10/20 (Tue.) Emotion first aid and happiness (Host: Shirley)

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Shirley Hsu
YOYO member
文章: 35
註冊時間: 週日 8月 03, 2014 8:43 pm

10/20 (Tue.) Emotion first aid and happiness (Host: Shirley)

文章 Shirley Hsu »

Hi, everyone,

Recently, many people have experienced emotional turmoil due to the COVID -19 pandemic and lots of economic pressures, some even exhibited unusual behaviors. It underlines how important it is to take extra care of our emotions, remain positive, and be happy during hard times.
Hopefully, the upcoming meeting serves the purpose.

Section 1: Why we all need to practice emotional first aid

Please take some time to watch the video clips below. Questions for Discussion :
1. In the video, it mentions that "loneliness" creates a deep psychological wound, distorts our perceptions, and scrambles our thinking. It may lead us to believe that people around us no longer care about us.
Have you or someone you know ever had this experience if you don’t mind sharing? What do you think would be a good solution to overcome this feeling?

2. Concerning negative emotions, we take it for granted that it is bad, like guilt, loss, loneliness. We are afraid of these feelings and try our best to get rid of it.
How to take good care of our emotions to make us healthier and happier?

3. Do you think our physical and psychological health are equally important? Do you think people in Taiwan will seek professional counseling or therapy when needed? Why so?
How do you think we can help if people around us are experiencing psychological problems?

Session 2: Being happier will help you live longer, so learn how to be happier

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/30/heal ... index.html

Questions for Discussion:
1. Are you a happy person? What is happiness to you? What is the difference between happiness and joy?

2. Do you think you are more of a glass-half-full type of person or glass-half-empty? Do you think optimists will live longer than pessimists?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is_the_gl ... lf_full%3F

3. Which element do you think is more important in the five building blocks toward well-being, PERMA (P: Positive emotion, E: Engagement, R: Relationships, M: meaning, A: Accomplishment)? Why?

4. Do you think participating in YoYo English Club brings a feeling of happiness? Why?


******************************************************************************************************
Agenda:
6:45 ~ 7:00pm Greetings & Free Talk / Ordering Beverage or Meal / Getting Newcomer’s Information
7:00 ~ 7:10pm Opening Remarks / Newcomer’s Self-introduction / Grouping
(Session I)
7:00 ~ 7:40pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
7:40 ~ 7:55pm Summarization (15 mins)
7:55 ~ 8:00pm Regrouping / Instruction Giving / Taking a 5 Minutes Break (Intermission)
(Session II)
8:00 ~ 8:40pm Discussion Session (30 mins)
8:40 ~ 8:55pm Summarization and conclusion (15 mins)

*****************************************************************************************************
Meeting Date: As shown in the Subject Line
Meeting Time: 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Meeting Venue: 丹堤咖啡 Dante Coffee (Minimum Order $80)
Address: 台北市濟南路三段25號-捷運忠孝新生站3號出口步行3分鐘
Important Notes:
1. Participants are recommended to print out the questions for the discussion. Also, the supporting articles, if preferred not to access them via their own mobile phone.
2. Please read the articles and discussion questions provided by the host and write down your thoughts in English in advance.

For Newcomers:
1. Please prepare a two-to-three minute introduction of yourself in English. You may also be asked to give brief feedback at the conclusion of the meeting.
2. The entire meeting is conducted in English. All participants should at least have moderate English conversation skills and be able to articulate your ideas for each discussion question.
3. Newcomers are welcome to attend the meeting and join the discussion up to three times. Formal membership with a lifetime membership fee NT$1000 is required afterward.
Iris Wu
YOYO member
文章: 894
註冊時間: 週二 5月 20, 2014 4:33 pm

Re: 10/20 (Tue.) Emotion first aid and happiness (Host: Shirley)

文章 Iris Wu »

I have to admit that this is one of the few talks I replayed and paused a couple times to take notes. Personally, I think it is a deeply passionate and effective speech.

No matter how lucky we are, life is nothing short of the moments of feeling down, unappreciated, or mentally bleeding. The speech reminds us to pay attention to our psychological wounds/illness by taking actions and changing responses to battle all the negative feelings which consume and drain our energy and sometimes even drag us into a downward spiral and stay in the extremely dark side.

All this is the first step to identify the dancing emotions during the mental illness, but how to take control of the emotions is incredibly challenging. The speaker lightly touched the “how” part. One valuable skill mentioned is to force us to break from the rumination syndrome, accumulating many two minutes distraction to overcome the urge of rumination, so we don’t keep replying the “ugly” scenes in our head.

