Lesson video

Hello, my name's Ms. Willow, and I'm going to be your teacher for today's lesson.

Today's lesson is called "Understanding my feelings" and it fits into the unit "Mental health: How can I talk about my feelings?" During this lesson, we are going to be talking a little bit about some sensitive content and bullying, so we recommend that you have an adult with you for the duration of this lesson.

If at any point you do feel worried or uncomfortable, it's really important that you close the screen and that you speak to a trusted adult.

Okay, let's make a start.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to describe how your feelings link to bodily sensations and explain that all your feelings are valid.

Before we get started with today's lesson, we need to go over some ground rules.

These help to make sure that everyone feels safe and comfortable during today's lesson.

First of all, Laura says that we need to listen to others.

It's okay to disagree with each other, but we should listen properly before we make any assumptions or before we decide how to respond.

When we disagree with someone else, it's important to challenge the statement and not the person.

Next, Andeep says that we should respect each other's privacy.

We can discuss examples, but we shouldn't use any names or descriptions that could identify anyone, including ourselves.

If we want to share a story or an experience, we could refer to someone as "my friend." This means that we're not going to give away any identifying information.

Izzy says that we can choose our level of participation.

Everyone has the right to choose not to answer a question or to join in with discussion, and we should never put anyone on the spot as this can make people feel uncomfortable.

Finally, Jacob reminds us that we shouldn't have any judgement.

We can explore any beliefs and misunderstandings about a topic without fear of being judged by others.

We're now going to go through the keywords for today's lesson.

First of all, we have the word feelings.

These are our thoughts and opinions about things like feeling proud of a drawing or feeling worried about a test.

Emotion, this is a feeling such as happiness or sadness which can be caused by a situation, your body, or the people that you're with.

Sensation, this is a feeling in our bodies or on our skin.

And respond, this is what we do after something has happened.

Today's lesson is split into three learning cycles.

Our first learning cycle is called "Why do we have feelings?" Our second learning cycle is called "How do I know what I'm feeling?" And finally, our last learning cycle is called "How should we respond to feelings?" Let's make a start on our first learning cycle, "Why do we have feelings?" Everyone has feelings that change frequently throughout the day.

David says, "Most days, I feel pretty happy apart from a few points of stress here or there.

Other days are like an emotional rollercoaster.

I can feel sad, angry, excited, worried, and happy all in one day." Having changeable feelings can be frustrating, but they are really important.

Our feelings help us to learn about ourselves.

David says that "by noticing what was happening when I was feeling different emotions, I was able to have a better understanding of myself and what situations caused me to feel different emotions." David says, "I noticed that I felt grumpy in the morning before I ate breakfast, happy after eating breakfast and walking to school, excited when I got to school because I could see my friends, frustrated when I found something in English that was tricky to understand, relaxed during break time, irritable before lunchtime, full of energy during lunchtime when I played football, tired at home time, and peaceful in the evening before bed." This shows how important it is to take a note of how we're feeling during the day as we can note which feelings we're experiencing, and when, and what might be happening when we're having those feelings.

This can help us to have a better understanding of our feelings and ourselves more generally.

David says that "our feelings give us information about what our body needs too, like food and sleep.

By noticing that I felt grumpy or more irritable when I hadn't eaten, I was able to take action to prevent this from happening.

Now, I have regular healthy snacks, and this helps me to regulate my emotions." Let's do a check for understanding to see how you're doing with this learning cycle.

Why might Sofia feel grumpy and irritable? Sofia says, "I went to bed late last night because I stayed up watching videos.

I also woke up early." Why could Sofia be feeling grumpy and irritable? Pause the video, talk to the people around you, or have a think to yourself.

Well done if you said that Sofia might feel tired because she went to bed late last night and she woke up early.

She might feel grumpy and irritable because her body needs more sleep.

And by feeling grumpy and irritable, this is a sign that her body needs more sleep.

