How Do You Want Your Family to Handle Emotions?

Hi, it's Sam. Welcome to this exercise, designed to help you explore your emotion culture. I'm going to give you several journaling prompts intended to help you reflect on the type of emotion culture that you'd like to cultivate in your home. So go ahead and grab a piece of paper or a journal and a pen, and let's dive in. (gentle music) The emotion culture of our home affects the way we handle conflict, communicate, and relate to our own emotions and the emotions of our family members. As we go along, notice which question resonates most with you, and feel free to answer the questions that pertain to your experience. There's no pressure to answer all of them. So let's start by reflecting on your strengths as a parent. What aspects of parenting do you feel confident and competent in? Now consider, what are some things that you'd like to work on? See if you can name three positive adjectives that describe the parent you are or want to be. Perhaps words like patient, attentive, caring, affirming, supportive, safe, nurturing, or confident. And now take some time, perhaps with your eyes closed, to imagine yourself embodying the three traits that you identified. How would you speak differently? Imagine how you would show up for yourself and your family coming from this new place of empowerment. Really take your time, just allowing your mind to explore the possibilities, noticing details like sights and sounds, and noticing emotions and sensations that arise in your body as you imagine embodying these traits. And take a slow, deep breath. And when you're ready, you can open your eyes. So take these next few minutes to write about what you experienced. And also, remember to thank yourself for embarking on this journey and taking the time to explore these memories and possibilities for the future. It's not always easy, but you can take comfort in knowing that it's leading to greater insight, growth, and ease. Thank you so much for practicing today, and we'll see you back here for the next lesson, where we'll explore crafting the emotion culture for your home. If you found this activity helpful, please feel free to share it with a parent friend....