8 activities to work on emotions

We show you several dynamics to promote emotional intelligence for children and adults.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a very popular concept today, as numerous studies have shown that it brings multiple benefits to our mental health and performance.

Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to identify, understand and regulate one's own emotions and those of others.It can be applied in clinical, work or educational environments.

Dynamics for emotional education

Emotional education should be compulsory in all educational centers, because emotionally intelligent students enjoy and will enjoy a greater mental wellbeing and a stronger personality and prepared for the possible adversities and prepared for the possible adversities that life may present them in the future.

In this article, you can find different activities and simple dynamics to work on emotions.

Emotional activities for children

If you are a teacher and you want to educate your students in emotional intelligence, below you can find a list of activities that will allow the little ones to develop emotionally intelligent skills.

1. Group balance: the star

Objective: Self-confidence and group cooperation.

Duration: 15-20 minutes

Self-confidence is a psychological variable and an emotion that gives us strength and courage, allows us to achieve new goals and overcome the complicated moments that may arise in our path.. Having positive expectations about what we can do helps us to set motivating goals and to orient ourselves towards problem solving.

This dynamic is simple. If done in the classroom, simply make a circle with the group of students. The members of the circle should spread their legs a little and shake hands, and the group separates so that their arms are stretched out. Participants are numbered one and two. People with number one will go forward and people with number two will go backward.

It is important that participants move forward or backward slowly until a point of balance is reached. In addition, it is also possible to switch from number one to number two, or even to do it in an uninterrupted way. At the end of the exercise, participants are asked a series of questions to share their experience and better assimilate what they have learned. For example, have you noticed any difficulties? How would you represent what you have learned in real life when it comes to trusting a group?

2. The name game

Objective: Self-knowledge

Duration: 15 minutes

This game is ideal for children. In addition, despite being simple, it is useful for them to know their positive qualities, it is useful for them to know their positive qualities, which favors self-knowledge..

The children are given two sheets of paper and asked to write down their first and last name. Then, on one of the sheets of paper, they are asked to write down the qualities they consider they have with each letter of their name (if the name is very long, they can be asked to do it only with the first or last name). For example: If the person's name is Bea Salta, the qualities or virtues might be: Good, energetic, kind, confident, confident, nice, smart, hardworking, and assertive.

On the other sheet of paper, the children are asked to write the name of someone who has influenced their lives. They should write words that express how they have been influenced by these people.. In this way a link is created between the self-concept and the positive values that have been associated with oneself, generating an autobiographical narrative about the development of one's personality that helps to consolidate these memories.

3. Responding to an accusation

Objective: Emotional regulation

Time: 25 minutes

This dynamic is ideal for teachers to educate their students in emotional control.. In the classroom, the teacher should read aloud the beginning of this story.

"Pepe is walking happily through the park, when suddenly he sees Rafa coming to meet him. Rafa has a very strange look on his face. Pepe wonders what is happening to him. They approach and greet each other, but immediately Rafa starts shouting. He says that Pepe has made him look bad with the other kids in the neighborhood, that he's a bad friend, that he's to blame for everything that happens to him. Then Pepe...".

Once the story has been read, students should think individually about how they would act if they were in Pepe's situation.. Afterwards, the answers are shared and classified into two groups: those that allow conciliation and seek a peaceful path and those that promote greater conflict. In the form of a discussion, the conclusion is reached as to why the former are better than the latter.

4. Write a story

Objective: Assertiveness

Duration: 45 minutes

As in the previous exercise this activity aims to help students distinguish between the different ways of responding to an accusation and, in addition, to learn to control their emotions and learn to solve conflicts by training through imagination in hypothetical situations that go beyond and, in addition, learn to control their emotions and learn to solve conflicts through imaginative training in hypothetical situations that go beyond the social settings to which one is accustomed.

The group of students is divided into pairs and then imagines a situation in which there is a conflict. Then, each pair writes a short story that must contain these elements:

• Teens talking or texting each other on cell phones.
• An accusation
• A solution that leaves the way open for dialogue

The stories are shared and a group assessment is made of the advantages and disadvantages of the solution to the conflict, so that there is an understanding of what one ending or the other implies from an emotional point of view for the people involved in the story.

5. Protective screens

Objective: Empathy

Duration: 25 minutes

Through this activity the student is expected to verbalize his ideas, beliefs, values and variables related to emotional intelligence. related to emotional intelligence. Knowing the other person and having him/her explain his/her ideas and beliefs is ideal to respect him/her and understand his/her lifestyle. The objective of this dynamic is to produce an efficient communication and respect from all members of the group.

The teacher therefore presents a large variety and number of photos or magazine clippings and invites each participant to choose two. In turn, each student describes to the others what the pictures they have chosen mean to them, what they suggest to them, what values and ideas are reflected in the images and what is the reason for the choice.

Activities for youth and adults

Emotional intelligence activities are not only restricted to the youngest children.. Young people and adults can also benefit from emotional learning, since education is a lifelong process.

6. Discussion group

Objective: Self-awareness and teamwork.

Time: 30 minutes

The objective of this dynamic is to create a discussion group to discuss and find a joint solution.. The participant must share his or her ideas, beliefs and thoughts on a proposed topic that deals with emotional intelligence or values education. For example:

• Volunteering is a good way to learn to be responsible Why yes and why no?
• The only person I compete with is "myself". Why yes and why no?
• If I am part of a group, the needs of the group must be more important than my desires. Why yes and why no?

From these discussion proposals, synergies are generated to arrive at a solution that satisfies most sensitivities.

7. The wheel of life

Objective: Self-knowledge

Duration: 20 minutes

The wheel of life is a tool widely used in coaching, as it allows us to know our desires or needs.. It gives us the possibility to have a clear vision on paper about what aspects we consider important in our life and want to work on. However, life mapping is a flexible technique that can be adapted to the situation we are most interested in. For example, for our personal development or to look for a job and know what skills we need to work on.

To carry out this dynamic, we hand out a sheet of paper containing a circle with space to write the variables we want to work on. These spaces will be filled in by the participants. For example, if we work on happiness, the participants should write down the aspects they consider most important: partner, friendships, work, leisure, etc. Then they evaluate each aspect on a scale of one to ten to find out how they feel they are doing.

With this tool the person becomes more aware of the areas he or she needs to work on to achieve a more fulfilling life, and it is possible to design the necessary actions for each point he or she has chosen.The participant is able to design the necessary actions for each point he/she has chosen. For example, if the participant thinks that his or her relationship is at a low point, he or she can design different strategies to improve it: communication, spending more time together, and so on. This activity is ideal for adolescents and adults.

8. 1 to 0 Conversation

Objective: Active listening and interpersonal communication

Duration: 15 minutes

As a research conducted by Albert Mehrabian concludes, in a face-to-face conversation, the verbal component only represents 35% of the total conversation time.. Therefore, more than 65% is non-verbal communication, i.e. the communication of our emotions, body posture, eye contact or gestures. This activity aims to develop active listening and improve interpersonal communication.

To carry it out, it is necessary to place a row of chairs in the shape of a circle. In front of each chair, another chair should be placed, so that the participants sit one in front of the other. The idea is that each participant remains seated for two minutes and then moves to the next chair.

In those two minutes that they are seated, first one of the two participants who is seated facing each other speaks, while the other one listens actively, that is, paying attention to non-verbal language (emotions, gestures, etc.). After one minute, the roles are switched and the other speaks while his partner listens actively. After two minutes, each participant changes chairs. Logically, one member of the pair will go in one direction and the other in another.