Name it to Tame it - Six Creative Ways to Use Emotion Cards

The first step to calming down when you are angry, sad or frustrated is to understand and name your feelings. 

Let's consider anger. When you get angry, your body might feel tense, your face might get hot and red, and you may clench your teeth without noticing. 

It might still be an unpleasant feeling, yet naming it and simply noticing all bodily "symptoms" associated with this feeling allows you to tame it!

What exactly is "NAME IT TO TAME IT?"

"Name It to Tame It" is a technique that involves noticing and labelling emotions as they're happening. Identifying an intense emotion ("naming") has the effect of reducing stress and anxiety ("taming") in the brain and the body that that emotion is causing." (Source: https://mindfulness.com/mindful-living/name-it-to-tame-it )

To help children understand and name their emotions, we highly encourage using emotion/feeling cards. We have two sets of emotion cards available for instant download. Still, you can also choose to create your cards by using photos of your children simply by asking them to demonstrate different emotions and then printing them. (Sounds like extra fun, doesn't it?) Or you and your child can always draw them yourself.

Just get creative and turn it into a fun activity to share!

Below, we are sharing six ways you can use Emotion Cards in your daily life:

 1- Let your child pick a random card from the set (facing down) and ask them to describe a time they felt this emotion. (Encourage them to share more details by asking open-ended questions such as: "Can you tell me about a time you felt __ ?""Where in your body do you feel ___ ?" "Can you show me how your face looks when you are ___ ?", etc.)

2- Print two sets of cards and play a matching (memory) game! Playing a memory game will help your children get familiar with different facial expressions and emotions. While they bring their attention to emotion cards, trying to memorize them to win the game, they will also be exposed to various emotions and learn to pay attention to minor changes in the face. (It might be easier to differentiate angry and happy, but it might require more focus and attention to distinguish between disappointed and nervous) 

3- Ask your children the simple question, "How are you feeling today? and let them pick a card from the emotion cards set that best describes their emotion. You can also choose a card and talk about your feelings to start a meaningful conversation and practice mindful listening and empathy. 

4- Story time! It is one of the most fun exercises you can do with emotion cards. Pick five different cards and take turns to create a story using the emotions in the cards you randomly picked. Here is an example. Let's say you got: "sad, happy, angry, disappointed and excited" cards - you can now start a story about the day of a child/bunny/bear or alien (it is all up to your creativity!)

“One day, a bear woke up sad because he missed his best friend, who had moved to a different forest with his family. Then he remembered the picture he and his friend had painted before they left. The bear went to look at it, and it made him happy again. He asked his mom if they could frame the picture, but she said "no," which made the bear very angry. He was disappointed with her mom for not understanding how important this was to him. Then he came up with a new idea, which excited him!”

The story can go on and on, and I guarantee you, your child will not want to stop at five cards :) This is an excellent exercise for creativity and a perfect opportunity to discuss and understand emotions. 

5- Draw your feelings: The Monkinya emotion card set comes with two "blank" heads for children to draw a face reflecting their feelings. Some children may also prefer expressing their emotions in different colours and shapes, which are all welcome. ( and encouraged)

6- “Where in your body do you feel this emotion?”
Monkinya emotion cards show only expressions like most another emotion card, a head with faces. But how about our bodies? Do we only feel emotions in our faces? Not really.

I invite all the children I work with to draw a body for the "emotion card" heads; we sometimes glue the emotions on a piece of paper on which we draw the bodies. Then, mark that feeling in the parts of the body they feel most, with the colour reflecting that feeling for them. (i.e., colouring the heart pink for joy or the stomach gray for fear, etc.)