Life Skills & Leadership: Unit 1, Session 6: Stress and Emotions | Page 70 of 93III. Practice (30 minutes)
Materials:
Flip chart 1: Emotions and Needs
Handout 1: What We Need
A. What’s Up Here? (Continued)
Participants practice identifying the unmet needs that are being expressed through emotions.- Help participants make the connection between emotions, unmet needs, and actions that result. Say:
“Our emotions are strongly connected to our needs. When our needs have been met, we tend to feel
happier, more hopeful, and connected more strongly to others. When our needs are not being met, we
often feel threatened, fearful, angry, shameful, or other negative emotions. As a result, we may say or
do things that hurt people and damage our relationship with them. But, if we can become aware of the
unmet needs behind emotions, we can begin to communicate and interact more positively with other
people.”- Distribute Handout 1: What We Need to the participants. Talk about the handout with participants and
explain the connection between emotions and needs. Ask them to recall the situations they just acted
out and the emotions they identified from those situations. Ask participants to think back and
speculate about what each character might have wanted or needed in those situations. Write the
possible needs people had on the “Needs” side of Flip chart 1: Emotions and Needs. - Lead a discussion using these questions (which are also on Handout 1 ):
Which of these needs are most important to you?
What are some needs you would add to this list?
Which needs do you think you are able to go without having for a while?
How have you reacted and what have you done when you couldn’t get something you needed?
How does knowing about these needs help you better understand the feelings of others?
Which needs do you think are most important to youth and young adults in general?- Think – Pair – Share: Ask participants to each quietly think of at least one emotion they frequently
experience and the needs those emotions might be connected to for them. Ask each participants to
briefly share her/his thoughts with another person sitting next to her/him.
Note: If participants don’t feel comfortable sharing a personal emotion, you can suggest they write down some of their
thoughts to help clarify their thinking. Be respectful of their privacy and do not collect what they have written.Note: Think—Pair—Share serves as an assessment of Learning Objective 1.B. Summary
Conclude the exercise by saying: