🌱Our Emotions & Bodies are Connected🌱

In this newsletter, you will get....

• Feature Articles

• Parenting Tips

• Activity of the Week

Feature Articles

1. David Kellner, author of “Building the Mind/Body Connection with your Child” suggests 6 activities to do with your child to help them understand ways they feel their emotions in their bodies.

2. Mindful Space website has an article “Enhancing Your Child’s Emotions Through Body Movement” that explains the emotional and physical benefits of body movement.

3. Isabelle Mary Fitzgerald guides you and your child through a 9 minute meditation “Full Body Scan Meditation for Kids” where they can check in with the entire body one part at a time to find and release any unwanted emotions and tension they are holding on to.

Parenting Tips

By integrating these tips into daily routines and interactions, parents can help their children develop a deeper understanding of how emotions are felt in their bodies.

1. Model Emotional Awareness

- Talk About Your Emotions: Share your own feelings and describe how they manifest physically. For example, “I feel nervous, and my stomach feels tight.”

- Be Open: Demonstrate that it's okay to express and discuss emotions openly and without judgment.

- Use Everyday Situations: Regularly ask your child how they feel in various situations and what physical sensations accompany those feelings.

2. Body Scan Exercises

- Guided Practice: Teach your child to do a body scan, starting from the head and moving down to the toes, to notice where they might feel tension or other sensations.

3. Breathing Techniques

- Deep Breathing: Practice deep breathing exercises together. Teach them how slow, deep breaths can help calm the body and mind.

- Breathing Games: Make it fun with bubbles, pinwheels, or pretending to blow out candles to practice controlled breathing.

4. Emotion Charts and Journals

- Daily Check-Ins: Use emotion charts or journals where children can mark or write down how they feel each day and what physical sensations they notice.

- Reflection: Review these entries together to help them make connections between their emotions and physical sensations.

5. Mindfulness and Meditation

- Short Sessions: Introduce short, child-friendly mindfulness and meditation practices to help them become more aware of their bodies and emotions.

- Apps and Videos: Utilize resources like mindfulness apps or YouTube videos designed for children.

6. Creative Expression

- Art and Play: Encourage your child to express their emotions through drawing, painting, or playing with clay. Ask them to explain their creations.

- Storytelling: Use stories and characters to explore different emotions and their physical manifestations.

- Acting Out Emotions: Role-play different scenarios and emotions with your child. Ask them to describe how their body feels in each role.

Activity of the Week

Creating a body map for emotions is a wonderful activity to help kids understand and express their feelings. This can be particularly useful for emotional development and helping children recognize how emotions manifest physically.

Materials Needed:

• Large roll of paper (butcher paper works well)

• Markers, crayons, or colored pencils

• Stickers or colored dots (optional)

• Labels or sticky notes

Steps:

1. Getting Started:

   • Choose a Space: Find a large, flat surface where the paper can be spread out.

   • Have the child lie down on the large paper with their arms and legs slightly apart. Use a marker to trace around their body to create an outline.

   • Point to different body parts on your child’s chart and have them wiggle that body part on their actual body. This shows you that your child understands their chart and how it is connected to their body.

2. Discuss Emotions:

   • Talk about different emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and excitement. Discuss how these emotions can make our bodies feel and where we might feel them (e.g., butterflies in the stomach when excited, a heavy feeling in the chest when sad).

3. Map the Emotions:

   • Label and Color: Use different colors to represent different emotions. For example, red for anger, blue for sadness, yellow for happiness, etc.

   • Draw or Color: Ask the kids to draw or color where they feel different emotions on their body outline.

   • Symbols and Stickers: Use symbols or stickers to represent different emotions (e.g., hearts for love, clouds for sadness).

4. Interactive Discussion:

   • Feelings Check-In: As kids color and label their emotions, ask questions like, “Can you tell me about a time when you felt this way?” or “What do you do when you feel this emotion?”

   • Physical Sensations: Discuss physical sensations that come with emotions, such as a fast heartbeat with excitement or tight muscles with anger.

   • Point to a body part on their body check chart and ask them how it feels right now. For example, eyes: they could be itchy, sleepy, awake, dry, watery, etc.

5. Label the Emotions:

   • Use labels or sticky notes to name the different emotions and where they are felt on the body map.

   • Encourage the kids to write or draw something that helps them feel better when they experience each emotion (e.g., hugging a pet, talking to a friend).

6. Review and Reflect:

   • Display the body maps in a place where they can see them regularly.

   • Identifying positive sensations: Hang up their body check chart on their bedroom door and use it to prompt your child to check in on their body and their feelings regularly.

   • Identifying negative sensations: After your child’s comfortable identifying positive experiences with their body check chart, you can start promoting them to identify negative feelings as well. This is particularly helpful if your child has difficulty communicating things like feeling sick or being in pain somewhere.