Your emotions make you human. Even the unpleasant ones have a purpose. Don’t lock them away. If you ignore them, they just get louder.
– Sabaa Tahir
When hard feelings hit, the temptation can be to run away from them, and towards something that will offer a sense of relief. This temporary relief can help us ignore the feelings for a little while, but the feelings will come up again later – oftentimes in a stronger form. Some people may turn towards distractions like scrolling, shopping, or even harmful activities. All of these escapes may help us feel better for a little while. However, we are then not paying attention to the feelings underneath – the feelings that want to be witnessed. When we resist the urge to avoid our feelings or try to fix or control them, and instead choose to acknowledge our feelings and express them, our feelings can move through us, and sometimes we can even feel a cathartic release on the other side. Additionally, extensive research has shown that when we try to avoid difficult emotions, we also separate ourselves from all of the other emotions too, like joy and love. In this lesson, we explore the way creative expression can support students as they feel their feelings.
· Recognize the importance of “feeling your feelings” instead of pushing them away or ignoring them.
· Learn one technique students can practice when challenging feelings arise – making visual art.
Prior to teaching this lesson, watch the expert and guest artist videos and create your own collage that you will share with your students.
You can make a physical collage or a digital collage.
If students choose the digital format, ensure that every student has access to technology that will allow them to create a digital collage using their own photos. A suggested app for a digital collage is Photocollage.com.
In the case that students do not have access to digital photos or technology, feel free to use materials in the classroom like construction paper or magazines. With advanced notice, students can also bring in photos from home to use for their physical collages.
Dr. Gowri Aragam offers students a method for “riding the wave” of difficult emotions rather than avoiding those feelings with temporary fixes.
Cathyana Marcel shares the collage she made about her mom’s experience with HIV and her brother’s incarceration. She explains that her collage illustrates that “the hard story is not the whole story.”
Sienna describes the way making a collage allowed her to express her insecurities about her appearance and also helped her realize how special she is.
Ana shares the collage she made to illustrate the difficult transition to college including the experience of culture shock, merging her identities and feeling overwhelmed.
Matt Hill explains that making a collage about the loss of his uncle helped him learn how to sit in the sadness and be okay with how he was feeling.
Olivia describes a collage she made to tell the story of the challenging relationship she had with her father.
Meaghan Birnie and Clare Kehoe – founders of Morgan’s Message – share the story of the loss of their friend Morgan to suicide. The life-saving message of their organization is that anyone struggling with mental health should share how they are feeling and reach out for support.
Daylon describes the collage he made to describe the experience of finding out that the father who raised him was not his biological father.
Gabby Romero describes the collage she made to tell the story of her experience with rheumatoid arthritis.
Sabrina Ward Harrison explains that the process of making art is much more important than the final product, and that her artistic process helps her release emotions.
Dr. Paty Abril Gonzalez describes her experience as a Mexican American Spanish speaking student, and the way she learned how to honor her emotion of anger when she experienced racism in school.
Display the ‘welcome slide’ from the Lesson 3 PowerPoint as you begin.
*Slide 1
As discussed in the teacher training, remember to make the suggested language below authentic to yourself and meaningful for your students.
* Slide 2
Example of What You Could Say:
“In this lesson, we are going to talk about how to handle challenging emotions. Often, our instinct is to avoid difficult feelings or find temporary relief through distractions. Today, we are going to learn to the importance of honoring those hard feelings when they come up and expressing them in a healthy way. When we resist the urge to avoid or control our feelings, and instead choose to acknowledge and express them, our feelings can move through us. Sometimes, we can even feel a cathartic release on the other side. We are going to watch a short video from an expert in the mental health field who is going to explain a little more about how you can allow yourself to honor challenging feelings.”
In this video, Dr. Gowri Aragam explains that many of the cultures and communities we are part of send the message that when something hard happens we should do whatever we can to feel better as quickly as possible, but these are temporary fixes. Dr. Aragam describes a method for helping students observe the emotion and embrace it. She uses the metaphor of a wave.
Before you play the guest artist video, remember to give students a description of the video content, so that they can decide if they would like to view the video. The video descriptions are listed above each video. Prior to playing the video, you will remind students: “Stories hold potential for various forms of connection to the lives of those who hear them. This story may connect deeply to others who have had a similar experience. In this video, (read the one sentence description that is above the video).”
Share your collage and invite students to make their own collage by using a free photo editing app, for example photocollage.com. Or if you are choosing to have the students create physical collages, go over the materials they have to work with.
Example of What You Could Say:
“An important thing to think about when we are in the middle of managing those intense emotional waves; we don’t need to do it alone. I want you to keep that in mind as we create our project today, a collage. Before you begin working on your project, I want to share a collage I made to illustrate a story about a challenging time in my life. Here is my collage. I want to tell you about a few of the pictures I chose for my collage…(describe why you chose those images). Now you have the opportunity to choose a story you want to tell and express it in a collage form as well. You could create your collage based on a meaningful memory, a challenging experience, or any important part of your life story. I’m going to review a few ways you can gather pictures…(i.e. Canva, Pinterest, or your photo library on your phone or computer). Once you’ve chosen your pictures, you can creatively decide how you want to arrange them in a way that helps you to tell your story.”
* Slide 3
Students work on their collages independently for approximately 20 minutes. If you have additional time to devote to this creative activity, and students are engaged and want more time, you might consider extending this part of the lesson. Circulate the room and support students with any hiccups they run into with the technology or materials. You may want to play music as students work.
Example of What You Could Say:
“Let’s take a look at the art we just created. How did it feel to make this collage? How do you feel when you look at it now? Would anyone want to share your story and your collage with the class?”
“Thank you for sharing. I hope that you all will leave this lesson today knowing that creating art is an excellent tool to honor your emotions and process challenging feelings. You can do this any time that you’re experiencing a challenging emotion.”
If you or your students would like to learn more about the ideas in this lesson, additional resources and third party links are included below.