Emotions 101 :
On-Demand Workshop

A brief introduction to the facilitator and why this work is important to do. Also, a little encouragement to prepare for emotional triggers to come up as we move through the lessons.

In this module we will be learning about our first tool, the Feelings Wheel. Although this is a very intellectual tool, it is a great gateway to understanding how big our emotional landscape can be.

Our second tool in lesson 1 is Body Mapping. This tool can be very helpful in starting to get a sense of what sensations in the body mean when it comes to understanding your emotions.

Our third and final tool for lesson 1 is the Mood Meter. The Mood Meter was originally created for use in public schools but the success of this simple and accessible tool has been remarkable amongst children and adults alike.

There are so many legitimate reasons that you may struggle to access your emotions or feel sensations in the body. From historical to culture to generational, we’ve long been taught many incorrect lessons about emotions. Now that we’re empowered with the 3 tools from lesson 1, we can practice feeling those sensations, becoming comfortable with the uncomfortable emotions, and sharing what we’ve learned with others, with consent of course.

Let’s recap a little from lesson one and reiterate the importance of moving away from thinking of emotions as “bad” or “good”. As we move away from those terms, we may come up against the root behind why we suppress some emotions. Emotional suppression is not helpful and can be quite harmful. Lastly, we’ll take a quick look at Toxic Positivity and why it became so trendy for a while.

I really enjoy breaking down the misconceptions around certain emotions. We’ve all heard them and some of us probably believed one or two of these misconceptions as well, and that’s ok. These are wildly believed and socially accepted misconceptions, so no shame if you also once believed them. We are learning to better understand what are emotions are in hopes that we might have an easier time feeling them.

Back to the Feelings Wheel so that we can use it to hone in on what we’re feeling. Once we know the first feeling we’re having, then we can see what comes next.

One of the most important parts of understanding out emotions is finding the root of them. This is what is commonly referred to as “processing your emotions”. We can only begin that process after doing the work to understand what we’re feeling in the first place.

Now that we’re feeling good about identifying what we are feeling, learning how to hone into the secondary emotional response, finding the root of why we feel that way, we can finally start to communicate how we’re feeling.

Your emotions are valid but your response to them may not be. As we learn to feel our emotions and we are no longer hiding or suppressing them, that can come with some strong emotional responses.

We are learning to apologize in a way that we never have before. This framework, The 4 Steps of Accountability, is from the incredible writer and activist, Mia Mingus. Links to her other work are in the “Additional Resources” section.

We are messy beings and will naturally cause harm in our adult relationships. Many people will try to be perfect or expect perfection from others, but we are human beings and we all make mistakes. Let’s do our best to minimize the amount of unintentional harm we cause and to check if we’re causing any intentional harm, which could be abuse.

Now that we have a sense of our emotions and what we’re feeling most of the time (maybe not all the time), we can begin to intentionally regulate our emotions. You’ve been doing this your whole life but maybe didn’t know it.

By now we’ve all heard about boundaries but there is so much conflicting and straight up incorrect information out there. Let’s get clear on what boundaries actually are and learn how to set them properly.

Our very last module for the series is on Attachment Theory, which is not really a 101 topic but it is crucial information for healing your relationship to self and guiding yourself towards more fulfilling relationships with others.