At a time when you are both feeling calm, tell your child that you would like to talk about the difference between feelings and behaviours.
Explain that, as they’ve learnt in the other exercises, it is always ok to feel how they feel. No emotion is bad or wrong. It is even ok to be angry but, however we feel, it is not ok to:
•Hurt yourself
•Hurt other people
•Break things on purpose
Encourage them to talk about different ways they could deal with difficult emotions. Ask them if they can think of any other ways that they might deal with their feelings.
Suggest things that they could do, instead of behaving in destructive ways. Such as:
•Talk to somebody about how they feel – you could discuss the different people, like friends and teachers, they could talk to
•Take deep breaths
•Count to 10
•Take deep breaths while you count to 10
•Go for a walk or jump up and down to help move the energy around your body