Martin’s Three Treasures: A Story To Work On Emotions
More and more importance is given to emotional education, that is, promoting the emotional intelligence of the little ones, teaching them how to identify and manage their emotions. However, parents and educators do not have many tools to teach children emotional intelligence.
Martin’s Three Treasures It is a simple therapeutic story through which three emotions can be worked on: sadness, anger and fear.
Why is it so important to teach children to manage their emotions?
Because children who know how to self-regulate will become psychologically healthier young people and adults. It would be wonderful if emotional education subjects also existed in schools. Therefore, the main reason why I wrote the story was to teach emotional regulation strategies to parents, teachers and psychologists which can be used in their consultations and workshops.
How does the story work with anger?
In the story, the forest dwarfs give Martin a feather to blow on 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 he has to go look for her is already a very positive change, since little by little he becomes aware of the emotion. This point is important because it helps the child identify his anger. Be aware that when he gets angry, internally he is changing: he speeds up, gets hot and feels tense. This is the first step to change it.
Subsequently repeating the little note that was left next to the pen: “When your calm is gone, blow on the pen with enthusiasm” means introducing positive self-instruction. She helps Martin verbalize the process and cut through the mental content of the anger.
Finally, start “blow on the feather five times slowly and see how it moves.” This helps divert attention from the object of anger and activate the parasympathetic nervous system through deep breathing. The child will notice little by little that she is calming down.
We are also buying time for the anger curve to decrease and thus the emotion to lose intensity. The child will be able to calm down and then give an assertive response
How does sadness work in the story?
The second treasure that the dwarves give to Martin is a stone in the shape of a ladybug, which they called: “Maryquitapenas.”
With this treasure we are giving rise to the child expressing and being able to share his or her sorrows with his or her 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 try to make sure the crying stops as soon as possible.
With this type of actions, the message the child receives is: “I don’t allow you to be sad”, “being sad is not good, you have to be happy”. Once the child is you feel comfortable to express your sorrows without feeling judged, you may be suggested to look for ways to feel better and solutions to your pain. If necessary we can help you, but never minimizing your emotion.
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 it swallowed it. That symbolism helped him endure a little more each day alone in his room, until he finally got used to it and lost his fear of sleeping alone.
Other children say that the almond gives them a superpower that is transmitted through the pores of its shell. Each child will give their interpretation. The important thing is that this treasure allows you to face your fear. The self-instruction: “When fear approaches, hold the almond tight” is a message that helps you focus on embracing fear, instead of shaking it off.
What I wanted to work on here is the idea that when we fear a situation, when we face it we do not do so without fear, but with it. The idea is to embrace fear until it disappears. Therefore, do not expect that on the first day your child will be able to deal with the situation successfully. At first the attitude of wanting to do it will come, then they will try it and after several attempts They will gain confidence until they achieve it
To buy the story you can do so through the Psicode Psychology Institute website.
