Have you ever found yourself in tears for no real reason? Or have you been so frustrated that you wanted to throw something? (Maybe you even did!) Or have you woken up one morning with an overwhelming sense of anxiety but couldn’t quite pinpoint what exactly you’re so worried about?
Studies say that we have at least twenty-seven different, distinct emotions. Twenty-seven.
Maybe that surprises your even-tempered self. Or, maybe you’ve had twenty-seven emotions since you woke up today.
Either way, the fact is that humans are capable of feeling a lot. A lot quantity-wise and a lot depth-wise.
Imagine being six years old and waking up with an uneasy feeling in your tummy and not really knowing what it’s all about. You don’t even know the word anxiety—much less the source of your discomfort.
That’s the situation some of our kids find themselves in—experiencing a wide range of emotions and not having the context, life experience, or even the language to talk about them.
There are five steps you can take as a parent to help them navigate their variety of emotions and process what they’re feeling. Read more about them in this article.
No matter what, the most important thing you can do when it comes to helping kids navigate their emotions is to remind them that what they’re feeling is temporary, but that the way you feel about them will never, ever change.
