How do I help my friend manage their fear?
Welcoming a child’s emotion allows you to defuse a scary situation at his or her own pace. It’s not always appropriate to intervene or to minimize (“It’s not that bad.”). Welcoming all reactions and feelings, including their nuances – no matter what, without judgment or moralizing comments – is all a child needs to calm down again.
Empathy is defined as the act of trying to understand the inner experience of another person, to attune to their emotions. These social and interpersonal skills can be trained. You can explain to the children the appropriate ways of behaving and, more importantly, demonstrate and apply them, since they learn first and foremost through observation and imitation of adults.
You’re now ready to watch the sixth video clip of the Learn to be zen @ school programme. Enjoy your viewing!
When you show it to your students, we suggest you show it to them once in full to collect their initial reactions. Then you can watch it again bit by bit in order to go into more detail and gain more educational value.