Be Friends with My Emotions A Psychology Lecture on Emotions for Primary School Students

Detecting my emotions

Teacher Yu led the lower-grade students to detect the “emotional monsters” hidden in their hearts by reading the picture book, “My Emotional Monster”.

Students in our upper grade levels shared their methods of coping with emotions. They preferred positive emotions like ‘happy’ and ‘calm’ and wanted to get rid of negative emotions like ‘sad’, ‘angry’ and ‘scared’.

A comprehensive view of ‘bad’ emotions

So, how would our lives change without these negative emotions? Students in the lower grade levels let their imaginations run wild, while students in the upper grade levels explored these emotions through a debate.

Without ‘sadness’, ‘happiness’ loses its meaning;

Without ‘anger’, we would not be able to maintain our boundaries;

Without ‘fear’, we cannot avoid danger;

Without ‘disgust’, we would not know what we want.

Accepting my ‘bad’ emotions

From the movie, “Inside Out”, lower grade level students learned that when they experience a ‘bad’ emotion, they should not hate the experience – they can use ‘angels’ to help them find the emotion’s positive side.

From “Alfred & Shadow”, students in the upper grades understood that emotions could convey important information, express their inner expectations and requirements, and help them connect with others.Pictures show how students saw the positive effects of negative emotions through brainstorming.

Appropriate ‘sadness’ will enhance our perception and give us strength;

Appropriate ‘anger’ draws boundaries for us and protects us from harm;

Appropriate ‘fear’ allows us to take precautions and avoid risks;

Appropriate ‘disgust’ prevents us from following the crowd and losing ourselves.

Making friends with ‘bad’ emotions

So, how do we read the messages our emotions send us and live in peace with ‘bad’ emotions? Thinking of our body as a ‘house’ and bad emotions as potential ‘guests’ in our home, how should we welcome these unwanted guests?

Students in the lower grades were experiencing curiosity and exploration, feeling and confrontation, agreement, and becoming friends through meditation.

Through the ‘iceberg theory’, students in the upper grades experienced the inner emotions and needs behind their behaviours and realized that they could take care of their emotions through self-care. They can also learn to accept others into their world and talk about their inner feelings with people they trust.

Let’s hope that we can carefully understand the feeling of each emotional ‘guest’ when it arrives, stay with it calmly, listen quietly to what it wants to say, and understand its needs. We can be its friend, comfort it, care for it, and support it!

The students all expressed that they learned a lot from the Emotions Magic School and hoped to continue to explore more magic to decrypt emotions through future psychology lectures. Let’s meet again after the next magic class of emotions!