Validate feelings
Michelle created this day circle by herself. Red means bad day, blue means good day, black means best day. She’s free to sign it based on her feeling of the day. It’s a good way to express her feeling and I encourage her to keep doing it.
I learnt in pretty tough way how important it is to validate a feeling. As a child, we’re often afraid to express our feelings, especially the negative ones. And as parents, we tend to suppress our child’s negative emotions.
Just be honest, how many times you heard, or even said: “Udah, jangan nangis. Gitu aja kok sedih.” instead of saying “I understand how you feel” ? I did that too, a lot. My bad :(
Suppressing feelings is absolutely not good for our emotional health. In short term, it can cause deeper disappointment and distorted anger. In long term, it can cause psychosomatic problems and mental illness.
So, let’s encourage kids to express what they feel and help them to validate their feelings, be it positive or negative. – View on Path.