Well done if you said the same thing.

Our feelings can also help us to understand what's important to us.

Holly says, "I know that I get upset and angry if I see something that's unfair.

Because of this, I've learned that equality and fairness is really important to me." Jay says, "I know that I get frustrated if I feel like I'm not being listened to or if what I want isn't being considered.

Because of this, I've learned that having a voice is really important to me, and I only want to be friends with people who make me feel heard." Megan says, "I feel happy and calm around my friends, but I also feel drained and tired if I don't spend enough time alone.

This helps me to know that in order to feel my best self, I need to make sure that I spend some time alone regularly to reflect and recharge." Let's do another check for understanding.

Alex feels irritable and tired if he spends more than an hour playing video games, so what can Alex learn about himself from this? Pause the video, talk to the people around you, or have a think to yourself.

You might have said something like: It may be that playing video games for a long period of time makes Alex unhappy.

He should avoid playing video games for longer than an hour, and he should find something that makes him feel happy instead.

For example, going for a bike ride.

Well done if you said something similar.

Our feelings can also help us to learn about others.

If we feel happy around certain people, this might suggest that they're a good friend to us.

They're kind and supportive.

They support us to be our best selves.

This helps us to know the people that we want to surround ourselves with because they help us to feel happy, calm, and looked after too.

However, if we find ourselves being frequently sad, angry, or uncomfortable around certain people, this could suggest that they're not a very good friend.

It could suggest that they're not very kind and supportive and that they don't bring out the best in us.

This helps us to know that someone that we spend time with may not be a good fit for us, and it might be better to end the friendship or to stop spending time with them if we can.

Aisha says, "I noticed that I always felt drained, sad, and left out after spending time with a certain group of friends.

This helped me to realise that they weren't good friends and that I should stop spending time with them." In this situation, Aisha listened to her feelings when she was around this group of friends, and she took action by stopping spending time with them.

This shows how we can use our emotions and the way that we feel to make decisions about our lives that make us feel better.

Aisha says, "Now I have different friends that make me feel happy, confident, and included.

After spending time with them, I feel energised and comfortable, which helps me to know that they're good friends." This is why it's really important to listen to our feelings so that we can make the right choices for us.

Let's do another check for understanding to see how you're doing.

What can our feelings give us information about? A, ourselves, B, how strong we are, or C, others.

What do you think? Pause the video, talk to the people around you, or have a think to yourself.

Well done if you said that our feelings can give us information about ourselves and others.

And Jay reminds us that everyone experiences different feelings, and this doesn't mean that they're strong or weak.

We're now going to move on to our first practise task.

And for this task, I'd like you to explain to Sam two reasons why her feelings are important.

Sam says, "I feel so frustrated about my feelings changing all the time.

One minute I feel sad, the next I'm happy, and the next I'm angry.

I wish I didn't have all these feelings." Can you explain to Sam two reasons why her feelings are important? Pause the video, and we'll go through some answers in a few minutes.

Let's see what you might have said.

You might have said to Sam that her feelings are important because they give you information about yourself, they give you information about the people around you, and our feelings give us information about what our body needs.

For example, food and sleep.

Well done if you had this or something similar.

It's time to move on to our second learning cycle, and well done for your hard work so far.

This learning cycle is called "How do I know what I'm feeling?" Feelings can be experienced as bodily sensations which can help us to work out what they are.

Everyone can experience bodily sensations differently with various emotions, but there are some common experiences too.

Amira says, "When I feel happy, my body feels light and it feels easy to breathe in and out calmly.

My heart also doesn't beat too fast." But if we feel sad, unhappy, or upset, we might experience some bodily sensations such as wanting to cry, feeling heavy and weighed down, having a tight throat, our stomach dropping.

For example, if we've had bad news.

If we feel angry, frustrated, or annoyed, we might experience some bodily sensations such as wanting to cry, having a fast heartbeat, feeling hot and sweaty, and feeling like we have lots of energy and like we need to move around.

