Big Volcano

Being 5, 7, or even 37 is hard. It’s tough when things don’t go your way or when you can’t quite pinpoint your feeling or find the words to express yourself. Big emotions can be overwhelming but big emotions matriculate in to big passion, big drive, and big hearts. All qualities that make a beautiful and successful adult. Our owl heroes have been exploring their big emotions these past few weeks. They’ve been sharing their calming strategies with one another and have been experimenting with how they can calm, communicate, and make different choices when things don’t go their way and when their emotion volcanoes start to erupt. 

One of the most powerful shifts this week was when an erupting owl gained perspective. During the morning work period two friends were like butterflies enjoying their flutter of distractions throughout the studio. Both friends received “kind reminders” and after the second reminder both earned the consequence of a designated work space (a voted on consequence). Losing the freedom to choose where you work was devastating to one of the learners. She took this consequence as the end of the world and began “erupting”. I spoke with her about her feelings, breathing, and all the calming strategies we’ve shared but still she couldn’t get out of the dip, she felt alone. Then I asked one question. “Can you look around and see if anyone else has a designated work space like you?” Her eyes peeked with curiosity and slowly scanned the room, then her head tilted as she realized she wasn’t the only one. She pointed and named her fellow travelers. Suddenly, the volcano inside her was calm and her lava now grounded. She wasn’t alone. 

Sometimes we simply need to know that others are like us, others struggle, in hard times we are not alone. This learner simply needed the perspective that she belonged and that even in a hard time she had friends along the journey. Perspective is powerful. How can we step outside of our volcano and find fellow travelers?