1. Are you on an Emotional Corona-Coaster?

Are you on an Emotional Corona-Coaster?

Hello to all teachers, pupils and parents of Emotion Works Schools during the Covid-19 lockdown.

I’m Claire Murray, creator of the Emotion Works programme and this is me checking in from home. I usually work from the Emotion Works classroom or I come out to schools to train teachers and teach about the emotion cogs, but none of that is possible right now because of school closures and social distancing.

I’ve been missing my work and teaching about the emotion cogs. But I’m happy to be at home staying safe and keeping well with my two boys. Home schooling has been fun and interesting at times, but it’s also been frustrating and boring when there are other things we’d rather be doing. We’re also finding it hard not seeing the rest of our family and friends, and I worry about my parents because they are older and live 2 hours away.

I’m feeling emotional

This Coronavirus is one big emotional trigger, and I feel like I’m on an “emotional corona-coaster”!! Do you know the feeling?

Have a look at my drawing below of my emotional corona-coaster. These are all words to describe some of the different emotions I’ve been feeling during lockdown. There have been ups & downs, and twists & turns. There have been times when things just feel ‘fine’ or ‘ok’, but then it’s not too long before I’m on a high or a low again with a new emotion (or one of my regular ones) flooding my body with sensations and driving me to act and behave in different ways. Maybe you can identify with some of the words on my corona-coaster? Maybe you have others you would add? How would your corona-coaster be different to mine?

Everyone’s feeling emotional

Because of the kind of work I do, I know that every person in the whole world right now will be riding some sort of emotional corona-coaster because there is so much uncertainty and change in all of our lives. It’s perfectly normal for human beings to feel more emotional when things are different. In our brains and in our body we have special detectors that notice when things are different and our emotions are the signals that alert us to the changes.

I think emotions are fascinating things, which is probably why I’ve been researching them and teaching about them for so long. Even though they can be quite uncomfortable to experience at times, and sometimes difficult to witness in other people, we know that emotions are what make us tick so it’s important to learn and talk about them – not just at school, but at home too.

The more we learn and talk about emotions, the more we understand them and the easier we find it to put them into words. When we put our emotional experiences into words the more comfortable we get living with them and dealing with them in a positive and healthy way.

Let’s think and talk about feeling emotional

So why don’t you have a go at drawing your own emotional corona-coaster and add in words that describe the different emotions you’ve been feeling during lockdown. The slideshow below shows you how I made mine.

Link to another post: Some #EWcoronacoasters shared by you

Keeping safe and healthy – physically and mentally

This is an important time for us all to be thinking about staying safe from coronavirus and keeping physically healthy.

It’s also a very important time to be thinking about staying mentally healthy and being aware of the emotions we’re feeling as a result of this big world trigger.

If you’re a teacher, parent or pupil from an Emotion Works school, you’ll already know that Emotion Works helps children to learn and talk about emotions. This all helps with emotional development wellbeing and mental health. With schools closed for the time being I really hope you’ll be able to make use of the ideas and activities on this website to keep the learning and talking happening at home.

Welcome aboard emotionworks-home.school!

Take care everyone and stay safe.

Claire

I’d love to hear from teachers, parents and pupils about the idea of Emotion Works learning at home. Please leave me a message in the comment box below.

If you’d like to share a picture of your own emotional corona-coaster you can post it on a school or parent’s twitter account tagging us with @emotionworksCIC and the hashtag #EWcoronacoaster

Alternatively you can email your work or comments to homelearning@emotionworks.org.uk

General activities information Orange Cog