’s slides and asking if we had any examples of where we had followed the mini sparks…
Our audience told us about playing the bouncing game and staying a safe 5m distance from each other. We heard about random acts of kindness between neighbours. Valeria gave us the example of changing her attitude to her children and being more thoughtful about not what she had lost, but what she had found in homeschooling.
Nina then started telling us about Negative Emotions being as important as Positive Emotions.
We can change our thinking from I am … to I am feeling…
For example “I am frustrated” to “I am feeling frustrated”. Detaching yourself helps you realise that emotions are not permanent.
Nina showed us the emotion wheel.
Think about the function of the emotion. What is it telling me? What does it get you? What is buried underneath that? Sad, frustrated anger?
Emotion Wheel
Younger Children
Our audience asked about how we help our younger children in the crisis and support their emotions. Nina suggested using an image showing emotions to help younger children point to how they are feeling. This is an image that I googled.
Ask children “How are you feeling right now?” Ask them to describe how they are feeling and use language that they can understand.
Be comfortable yourself and demonstrating your emotions. Show them that emotions are fleeting. Maybe, give them more chances to misbehave. They are learning in this new environment too. Be tolerant of their misbehaviour!
Make sure you have time to recharge and a safe space to unwind. You will need to make sure you are ok as well!
Teenagers
How do we support our teenagers through Corona?
Tune into their rhythm. Be available when they want to talk to you, don’t make them fit into your schedule. Maybe try an activity and indirectly ask them questions or start conversations. Don’t force eye contact. (My mum still gets the longest conversations with my sister in the car as they are side by side.)
Recognise that Teenagers don’t need us. Also realise that you don’t need to know everything about your Teenager’s life. You need to trust yourself and them.
We discussed playing video games with them – asking them teach us how to play Fortnite. Show an interest in their world and recognise that their youth is different to ours.
Overwhelmed by the News?
We asked about feeling overwhelmed by so much news and what we can do. Nina suggested that we try 3 days in a row where we read no news. She guaranteed that if we needed to know something – someone will tell us! Believing that we will be fine is important!
