38 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • SEPTEMBER 2020
FAMILY & EDUCATION
HOW TO COPE WITH COVID-19 STRESS
continued from page 37
How can we support our children’s
emotional wellbeing during this
pandemic, when we as parents might
be struggling with our own? If you
have the mindset that you have to be
the role model for your child, it changes
your attitude about your feelings. Some
people have a mindset that their anxiety
makes them weak. Other people
say, “My anxiety is an experience that
I’m having. It may not be pleasant, but it
doesn’t have to take over my entire life.”
What I try to do is teach parents how to
shift their relationship with their stress
and anxiety, to give themselves the
permission to experience the anxiety,
without allowing the anxiety to have
power over them.
How much do you think it’s appropriate
for parents to talk with our
children about our emotions surrounding
COVID? It all depends on
what your face looks like, what your
body language looks like, what your
vocal tone looks like, and how you
demonstrate your ability to regulate the
feeling. So if I walk into my house and
say, “I can’t take it anymore. I’m going to
freak out. Oh my goodness, everybody’s
going to die,” your kids are going
to be off the wall. The more you
catastrophize, it’s contagious.
Is it helpful or unhelpful for parents
to share with our children
when we are going through a
difficult time emotionally? The
most important thing is that when
you’re communicating your feelings
to your children, let them
know that you are able to manage
your feelings effectively and
that you’re not looking for them
to take care of you. We want to
normalize that life is filled with
positive and negative emotions.
Otherwise what we tell them
is that when there’s a crisis, we
don’t talk about it. And so what
kids grow up learning is that if
they’re feeling fear and anxiety
themselves, we suppress those
feelings, which is the worst thing
we can do for children’s healthy
development.
As an emotion scientist, have you
been surprised by your own feelings
during the COVID pandemic? I would
never have anticipated my own anxiety
during this crisis. Here I am, supposedly
Dr. Marc Brackett is the director of the Yale
Center for Emotional Intelligence (Photo by Horacio
Marquinez)
an expert in this space, and I’ve struggled
with my anxiety. And even a lot of my
anger about what’s happening in the
world. And so I’m working on it. I’m
reflecting on it. I’m thinking about how
I can appraise things in different
ways to support my own health
and well-being. I think if we think
of this as life’s journey, we put
less pressure on ourselves to be
perfect at it right away.
What final words of advice
would you like to share? We
want to give children permission
to feel all emotions. And so
that’s an important distinction,
versus trying to get them to not
feel negative emotions and feel
more positive emotions. With
that said, we do want a greater
balance of positive to negative
emotions. We just don’t want to
have a mindset that the negative
emotions are bad. They’re signals.
They’re information that
we need to attend to and help
people out.
For more insights from Dr. Marc
Brackett, visit moodmeterapp.
com to download the Mood Meter
app to use with your children
at home.
This story first appeared in New York
Family magazine.
YOUR VOICE, YOUR VIEWPOINT:
AN OPEN CALL FOR STUDENTS TO SPEAK OUT
As our region has been through many
challenges these last few months, we
know one issue is relevant and part of
what so many kids live with: racism.
And we want you to be heard!
We want middle school and high
school students to submit their stories
to us. The cool thing? We want
your story to be the best path that
represents who you are. This can
be in a story, essay, poem, or a video
share with the New York community
on your viewpoint or experience with
racism. You have until September 25
at midnight to submit your voice and
viewpoint entry to Schneps Media.
THE DETAILS:
Schneps Media and the Claire Friedlander
Family Foundation want to
hear your voice and your viewpoint
on your experiences with racism. We
invite students, our future leaders,
to share your thoughts and feelings
about your experiences with racism.
Middle and high school students are
invited to submit essays, videos, poems,
or other expressive media that
you feel capture your experiences.
Students can either choose from the
following prompts, or choose to submit
work beyond the prompts, but still
related to the overall goal of sharing
your voice and your viewpoint.
• I experienced racism when…
• I’ve fought against racism by…
• I was racially profiled when…
• My first experience with racism was
when…
Submit virtual or written entries
limited to 250 words either by email
or by using the hashtag #YourVoiceYourViewpoint
on social media
including Instagram or TikTok. Video
entries can be emailed to YourVoiceYourViewpoint@
schnepsmedia.
com. Please include your name, age,
and school with your entry.
Submissions will be published in
Schneps Media’s multiple platforms
of print, digital, and broadcasting.
Three middle school students and
three high school students will each
be awarded a prize of $500 by a panel
of Queensborough Community
College students. Submissions will
be accepted through Friday, Sept.
25, and winners of the prize will be
announced on Thursday, Oct. 1. For
additional information please call
718-260-2500.
Schneps Media is the parent company
of the Long Island Press.
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