Feeling emotions - why that can change the world

If we were all more capable of truly feeling our emotions, the world would be a different place. I'm convinced of that. Perhaps not overnight. But certainly to an extent that we would have fewer problems, crises, and dangers than we do today.

If we can be more in tune with what is, we don't need to constantly change it. If we are allowed to be angry, to endure frustration, to laugh out loud with joy and to cry bitterly with sorrow – without wanting it away or to make it different – then we move away from reactive activism and can approach challenges in a different way.

This became especially clear to me again this week when I was working on an educational project in a second-grade class at a primary school and asked the children if they believed there were good or bad feelings. Out of 22 children, 20 little hands shot up eagerly. The teachers nodded in agreement as well. Two children—including Frida—were of the opinion that all feelings are the same. And it was Frida who, in an exercise, smilingly named the feeling she felt in her heart: determination .

It's children like Frederike – but especially the other 21 – that make me do this. The educational project "The Emotion Researcher" arose during a time when I felt powerless and weak. It emerged after difficult events in the school environment, but above all from the realization that in life it's more empowering to stand up for something than to constantly oppose it .

So I used my resistance and transformed it. The energy flowed into a small project to promote emotional competence in elementary school. And while educational reforms talk about resilience, we're practicing it .

With 22 children. We buzz like bees. We paint pictures of our feelings. We learn about our nervous system and how we can regulate it.

Above all, we learn: Everyone is different. Everyone feels differently. No one is wrong. In this way, we strengthen not only our understanding of ourselves, but also of others. And even though this project is still small and in its infancy, it gives me hope. It lifts my spirits. It gives me the feeling that I can make a difference – that I am allowed to make a difference. Whether it's Frida feeling determination in her heart or Anton showing the others his enormous rage monster.

Because one thing we must never forget: feeling emotions is part of being human.

And the sooner we start, the better.

For more information about the project, please visit the Wien XTRA Bildungschancen website: https://bildungschancen.wien/angebot/3280/