TIPS ON HOW PARENTS CAN HELP KIDS FIND AND TAP INTO THEIR EMOTIONAL COURAGE

Experts at Motherly.com define emotional courage as the capacity to fully embrace and express our feelings, even in difficult circumstances. This vital skill allows us to acknowledge and appreciate all emotions, understanding their important role in our personal development. At its essence, emotional courage rests on the belief that every emotion we experience is valid and essential for our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Following are a few tips on how parents can help kids find and tap into their emotional courage. Mother hugging son. PEXELS.COM Experts Kelly Oriard and Callie Christensen, founders of Slumberkins, emphasize in their article for Motherly that helping children discover their emotional courage involves teaching them two key concepts. They stress that these concepts are essential for fostering emotional resilience in kids. The concepts are: Being able to welcome emotions with curiosity Understanding that sensitivity (or feeling our feelings) is a strength Old concepts such as “Boys don’t cry,” “Put on a happy face,” “Grin and bear it,” are working against us and we have to shift the narrative. “We want kids to have a framework to learn about all of their emotions early on so the concept of emotional courage, feelings,...