The Three Treasures of Martin: a story to work on emotions
Increasing importance is given to emotional education , that is, to encourage the emotional intelligence of the youngest children, teaching them how to identify and manage their emotions. However, parents and educators do not have many tools to be able to teach children emotional intelligence.
The Three Treasures of Martin it's a simple therapeutic story , through which three emotions can be worked: sadness, anger and fear.
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Why is it so important to teach children how to manage their emotions?
Because children who know how to self-regulate will become psychologically healthy young people and adults. It would be wonderful if there were also emotional education subjects in schools. Therefore, the main reason why I wrote the story was to teach emotional regulation strategies to parents, teachers and psychologists , who can use it in their consultations and workshops.
How does the story work on anger?
In the story, the forest dwarfs give Martin a pen to blow whenever he feels angry: The treasure of the pen . The pen itself has no power to regulate anger, but the process of using the treasure does.
First, Martin has to go get the pen. The fact of realizing that you have to go looking for it is already a very positive change, because little by little you become aware of the emotion. This point is important because it helps the child identify his anger. Be aware that when you are angry, internally you are changing: you accelerate, get heated and feel tension. This is already the first step to change it.
Then repeat the little note left with the pen: "When your calm is gone, blow the pen with enthusiasm" is to introduce a positive self-instruction. Help Martin to verbalize the process and cut the mental content of the anger.
Finally, start to "blow the pen five times slowly and see how it moves". This helps to divert attention from the object of anger and to activate the parasympathetic nervous system through deep breathing. The child will notice little by little that it is calming down.
We are also gaining time for the descent of the curve of anger to occur and that way his emotion loses intensity. The child can reach calm and then give an assertive answer .
How does the sad story work?
The second treasure that the dwarves give to Martin is a stone shaped like a ladybug, which they called: "Maryquitapenas".
With this treasure we are giving rise to the child expressing and being able to share their sorrows with their parents. Let's think that emotions, both positive and negative, are normal. One of the mistakes that many parents make is not tolerating their children expressing sadness. They do everything possible to prevent their children from crying and when they do, they make an effort to stop the crying as soon as possible.
With this type of actions, the message the child receives is: "I do not allow you to be sad", "being sad is not good, you have to be happy". Once the child has he feels comfortable to take out his sorrows without feeling judged , you may be asked to look for ways to find yourself better and solutions to your sorrows. If necessary we can help you, but never minimizing your emotion.
How does the story work fear?
The third treasure is an amulet with which the child can face what he fears: "The golden almond".
My son, for example, said that he put fear inside the almond and he would swallow it. That symbolism helped him to endure a little more every day only in his room, until finally he got used to and lost the fear of sleeping alone.
Other children say that the almond gives them a superpower that transmits through the pores of their skin. Each child will give his interpretation. The important thing is that this treasure allows you to face your fear. The self-instruction: "When fear approaches grabs the strong almond" is a message that helps focus on embracing fear, instead of getting rid of it.
Here what I wanted to work with is the idea that when we fear a situation, when we face it, we do not do it without fear, but with it. The idea is to embrace fear until it disappears. Therefore, do not expect the first day your child will successfully face the situation. At the beginning will come the attitude of wanting to do it, then they will try and after several attempts they will get trust until they get it .
To buy the story you can do it through the Web of Psicode Psychology Institute.