Today felt like one of those days where emotions were… a lot. It sounded like my kiddo had an interesting day at school. And when I say “interesting,” I mean the kind where you’re not just managing your own emotions, but also absorbing everyone else’s. Which, if you picture a room full of teenagers, you can probably imagine how complicated that gets. By the time I picked him up, he seemed okay at first. Quiet, but fine. And then, as we were driving home, I heard him start to cry. Just a little. Not a full breakdown. Just enough to let something out. I said, “Okay buddy,” and gave him space. And then… that emotion passed. Not long after, we were talking about dinner. I told him I’d order pizza. And now he’s in his room, laughing to himself like nothing heavy ever happened. Watching that made me realize something. He has a skill I’m still learning. He felt the emotion. He expressed it. And then he moved on. No spiraling. No replaying it over and over. No asking, “Why am I like this?” He just went, “Okay, that feeling happened. What’s next?” I wish I were that efficient with my emotions. So I’m keeping an eye on him tonight, but I’m also taking notes. Because being able to move from sad to okay to happy again without getting stuck feels like a skill worth learning, at any age. How do you move through big emotions when they show up? Or are you, like me, still figuring that part out?
How do you move through big emotions when they show up and then get back to whatever the next thing has to be? He has a skill that I'm learning. He feels the emotion, expresses the emotion and then gets to move on.
It sounded like my kiddo had one of those days at school. You know, the kind where you're not just managing your own emotions, but everybody else's, too. And if you can picture a room full of teenagers, of course, that's a lot. Now, when I picked him up, he seemed okay. Kind of quiet, but fine. And then, as we were driving home, he started to cry. Just a little bit. Not a meltdown, but it seems like just enough to maybe let it out. So I gave him some space. And then it passed. A little while later, I told him I'd order some pizza.
And now he's in his room laughing to himself like nothing heavy ever happened. And watching that made me realize something. He has a skill that I'm learning. He feels the emotion, expresses the emotion, and then gets to move on. And honestly, that's something that I could learn to do, too. So how do you move through big emotions when they show up and then get back to whatever the next thing has to be?
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