Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a very popular concept today, as numerous studies have shown that it provides multiple benefits for 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 and applies to both clinical, work or educational environments.
Emotional education should be mandatory in all educational centers, because Emotionally intelligent students enjoy and will enjoy greater mental well-being and a stronger personality and prepared for the possible adversities that life may present 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 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, It allows us to achieve new goals and overcome difficult moments that may arise on our path Having positive expectations about what we can do helps us set motivating goals and orient ourselves toward problem solving.
This dynamic is simple. If it is done in the classroom, you simply have to make a circle with the group of students. The members of the circle should open 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 the participants go forward or backward slowly until they reach a point of balance. In addition, it is also possible to change those from number one to those from number two, and even do so uninterruptedly. After finishing the dynamic, a series of questions are asked to the participants so that they share their experience and better assimilate what they have learned. For example, have you noticed difficulties? How would you represent what you have learned in real life when it comes to trusting a group?
This game is ideal for children. Furthermore, despite being simple, It is useful for them to know their positive qualities, which promotes self-knowledge
Children are given two sheets of paper and asked to write down their first and last name. Then, on one of the sheets, 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 so only with the first or last name). For example: If the person is called Bea Salta, the qualities or virtues can be: Good, energetic, kind, confident, pleasant, smart, hard-working and assertive.
On the other sheet, children are asked to write the name of someone who has influenced their life. and then They must write words that express how these have influenced them 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 consolidate these memories.
3. Respond 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 very happy through the park, when suddenly he sees Rafa coming to meet him. Rafa has a very strange look. Pepe wonders what is happening to him. They approach and greet each other, but Rafa immediately starts screaming. He says that Pepe has made him look very bad with the other kids in the neighborhood, that he is a bad friend, that he is to blame for everything that happens to him. So Pepe…”
Once you have read the story, The students must think individually how they would act if they found themselves in the situation in which Pepe is Afterwards, the responses 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 debate, the conclusion is reached as to why the former are better than the latter.
4. Write a story
Objective: Assertiveness
Duration: 45 minutes
Same as the previous exercise This activity aims for students to distinguish between ways of responding to an accusation and, in addition, learn to control their emotions and learn to solve conflicts through imagination training in hypothetical situations that go beyond the social areas to which one is accustomed.
The group of students is separated into pairs and then they imagine a situation in which there is a conflict. Then, each pair writes a short story that must contain these elements:
The stories are shared and a group assessment is made of the advantages and disadvantages of the solution to the conflict, so that what one ending or another implies from an emotional point of view for the people involved in the story is understood.
5. Protection screens
Objective: Empathy
Duration: 25 minutes
Through this activity the aim is for the student to verbalize their ideas, beliefs, values and variables related to emotional intelligence. Getting to know others and having them explain their ideas and beliefs to us is ideal for respecting them and understanding their lifestyle. The objective of this dynamic is to produce efficient communication and respect on the part of all members of the group.
The teacher, therefore, presents a great variety and quantity of photos or magazine clippings and invites each participant to choose two. In turn, each student describes to the others the meaning that the photos they have chosen have for 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 young people and adults
Emotional intelligence activities are not only restricted to the little ones. Young people and adults can also benefit from emotional learning, since education is a process that lasts a lifetime.
6. Discussion group
Objective: Self-awareness and teamwork
Time: 30 minutes
The objective of this dynamic is to create a debate group to discuss and find a joint solution The participant must share their ideas, beliefs and thoughts on a topic that has been proposed and that deals with the topic of emotional intelligence or education in values. For example:
From these discussion proposals, synergies are generated to reach a solution that satisfies most of the 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 of having a clear vision, captured on paper, about what aspects we consider important in our lives and what we want to work on. Now, the rue of life is a flexible technique that can be adapted to the situation that interests us most. For example, for our personal development or to look for work and know what skills we need to work on.
To carry out this dynamic, we hand out a sheet of paper that contains 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 you are working on happiness, participants should write down the aspects that they consider most important: partner, friendships, work, leisure, etc. Then he evaluates each aspect from one to ten to know where he thinks he is at.
With this tool the person becomes more aware of the areas they need to work on to achieve a fuller life, and it is possible to design the necessary actions for each point you have chosen. For example, if the participant thinks that her relationship is at a low number, she can design different strategies to improve it: communication, spending more time together. etc. This activity is ideal for teenagers and adults.
8. 1 to 0 conversation
Objective: Active listening and interpersonal communication
Duration 15 minutes
As concluded by research carried out by Albert Mehrabian, In a face-to-face conversation, the verbal component only represents 35% Therefore, more than 65% is non-verbal communication, that is, 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 must 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 in front speaks, while the other listens actively, that is, paying attention to non-verbal language (emotions, gestures, etc.). After a minute, the roles are switched and the other person speaks while their partner actively listens. After two minutes, each participant changes chairs. Logically, one member of the couple will go in one direction and the other in another.
