Emotional Education
“We have been taught since childhood how the body is formed, its organs, its bones, what they are used for, where they are, but we have never been taught what the soul is made of”, Mario Benedetti.
Many times, we are not aware of all that our emotions light up or darken throughout our lives. No one has taught us to master them, to modify them, or to remember them.
Indeed, it seems that we forget them simply because they accompany us permanently. But, are they really necessary in everyday life?
Why are emotions so important?
Emotions determine our relationship with the world. Our mental health and personal well-being influence each other, and depend in large part on our relationship with the world, as well as the emotions that result from it.
At birth, we do not have the ability to think, speak, or predict what we are going to do. However, our emotions allow us to communicate and determine what is good and bad for us.
Through crying, smiling, or other rudimentary behavior, we relate to the world and other human beings. We can therefore conclude that our emotions configure our physical, mental, social and animate landscape.
Why is it important to receive an emotional education?
Emotions provide us with information about our relationship with the environment around us. We feel joy when things are going well, sadness or hopelessness when things are going badly, such as when we suffer loss or when we are threatened.
Each time we feel an emotion, we can develop a series of thoughts around it, thus involving our nervous system which prepares the organism for the best possible response.
Emotions work like an alarm system that activates as soon as we detect any change in the situation in which we find ourselves. They are adaptive resources specific to human beings which prioritize the information most relevant to each person, thus activating different processes that allow us to give an answer.
During childhood, if we are often subject to positive emotions, we are more likely to develop an optimistic, confident and outgoing personality. If we are overwhelmed by negative emotions more often, the opposite effect will occur.
Therefore, proper emotional education will allow us to acquire dexterity to better control our emotional states, reduce the amount of negative emotions that assail us, and increase the amount of positive emotions.
In this sense, we can mention as an example how to resolve conflicts in an affirmative way, how to imprison short-term frustration to receive long-term reward, or even how to manage our moods to motivate us.
The benefits of emotional education
A good emotional education consists of a whole learning process during which we develop a certain view of the world, of ourselves, and of how we manage ourselves.
In addition, each of the experiences we have is tinged with emotions, whether they are pleasant or unpleasant. Thanks to an adequate control of our emotions we will be able to:
– We recover more quickly from the influence of negative emotions.
– Adopt a positive attitude towards life.
– Be more optimistic, while obviously avoiding excess.
– Know how to express our feelings.
– Have a realistic self-esteem.
– Present a capacity for cooperation, and a facility for resolving conflicts.