If we feel worried or uncomfortable, we might experience some bodily sensations such as having a funny feeling in our tummy, maybe a little bit like butterflies, having a dry mouth and/or throat, feeling tense in our muscles or shaky, or like we want to move around a lot.

We might also experience having a fast heartbeat, and we might feel cold and/or sweaty.

Let's do a check for understanding.

How could Jun be feeling? Jun says, "Something unfair happened, and now I feel really tearful.

I feel hot, sweaty, and like I've got lots of energy.

My heart is beating fast too." How do you think Jun is feeling? Pause the video, talk to the people around you, or have a think to yourself.

You might have said that Jun could be feeling angry because he wants to cry, he feels hot and sweaty, his heart is beating fast, and he feels like he has lots of energy.

These are all bodily sensations that someone could feel if they are angry.

Well done if you had this or something similar.

Sometimes, we have to stop and reflect to understand what we're feeling.

Often, we might not even realise how we feel until we behave in a way that's unusual for us.

Andeep says, "I've had arguments with friends before because I felt worried about something without realising it, and I haven't managed my feelings.

Sometimes, how we feel can come out in different ways." We can stop and reflect about how we feel by taking some deep breaths and noticing any bodily sensations that we might have.

It might be helpful to ask ourselves some questions like: Is my heart beating fast? Does my tummy feel funny? Do I feel like I want to cry? Do I feel full of energy? Do I feel hungry or tired? And these questions can help us to know what we're feeling.

If we notice that we're feeling a tricky emotion, like feeling sad, worried, or angry, we can start to think about what caused this emotion.

We can ask ourselves questions like: When did we start to feel like this? What was happening when we started to feel this emotion? Who was around when we started to feel this emotion? Is there something else on our mind? Let's do another check for understanding, and this time I'd like you to fill in the blanks.

We can stop and reflect about how we feel by taking some deep blank and noticing any bodily blank that we might have.

Where I've said the word blank, can you decide which word should go in the gaps? Pause the video, talk to the people around you, or have a think to yourself.

Well done if you said that the missing words were breaths and sensations.

Our completed sentence should now say: We can stop and reflect about how we feel by taking some deep breaths and noticing any bodily sensations that we might have.

Well done if you got this right.

We're now moving on to our second practise task, and you've done a brilliant job so far.

I'd like you to complete the mind maps to show the bodily sensations that someone could experience for each emotion.

So here we have three emotions, sad, angry, and worried, and I would like you to complete each mind map to show the different bodily sensations that you could experience if you're feeling that emotion.

Pause the video, and we'll go through what you might have said in a few minutes.

Okay, let's see what you might have said.

For sad, you might have said that that person might experience bodily sensations such as wanting to cry, having a tight throat, and feeling heavy.

For angry, they might experience feeling hot and sweaty, the heart beating fast, and they might feel like they've got lots of energy.

For worried, they might have a funny feeling in their tummy, they might have a dry mouth or throat, and they might feel tense too.

Well done if you had something similar to this.

We're now moving on to our final learning cycle, "How should we respond to feelings?" All of our feelings are valid.

This means that it's okay to feel them regardless of what caused the feeling.

It's important to let ourselves feel our feelings, even if they do feel uncomfortable at times.

Jacob says, "Sometimes, I feel frustrated and angry about things that other people might find silly, like my favourite sports team losing a match.

It's okay to have all sorts of feelings.

Telling myself that I shouldn't feel a certain way doesn't just make the emotion go away." If we tell ourselves not to feel a certain emotion, we're not likely to make the emotion go away.

In fact, we might just feel ashamed or guilty for having that feeling, and this isn't a healthy way to experience our feelings.

Some people incorrectly think that it's not okay to experience bad or tricky feelings like sadness, anger, and worry.

Someone might say something like, "You should feel happy all the time! There are people who have things much worse than you, so you shouldn't feel sad.