“E-motion” is “energy in motion” as some psychologists defined. Emotions are composite biological signals (the pounding heart rate, sweating palms, tension in muscles, etc.) from physiological point of view. The external “bad” events do not directly touch our physical body, but we activate our own biological signals to react to these events. We let emotions own us.

To manage and control the emotion issues, I found the oriental (Buddhism) and western (psychology) wisdom have some similar approaches. That is to objectify the emotions, to withdraw a self from his/her subjective emotions, so one can be more objectively dealing with his/her dancing emotions. It’s not something we can settle in one go. It requires a lot of practice, but I think we can benefit significantly from this kind of practice.
Janice Wang
YOYO member
文章: 79
註冊時間: 週六 3月 25, 2017 7:45 pm

Re: 10/20 (Tue.) Emotion first aid and happiness (Host: Shirley)

文章 Janice Wang »

We, as humans, a combination of body, mind, and soul; the health of all three is crucial and interdependent. Our mind controls our body, and a healthy mind is a foundation for good health. Similarly, a worn-out body leads to poor mental health. A healthy mind paired with a healthy body is a vital key to happiness. Happiness, to me, is a sense of feeling that is nice to have, but not an absolute pursuit. I may fall short of being a happy person, but I still don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions over the projection of happiness. Perhaps staying away from becoming an unhappy person is more practical to achieve.

With modern medical technology and advanced medicine, humans usher in a longer life expectancy with a relatively healthy body. However, we also may be involuntarily leaving the door ajar to some toxic and negative emotions drifting in from nowhere that may jeopardize our mental health, such as depressions, anxiety, and loneliness, etc.. The more elusive or insidious the causes, the more detrimental and devastating the harm to our health could be.

To ignore or downplay the health problems, regardless if it is physical or psychological, may eventually play havoc with snowballing a knotty problem. To help people who are undergoing mental issues, in particular, those people with close ties, we usually lend our ears and heart to listen to them no matter what. Yet, mental problems sometimes cannot be reasoned with as it is emotional acuity needed. It also requires us to listen with an open mind and a trusting attitude, which can often be very stressful. I would walk with the very one with mental issues through seeking professional help rather than jumping in trying to put a brake on the problem by myself.
Shirley Hsu
YOYO member
文章: 35
註冊時間: 週日 8月 03, 2014 8:43 pm

Re: 10/20 (Tue.) Emotion first aid and happiness (Host: Shirley)

文章 Shirley Hsu »

Iris Wu 寫:
週日 10月 18, 2020 12:56 pm
To manage and control the emotion issues, I found the oriental (Buddhism) and western (psychology) wisdom have some similar approaches. That is to objectify the emotions, to withdraw a self from his/her subjective emotions, so one can be more objectively dealing with his/her dancing emotions. It’s not something we can settle in one go. It requires a lot of practice, but I think we can benefit significantly from this kind of practice.
Yes, the oriental(Buddhism) and western(Psychology) wisdom have lots of similar approaches to emotional intelligence. From different professional wisdom and stories, we will be enlightened somehow.
Shirley Hsu
YOYO member
文章: 35
註冊時間: 週日 8月 03, 2014 8:43 pm

Re: 10/20 (Tue.) Emotion first aid and happiness (Host: Shirley)

文章 Shirley Hsu »

Janice Wang 寫:
週日 10月 18, 2020 10:03 pm
To help people who are undergoing mental issues, in particular, those people with close ties, we usually lend our ears and heart to listen to them no matter what. Yet, mental problems sometimes cannot be reasoned with as it is emotional acuity needed. It also requires us to listen with an open mind and a trusting attitude, which can often be very stressful. I would walk with the very one with mental issues through seeking professional help rather than jumping in trying to put a brake on the problem by myself.
Thanks for sharing.
For those who need psychological help, besides listening to them, if we can also seek professional assistance in time, that would have better results for them to break through the difficulty.
Shirley Hsu
YOYO member
文章: 35
註冊時間: 週日 8月 03, 2014 8:43 pm

Re: 10/20 (Tue.) Emotion first aid and happiness (Host: Shirley)

文章 Shirley Hsu »

Dear All,

Thanks for attending this meeting.

Attendees(17): Miller, Iris, Toshi, Amy Janice, Sally, Andy, Winsten, Liwen, Steve, Chris, Sherry, Howard, Anne, Wenhan, Julian, Shirley(Host)
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