"My Cup Of Feelings"

It is rare that youngsters in an educational institute feel free to reveal their innermost thoughts to adults, but that is not true at Abheek. A wonderful session on Emotions was conducted by our guest Special Educator and counsellor for the students of ages 10 and up. The session was informal in nature and invited a lot of interaction. It began with each individual describing themself in one word. Next, the concept of feeling words was brought up. We noticed that the children had trouble distinguishing between words expressing emotion vs state/action, so a vocabulary of feeling words and emotions was gradually built up. Through this, the difference between feelings and thoughts was also gently demarcated. Individuals identified 'where' they feel these emotions most and children started discussing about the experience of being judged and having judgemental individuals around them. How do we handle judgemental people and opinions? By forgiveness, we can move forward and rid ourselves of stress regarding other people's thoughts. Our Educator brought up the importance of journalling feelings and closed the session by explaining how the students can each have an image of a 'cup' of feelings in which they should not allow their negative feelings to overflow. Pre-teens and teens greatly benefit from the open, interactive and completely candid dialogues that they have with their adult mentors at Abheek, and by suggesting strategies for them to deal with their problems, we can get closer to our own students as well.