Episode 5: Navigating Emotions

Introduction: Learning to Identify Feelings

Have you ever thought about how important it is to truly understand your emotions? In this episode of Message for My Kids, the host takes a casual and heartfelt approach to helping his children recognize their emotions and learn how to handle them. Without claiming to be an expert, he shares his opinions on why identifying emotions matters and how it can change the way kids react to different situations.

The Importance of Recognizing Emotions

When he was younger, the host believed emotions should just be acted upon rather than analyzed. But over time, he realized that understanding emotions can help improve communication, and create better reactions to difficult situations. He encourages his kids to notice when they’re feeling upset or happy, and to think about how those emotions influence their actions.

Practical Tips from a Parent’s Perspective

Rather than offering expert-driven strategies, this episode presents relatable, real-life examples of how emotions play out in daily life. The host reminds his kids that emotions come in many forms and levels. He also reflects on how misunderstandings can arise when people misinterpret their own emotions.

A Thoughtful Approach to Emotional Awareness

The host also acknowledges that labeling emotions can have its downsides, potentially leading to misunderstandings or judgments. He urges his kids to approach emotional awareness with balance, learning how to navigate feelings without letting labels define them. Through personal stories and open conversations, this episode offers a down-to-earth take on emotional intelligence, communication, and self-awareness.

Tune in to this episode of Message for My Kids for a candid discussion about emotions, reactions, and the everyday challenges of understanding feelings.

Read the Episode Transcript Below!

Hey guys, welcome to another episode. Today is about identifying emotions, and what I want to teach you guys about emotions is, I think it's better to identify your emotions and how to handle them. I know at first I thought identifying emotions was something that you should not do because humans are created to act on emotions.

But, I guess the pros on identifying emotions would be how to handle them. If you're upset or angry about something, instead of acting out because of your emotion and saying things and doing things that you regret, you would know how to handle emotions, which means that you know how to handle your actions. The bad thing about this, I truly believe, the bad thing about identifying emotions is it’ll start separating people between emotions. So if somebody acts a certain way, they're gonna start identifying them as misfits. That is a big reason why I thought emotions being identified was not appropriate.

So if somebody keeps talking and talking and talking and talking and talking, they're easily targeted. They're easily targeted. They're emotionally distressed or something. That's what I believe it could lead to, and that's why I'm talking to you guys now. Even last week, I was speaking to you guys, and I kind of changed it. I kind of changed it. I changed it where identifying emotions is something you should look into. I hear you guys communicate, and then sometimes you guys argue. You guys argue, and you guys say things, and it's like I think one of you are getting the other one upset on purpose. But I think if you identified your emotion and knew that you were getting targeted to be upset, you would learn how to handle your situation a lot better.

When I was younger, I thought identifying emotions was totally wrong. I thought that was a God-given right, a human ability, should not be suppressed, limited. I think you end up in trouble, especially now. Now there’s so many laws that are against human behavior—yelling, disorderly conduct, hitting, battery, domestic, arguing at home, somebody you know. So I think identifying your emotions then it was taking away human rights of being a human. But now that I see that you can't really be the type of person you want to be from your emotions, so you have to identify them. I know it's kinda hard topic to explain. Basically, what I'm saying is identify your emotions. Know when you're upset and how to handle it. Know when you're happy.

When you're happy, I noticed when you guys get happy, there’s a few of you that literally go over the like the happy limit. You'll be happy and then you’ll want to get like a big bowl of ice cream, and then a bigger bowl of ice cream, and then dump some soda in there and then dump some gummy bears in there. And it's like you have to identify when you're happy so you're not overly doing it. And I would see that. At first, I was like, "Oh my goodness, you're very happy." And then I noticed that it’s kinda like maybe identifying your emotions is better than what I think.

So, I hope you guys grow up to identify your emotions. I mean, there’s lot of emotions, guys. There's a lot, a lot, a lot of emotions. I believe there’s even different levels of being angry. And when you're angry, You're like a little angry—a lot angry. Irritated, where you're gonna remember something that irritates you in one hour and then forget about it. And something that irritates you for a day, and then you're gonna forget about it. And then there's those ones that irritate you for like a week. And usually, what happens is when you're at work and something happens, then your whole weekend is gone.

So something happens at work, and then you think, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe this happened." Those are emotions. And then there goes your whole week, depending on if you care about work as much. But I'm sure it happens to almost everybody, where they go home and their weekend is shot. You know, they were planning on having fun, but now they're not having fun anymore because they're thinking about work and what they did or what they said or what's gonna happen probably Monday.

So identifying your emotions would help you to understand that you're worried. So what do you do when you're worried to get your mind off of it? There’s so many, so many emotions, so many levels.

Lonely, being lonely. What do you do when you're lonely? You can play video games, watch movies. Some people, some people do actions without understanding why they are doing actions. So I think if you guys understand your emotions, I think if you understand why you're doing stuff through actions as well, it should trigger you. It should—it should change your actions to better yourselves.

I would just be careful because I can see that suppressing people can't talk this way because you're considered abusive. You can't overtalk somebody because you can't argue. Identifying your emotions—I can definitely see it being twisted, and then they would just basically throw it in their face. And I think if that would happen, another book would be invented—psychology of emotions again. Maybe that's what is needed.

I've always told you guys that more safety means more control. Less safety means more freedom. I just don't know what identifying emotions are going to bring. I don't know if it's going to bring more safety in your life so much that it's going to bring less freedom. I don't know. I don't know. Just be careful with it, though, so they're not labeling you—everything you say, everything what you do, all the actions, all the emotions.

If somebody's crying all the time, "Oh, those people are depressed." Yeah, I don't—I don't know where it's gonna come. I mean, people can cry out of happiness, and they can be happy for like a month and just cry and be blessed and be happy. But yet they're going to be identified as depressed. So that's something to think about.

I don't know how much you're gonna want to identify emotions. I would definitely start with being upset and how to handle it. What does upset mean?

So one thing that I remember—I remember growing up, and I was in school, and I would be asked, "Are you nervous?" And I would say yes. To me, myself, I thought nervous meant excited, happy. Turns out that nervous does not mean excited and happy.

So it can help to communicate better as well. So if you're excited, you know what to say. You know what word means what. If you want to use the word scared versus worried, that definitely can help. It definitely can help when you communicate.

I hope this helps you guys in the future. Identifying emotions—I think it'll be good for you guys. Just be careful not to really look into it, I guess.

Love you, kids. Love you guys.

This is another message for my kids.