Your emotions show you how you feel.

Your emotions show you how you feel about something. When someone gives you a present, right before you open it you might feel excited – that is an emotion.

If someone takes something away from you that you are not finished with; you might feel angry, or sad, or frustrated.

It is ok to feel these emotions but you want to make sure that you do not hold on to the ones that make you feel sad, bad, make you feel as though you are not good enough or even make you feel as if you do not belong.

What is really important is to feel all your emotions and then let them out from your body before they get stuck. If you do not deal with them it is like putting them in a suitcase, closing the lid and hiding the suitcase in your body!

Here are some ways of knowing if you have stuck emotions;

You may feel like you are not able to deal with your anger. You may wish you could act in a less angry way.

Maybe you feel like you don’t belong or don’t fit in. This can happen if you loose confidence in yourself or believe something someone says to you.

You can write down all the goods things you have done and all the things you are good at. Then you will realise how good you really are.

It is never too late to open that suitcase and let those emotions out.

Maybe you can talk to the person who did something wrong to you. Or maybe you can tell a parent or a teacher. It means you are a very strong person if you can deal with your emotions like this.

Another good trick about dealing with your emotions is to write down the times when you feel them getting stronger and answer these questions;

What was I doing at the time?

Who was with me?

How did I feel?

Where did I feel my emotion e.g. in my stomach, head, heart?

Did I feel anything else in my body like butterflies in my  tummy or did I start to sweat?

You can see from answering these questions where your feelings are coming from.

You deserve to let those emotions out of the suitcase. Even the nice ones like joy and happiness. You want to feel and enjoy them not lock them up.

Have a look at the Emotion Tree and see if it can help you deal with your emotions.

If you feel like one of these emotions describes how you feel, feel free to pick it up and put it on the tree for ideas on how to let it out of the suitcase!