Just be happy and grateful!" This isn't true, and it's not helpful either.

There are no good or bad feelings, although some might feel more comfortable than others.

It's normal to feel difficult feelings from time to time.

Izzy asks a really good question.

She asks, "So, how do we feel our feelings?" We can accept how we feel and not ignore it.

We can notice how it feels in our body.

So for example, we can think about the bodily sensations that we're experiencing.

We could just sit with the feeling by not trying to feel a different emotion straight away.

And we can respond to the feeling too.

Let's do another check for understanding.

This time, I'd like you to decide if this statement is true or false: It's not okay to feel bad feelings, we should feel happy all the time.

What do you think? Pause the video, talk to the people around you, or have a think to yourself.

Well done if you said that this is false.

But why? You might have said that all of our feelings are valid.

There are no good or bad feelings, and it's normal to feel difficult feelings from time to time.

It's important to feel our feelings, even if they feel uncomfortable or tricky.

We have a choice about how we respond to our feelings.

Some of the ways that we respond to our feelings are unhealthy.

This means that they might make us feel worse or it might take us longer to feel better.

Some unhealthy ways to respond to our feelings include ignoring our feelings and pretending like they don't exist, refusing support from others, and pretending to be okay when this isn't true.

There are much healthier ways that we can respond to our feelings.

Some healthy ways of responding may not always make the feeling go away straight away, but they can help us to manage the feeling and to get support too.

Some healthy ways to respond to our feelings include just accepting how we feel, being honest about our feelings, asking for help if we need it.

For example, from a trusted adult or from friends.

We can also express our feelings in different ways.

For example, by writing, drawing, or listening to music.

Some people also find it helpful to exercise too.

The people around us can help us to respond to our feelings in a healthy way.

Good friends can ask us how we feel, they can listen to us, and offer advice if we ask for it.

And trusted adults can also support us if we would like help.

Let's do another check for understanding.

Which of these is a healthy way of responding to our feelings? A, being busy and not thinking about how we feel, B, talking to a trusted adult about our feelings, or C, pretending to be happy around our friends.

What do you think is a healthy way of responding to our feelings from these options here? Pause the video, talk to the people around you, or have a think to yourself.

Well done if you said that talking to a trusted adult about our feelings is a healthy way of responding to our feelings.

We're now moving on to our final practise task, and keep up the hard work.

For this practise task, I'd like you to give three suggestions on how Lucas can respond to his feelings.

Lucas says, "Recently, I've been feeling quite sad and low.

My friends have noticed, but I just tell them that I'm fine.

I've been trying to stay busy and not think about how I feel." Can you give three suggestions to Lucas on how he could respond to these feelings? Pause the video, and we'll go through what you might have said in a few minutes.

Okay, let's see what you might have said.

You might have said that Lucas could talk to his friends about how he really feels, he could tell a trusted adult about how he feels, he could take some time to reflect on his emotions and he could just sit with those feelings, and he could express his feelings by doing something that he enjoys.

Maybe writing, drawing, listening to some music, or doing some exercise.

We're now going to summarise the key learning from today's lesson.

In today's lesson, we've learned that our feelings are important because they can help us to learn about ourselves and others.

We can experience our feelings as bodily sensations.

For example, as a fast heartbeat or a funny tummy.

This can help us to work out what emotions we're feeling.

All of our feelings are valid, and this is really important to remember.

We should always take the time to reflect and feel our feelings, even if they feel uncomfortable or tricky.

There are lots of different ways that we can respond to our feelings, and everyone is different.

For example, we can respond to our feelings in a healthy way by talking to a trusted adult, talking to friends, or doing something that we enjoy.

In today's lesson, you might have found that you've got some worries or some questions, and if you do, it's really important that you speak to a trusted adult about how you feel.

There's also some resources on the screen too that are there to help you.

Well done for your hard work in today's lesson.

I hope to see you in another lesson soon.