2. Emotion management

Subject title Emotion management

Purpose of the activity To introduce participants with the concept of emotions, the reasons and course of their formation and to teach them to consciously manage this process.

Duration 2 hours.

Location and tools The presentation requires a projector, writing board, paper and writing tools for participants as well as tables and chairs.

Number of participants 10-20 participants.

Acquaintance/ team building methods Each participant is invited to introduce himself/herself and tell about a film and this film’s character who best reflects his/her personality, and to answer the question of why he/she chose this particular film and this particular character.

Practical tasks

A creative task that encourages participants to learn to look at their lives from a global perspective.

Participants are asked to see their lives as a film in which they play key roles. The following questions are asked:

1. What genre is this film and why?

2. Who are the antagonists (negative characters) in your life according to this film?

3. What do these antagonists teach us? What qualities do they strengthen and what do they serve us on our path to personal improvement?

4. What is the main character’s goal, mission, dream? How does he/she achieve all that?

Participants are asked to describe in detail the plot of the film of their life by answering all the questions. At the end, the participants are divided into pairs and tell each other what they wrote.

End of session reflection methods At the end of the session, each participant is asked to compare his/her favourite film mentioned at the beginning and his/her personal life film plot he/she described. What similarities does he/she notice and what did he/she understand about himself/herself during the session?

THEORETICAL INFORMATION

In terms of emotions and their purpose, it is important to start with the fact that an emotion is first and foremost a means of communication in the human body which is meant to let us know whether we have chosen the right path and whether we feel safe enough. The first and historical function of emotions was to maintain a system of human instinctive self-protection by notifying danger and encouraging actions that strengthen a person’s level of self-sufficiency and security. As social life was expanding over time, emotions became more subtle and diverse. Emotions are becoming increasingly difficult to name and at the same time to understand what specifically they are expressing.

NEGATIVE EMOTION - a reaction, a warning about a threat (innovation), a notification from the body about a deviation from the plan. These types of emotions often cause stress – a change in the state of the human body that signals ongoing changes. In this case, the body is forced to mobilize its internal resources to meet the challenges that arise. POSITIVE EMOTION - a reinforcement, a praise of the body and an encouragement to continue the action, a reward for the result.

To review and understand the history of emotions’ development, it is worth exploring the table below.

Let’s imagine a picture depicting an emotional cardiogram of a student who is taking an exam. He came to the exam, in his opinion, well prepared, in a good mood, fresh and after a good night’s sleep. The teacher handed out the worksheets and he is already eager to complete the tasks (point A). Then, after opening the first sheet, the student sees that one of the first questions is from a topic that he has less understood and is less prepared for. This, of course, severely unbalances the student, he/she gets a fright, and gets frustrated (point B). After having a hard time coping with a difficult task, our character sighs heavily, his/her emotions calm down, and he/she opens the next tasks’ page. Here he/ she already sees the questions he/she knows well and gladly answers them (point C). However, after opening the last worksheet, the student sees the task for which the highest score is given and understands that when the part of the course related to this task was taught he/she was ill and therefore did not attend lectures and seminars. The student is overwhelmed with emotions of despair, outrage and anger (point D). Finally, when the student somewhat reconciles to the current situation, he/she leaves the auditorium, but he/ she continues feeling sadness all day long (point E). We can observe a certain depiction of changes in emotions, when the emotions of the created character balance between positive emotions that most likely promote maximum personal effectiveness and unpleasant emotions that are likely to promote the least personal effectiveness. Conscious observation and reflection of this process may already provide a lot of useful information that can help make one’s daily life and self-expression more effective.

A

C

B

D E

As for the emotions depicted in points B, D, and E in the above example, and when introducing young people to their characteristics, it is worth paying attention to the processes that take place when one experiences these negative, danger-reporting emotions. In this case, the following changes are taking place at the level of physical reflexes controlled by our subconscious:

• muscles tense strongly;

• one feels lack of oxygen, thus the rhythm of breathing changes;

• blood composition changes, stress factor hormones are pumped into it; • heart rate is changing. It is important to emphasize that in this state, the following functions of the body are partially or completely “switched off”: digestive and immune systems, reproductive and cognitive functions. This happens because the body brings to the forefront one single main technical task – to listen carefully to what is going on and protect oneself to the maximum.

THREE LEVELS OF EMOTION MANAGEMENT

In order to help young people to learn to manage their ineffective and unnecessary emotions, we present the following picture.

LEVEL I

PHYSICAL STATE BALANCING LEVEL II

REFLECTION LEVEL III

GLOBAL VISION AND STRATEGY

There are three stages of effective emotion management (self-regulation) which are important to mention and which are outlined below.

LEVEL I. PHYSICAL STATE BALANCING.

This is the “hottest” level emotionally, when negative emotions and stress are manifested primarily at the level of physiological changes. At this stage, there is no point in reflecting or inviting another person who is physiologically affected by emotions to speak and solve issues rationally, because, as mentioned above, the cognitive functions of the human brain are temporarily not as active as they could be.

At the first level of physiological changes, there is only one goal – to balance one’s neutral physical state (or to help a loved one, colleague, or any other person to do it). This requires the use of breathing and physical exercises, cold water, sleep. Sleep in general is one of the most important factors in dealing with everyday stress, because it is during sleep when most of the hormones needed for the stable and healthy functioning of the central nervous system are produced.

LEVEL II. REFLECTION.

At the second level, when the body is already calmed down, and even better – somewhat recovered from physical fatigue after stress, it is already possible to start reflecting, to look at it from a long-term perspective, to identify and evaluate what happened and why.

LEVEL III. GLOBAL VISION AND STRATEGY.

At the third level, it is worth looking at the situation from an even more global perspective and, if possible, with a little humour, and then developing visions and strategies for the future that would help to avoid repeating the factors that caused negative experiences and emotions.

It is also important to highlight that not all positive emotions are an indicator of efficiency and productivity. For example, there are many harmful habits and repetitive actions for which we can get strong encouraging positive emotions, but these can be actions that are detrimental to the health or psychological state of our body.