Label Your Emotions Properly!

CivilNation blog posted an article about how important it is to label your negative emotions properly. Especially in the context of social dialogue. If you say you are angry, when you are merely irritated, it gives people the impression that are madder than you really are.

Additionally, learning to label your emotions properly, and to give them nuance is important because it really does help you not overreact to things.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE


In the meantime, if you want to know what the difference is between annoyance and anger, or anger and rage, for example? Read below.

• Annoyance: Feeling irritation or displeasure
• Frustration: A deep chronic sense or state of insecurity and dissatisfaction arising from unresolved problems or unfulfilled needs
• Anger: A strong feeling of displeasure or hostility
• Hostility: Expressed enmity or antagonism
• Aggression: Behaving in actively hostile fashion
• Rage: Violent uncontrollable anger

The Humanist Household: Helping Kids Through Anger: Coping Skills

Image: David Castillo Dominici /
 FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A large portion of my work is teaching people how to cope with life. How to think before you act so that your actions are beneficial and not harmful.  We call this adaptive vs. maladaptive coping. It's a central focus on my Humanist Life Skills Course actually. My friend over at The Humanist Household just did a wonderful post about helping kids learn adaptive coping skills and I love it and it's what I do with my son.

Enjoy -  The Humanist Household: Helping Kids Through Anger: Coping Skills: We all have coping skills because we all have to cope with things we don't like.  The real question is whether our coping skills are constructive or destructive.  READ ARTICLE HERE

What is Humanism?

Came across this video on the web yesterday.It was made in the late 60's early 70s. It stars Isaac Asmiov and it is all about the philosophy of Humanism.It is basically one giant FAQ about the philosophy. In fact, I would say it is the video form of my Handy Humanism Handbook (which you can get free here), except that it is way cooler because - it stars Isaac Asimov for goodness sakes.

Here is what is really cool.Nothing has changed.The answers to these questions haven't changed. I like this so much it is the first time I've ever wanted anything to go viral. So, watch and please share with others.

Don’t Judge

Image: Boaz Yiftach / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We have new neighbors just across the street from us. I happen to live in a rather tight knit community. We know just about everyone and it’s one of those communities where we all wave, and stop to chat with one another while out for walks. Anyway, my next door neighbor was very suspicious of these new folks because there seemed to be a lot of young men on bicycles wandering in and out of this house. So he called the cops and asked them to keep an eye on the house, which they said they’d do.

Today, my son and I came home from the store to see a little girl about his age riding a bike on the street in front of the house. Of course he wanted to introduce himself, so as soon as the groceries were put away, we went over.  Turns out this is a nice family that just moved in. I met the grandpa too. They are museum goers and have a teenage son who has a friend hang out with him. His biggest concern was that 2 days after they moved in, they got an alert from the state sex offenders list saying a sex offender moved in a couple of houses down from us (the offender must be a relative of the nice older couple that lives in that house) and he was wondering if it was a boarding house or something. He was under the impression that our neighborhood wasn’t very safe, so they were thinking about moving.  

Needless to say, these folks are regular law abiding folks just trying to raise a family in a safe neighborhood. And my other neighbor thought they just didn’t look right and might have been a threat. What is really funny is that these new folks are A LOT like the neighbor that called the cops to keep an eye on the new folks.

The point is that while it’s good to be cautious, always take the time to find out if your suspicions are valid. After all, when I first moved into the neighborhood, my stalker hired a private detective to find me and that caused all my new neighbors to think I was a low life engaged in a medical fraud. We laugh about that now because, it turns out, I’m rather nice.

So don’t judge people. (And yes, I am going to check the offenders list right after I get this post done)

You can do it

Henry Rollins - just do it

When I was in college, I remember there being times when I felt overwhelmed. I was paying my own way. It was hard. There were times that I was eating egg noodles dressed only in butter because that was all I could afford and even the butter was my housemates.

What kept me going?  I realized that regardless of how hard I was struggle to afford school and to finish my degree, I knew other people who had gone through worse and didn't even have the parental support I had who had managed to go to college and finish their degree. I always thought to myself, if they could do it without all the advantages I had, then I can do it too.

This thought, that others have had it worse and still managed to succeed is what drove me on whenever I felt like quitting.  I'm going to share with you a video that Henry Rollins made for Big Think. It's called "do it yourself." In it he gives the same advice I just gave you only he does it better. So what if people have it easier than you do. Other people have had it worse and still managed to succeed. So don't give up and don't wait for a handout. Just go and do what you need to do to get it done.

Enjoy: http://bigthink.com/think-tank/henry-rollins-letter-to-a-young-american