Everything all at once - pinning down feelings!
Image from @miccamoo of a head with multiple coloured and patterned slices or layers and caption “everyone is far more complex than one state or emotion or being”.
Emotions …. Feelings ….are so complex and layered. We can sometimes feel like we have to isolate just one feeling and name just that but in reality there is often much more going on underneath. I love this image and visualise it like one of those thumb-flick books where the book contains all the feelings but we leaf/ whizz through from front to back and back to front as well as starting in the middle. Sometimes feeling several of them at once.
Emotion work with neurodivergent young people can often focus on choosing one emotion from a range e.g. happy or sad or angry or excited. There is some utility in this but I think we need language, and symbols that communicate the whole complex jumble/ melee/ layers of feelings. In reality our feelings can be multi-layered and our nervous systems can experience a range of things in a short space of time. If we feel multiple things at once, and our feelings shift then picking one symbol may be impossible (and actually misleading for those trying to support).
Complex mixtures of feelings can also exist together at the same time and they do not cancel each other out. Grief is a perfect example of this, where the undercurrent of sadness is there continually, but even whilst carrying that heavy painful sadness we can experience happiness and excitement and anger. They are all true and valid, all at the same time.
When working with young people I often introduce the idea of a jumble of feelings, that it’s fine not to know which one it might be, or fine to feel like you have them all. It’s like a giant pick and mix with all the sweeties thrown in - super sour and salty liquorice and foamy pastel flavours as well as crunchy chewy ones. Or like a mouthful of them all at once!
Maybe you have an image, or a word that describes your jumble of feelings? What would a good symbol look like to represent this?
Jude
A table with 9 Boardmaker symbols representing different feelings; happy, sad, excited, sorry, proud, embarrassed, angry, surprised, afraid.