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Kevin Love introduces the curriculum and describes the first lesson.
Cathyana Marcel shares a letter to her brother who was incarcerated.
Charles Benitez shares a letter to his dad expressing anger and beginning to work on forgiving him.
Bryanna Daniel shares a letter to her brother who passed away suddenly several years ago.
May Kim shares a letter that she wrote to her past/teenage self, offering herself hope and courage to get through a dark time.
Kevin and Leon describe the way gender rules and roles have impacted their ability to express emotion.
Hussain Manawer reads a poem about his mom and offers advice to students on how to write their own “I Could Tell You” poems.
Charles Benitez shares a poem he wrote about his connection with his mom who passed away after her battle with cancer.
Lizardo Reyes Jr. reads a poem about his late father who struggled with alcoholism.
Dr. Gowri Aragam offers students a method for “riding the wave” of difficult emotions rather than avoiding those feelings with temporary fixes.
Matt Hill explains that making a collage about the loss of his uncle helped him learn how to sit in the sadness and be ok with how he was feeling.
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”.
Gabby Romero describes the collage she made to tell the story of her experience with rheumatoid arthritis.
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.
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.
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.
Dr. Neha Chaudhary explains that emotions are complex, that they can transcend labels and that it is possible to feel more than one emotion at the same time. She shares the way photography helps her represent complex emotions.
Courtney Payton describes the way photography allows him to express emotions.
Yikia Xu describes his experience with loneliness as an immigrant in the United States and offers that taking photographs allows him to acknowledge and accept these emotions.
Simone Lawrence describes the way she creates street art murals in order to make a statement about racism and inequality.
Stamy Paul explains why she founded Graffiti Heart, a nonprofit in Cleveland that supports the creation of street art and provides scholarships to student-artists.
Dr. Ofelia Schepers shares her experience as a child being placed in an English as a second language class, though she was bilingual, and the way her emotions of anger and rejection drove her to become a teacher and education researcher. She explains that her work is her way of protesting the racism she experienced as a child.
Cordelia Zars explains that she channeled anger into writing a musical about the way boys are raised to ignore their emotions and this can lead to unhealthy relationships with women when they are older.
Will Santino describes the way drawing cartoons helped him as he was taking care of his brother who was dying from cancer.
Dr. Arjune Rama describes how important it is to reach out for support, and he shares a story about how and when he decided to see a therapist to help him with his own challenges.
Paty Abril Gonzalez describes the way her unaddressed traumas from her childhood led her to unhealthy behaviors as an adult, such as insomnia and drinking alcohol. She explains that her artwork helped her see that she needed to make changes in her life.
Dr. Gowri Aragam describes several key ideas that offer students more information about the way identity develops over time. She shares that music often supports her in pausing to reflect on her identity and determine who she wants to be.
Cordelia Zars describes her experience with an eating disorder as a teenager and explains that writing her own music supported her in expressing the feelings that felt locked inside of her.
George Lopez shares the way music has helped him learn how to navigate life’s difficult moments while also offering him a sense of identity and self-confidence.
Meaghan Birnie and Clare Kehoe – founders of Morgan’s Message – share the way music was one support that helped them get through the loss of their friend Morgan to suicide. They also share their friend Morgan’s connection to music.
Bryan Cranston shares the way he learned to reframe negative self-critical thoughts when he was auditioning for roles at the start of his career.
Dr. Nina Vasan describes the relationship between emotions, thoughts and behaviors. She uses the example of feeling insecure about her body to illustrate this idea.
Dani Silva describes her life-long struggle with feeling insecure about her body and the way writing poetry finally allowed her to feel heard and understood for the first time.
Dr. Robin Berman offers several methods for resolving conflicts: standing in someone else’s shoes, validating others’ feelings, staying present in a conversation, and avoiding exaggerated language.
Dr. Robin Berman describes the importance of self-compassion, especially when we’ve made a mistake and feel shame or embarrassment.
Preston Pollard explains that he learned to think affirming thoughts as he pursued his dream of becoming a professional skateboarder. He interviews Danai Gurira, an actress from the movie Avengers, and she shares that it is crucial not to look to others for our own feeling of self-acceptance.
Kevin Love explains that helping others can be beneficial to the recipient and also to the person who is offering help. He shares that he felt inspired to give a donation to the people who work at the Cleveland Cavaliers stadium after games were canceled at the start of the pandemic.
Chris Paul shares the story of his late grandfather who modeled kindness and generosity in the way he treated the people who came to his store, often allowing them a reduced price for fuel or the ability to delay their payment.
Shreya and Saffron Patel describe the inspiration behind the organization they created called Letters Against Isolation, which uses letter writing to help ease loneliness in senior citizens.
Aditya describes the way helping people in his community with their taxes made him feel empowered and uplifted.
Dr. Nina Vasan describes the research behind the benefit of gratitude, and shares her own personal daily gratitude practice.
Dr. Neha Chaudhary offers several practices for managing and “reeling in” very intense emotions when they are overwhelming: breathing, listening to music, moving the body, writing, drawing, and finding a healthy distraction.
Peiman Raf and Mason Spector describe tools that support them with their mental health. Peiman describes the way journaling helped him after a skiing accident, and Mason shares the way therapy supported him after his parents’ divorce.
Kevin Love shares his message for his life – that he will leave a legacy that future generations can build upon.
Meaghan Birnie and Clare Kehoe – founders of Morgan’s Message – describe the way they channeled the pain from the loss of their friend Morgan into an organization that focuses on the importance of mental health.
