{"id":10695,"date":"2022-04-27T15:14:55","date_gmt":"2022-04-27T15:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/?p=10695"},"modified":"2022-04-27T15:14:55","modified_gmt":"2022-04-27T15:14:55","slug":"balancing-your-emotions-in-an-unbalanced-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/balancing-your-emotions-in-an-unbalanced-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Balancing your Emotions in an Unbalanced World"},"content":{"rendered":"

28 April 2022 | St Albans, UK [ted<\/em>NEWS]<\/p>\n

Towards the end of 2021, Karen Holford, TED Family, Women and Children\u2019s Ministries director, found herself teaching about emotional intelligence almost every week for several months. Realising there was a great for teaching on the topic of wellbeing and managing emotions, she began creating \u201cFlourish!<\/a>\u201d, <\/em>a resource designed to help people \u201cChoose well, think well, and live well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFlourish!\u201d is a set of posters, each containing 10 simple ways to experience a positive emotion. These enjoyable activities can \u201chelp you rebalance your emotions when you are feeling stressed, afraid, sad, angry, frustrated, ashamed, or guilty,\u201d said Holford. Draining emotions can suck the energy and joy out of life, \u201cbut we can help to counterbalance the effect of these heavy emotions by choosing to experience gratitude, joy, peace, inspiration, wonder, laughter, and hope.\u201d Doing something creative, kind, or meaningful can also help restore the balance. Therefore, \u201cFlourish!\u201d is packed with creative ideas, most of them need no special equipment (maybe just a pencil and paper), so they can be done anywhere.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cFlourish!\u201d also includes a choice of journaling pages for teens and adults, to help them reflect on their positive emotions, and special posters for children. Every time they engage with one of the \u201cFlourish!\u201d activities, they can colour in a leaf on the tree, use a leaf sticker, or cut out a leaf shape from green paper to add to the branches and help the tree to flourish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI discovered the benefits of choosing to experience positive emotions when I was commissioned to do a project on rebalancing emotions to help children\u2019s mental health,\u201d Holford shared. \u201cI learnt to recognise when my emotions were tipping towards the negative side, and to try doing simple activities to rebalance myself.\u201d Holford realised that this is what the apostle Paul was referring to when he wrote about thinking positive thoughts to the Philippians. \u201cThis is how he stayed so positive when he was in jail, on death row\u2026 In the last chapter of his letter, he describes how he chooses to be grateful, joyful, peaceful, praising, and contented.\u201d<\/p>\n

To support ADRA volunteers working with people displaced by the war in Ukraine, Holford added some extra posters. These new posters are designed to help people dealing with traumatic and challenging days, as well as those listening and aiding.<\/p>\n