February 18, 2023

Quote of the Week

"In a very real sense, we have two minds. One that thinks and one that feels." - Daniel Goleman

Developing Emotional Intelligence

"We all have different personalities, different wants and needs, and different ways of showing our emotions. Navigating through this all takes tact and skillfulness – to be able to relate to one another. This is where emotional intelligence becomes important.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize your emotions, understand what they're telling you, and realize how your emotions affect people around you. It also involves your perception of others: when you understand how they feel, this allows you to manage relationships more effectively.

Children need the experience of feeling emotions and practice tolerating them to develop self-control and emotional intelligence. When a child can make a change to address a problem, they engage in problem-focused coping by identifying the trouble and making a plan for dealing with it. When they deem the problem unsolvable, they engage in emotion-focused coping by working to tolerate and control distress.

All of these strategies are a part of emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence encompasses awareness, understanding, and the ability to express and manage one’s emotions.

Here's a neat little video that talks about what emotional intelligence encompasses and what are some of the ways we can bring in practice to strengthen our EI muscles." [see video]

Reading Corner

Title: In My Heart: A Book of Feelings
By: Jo Witek
Ages: 3-6

"Such a sweet book to introduce a variety of basic feelings to toddlers. My daughter was around 18 months when COVID hit, and she missed out on precious social interaction, which has led to some frustrations in regard to her speech and her ability to express herself.

I was looking for books about feelings/emotions since it seemed Penny couldn't express much beyond "happy," or "sad." What attracted this specific one to me first is the lovely cutout heart that gets smaller with each turn of the page. As soon as we got it, she immediately asked me to read it. She lovingly traced each heart with her fingers after we read every feeling. She loves the simple drawings, and asking questions about each little detail.

Within about a week of reading this book, she was able to share with me on two separate occasions that she felt shy and afraid, two emotions expressed in the book. Not only that, but feeling "brave" has her reminding me almost every day now how big and strong she is!

I highly recommend this book for any little ones around 3-6. We love it!" - Amazon Reviewer

Be the Change

This week, use some tips from the video and explore the mind map of the heart's wisdom. Additionally, explore this cool poster that bullets quick and easy steps as reminders to strengthen our emotional intellect.