Listening to My Body: A guide to helping kids understand the connection between sensations (what the heck are those?) and feelings so that they can get better at figuring them out (Whew that was a long one!) uses mindfulness skills to help kiddos figure out how they are feeling and help them to bring themselves back to a more peaceful mindset. Lo's of great opportunities to work with your kids on these exercises throughout the book!
Today's story is "My Magical Feelings" - part of "The Magic of Me" series by Becky Cummings. Sometimes we read stories about specific emotions and sometimes about ALL the emotions. This story uses great descriptive moments that can evoke a specific feeling. And that each feeling is OKAY.
Sadness is our Emotion of the Month for our MoodyTalks and uses skills I will also discuss throughout this series including a sometimes harder skill of Diversion. Thinking of or doing something that diverts our attention to from our sadness can give us a little breathing room to check the facts or finding an opposite action to work on.
Learning coping skills for big feelings isn't just knowing how to use them - they need to be practiced so that they come easier when they are needed. I suggest practicing Riley's new skills with your children through reading the book but also utilizing the pages in the back to "help you help them."
Today's Story is all about emotions that can make you feel low - like Anger or Sadness. Louie the Elephant is feeling a few new feelings that he will learn how to cope with. Whether it's his sister hiding his shoe or his drawing not coming out the way he wants it to, Louie begins to understand more about these emotions.
