Sadness activities

1. SADNESS
Place of security
After the sharing round, the teacher asked them to think about some situations
where they felt sad, to choose the one in which the emotion had been stronger and
write it down. Later they were asked to write what they have thought in that
specific situation and at what point in the body they felt sadness. During the sharing
session it turned out that many of them felt the sadness in the same points of the
body, experiencing the following feelings: tired and aching eyes, headache, weight
on shoulders, a sense of chest oppression, hearth suffering , lump on the stomach,
sense of immobility, tingling in the legs.

3. In the next meeting the teacher asked them what they can do to face and overcome
the moments of sadness. After sharing ideas in a circle, the teacher provided a
summary.
In moments of sadness the children can talk to someone who loves them, cuddle
themselves by caressing and hugging an animal or a soft toy, relax lying on the bed,
taking a hot bath, read a book, doodling, making positive thoughts, having fun
playing with brothers or friends, ...use the imagination to reach a “safe place" where
to recover the serenity.

4. The next activity was the journey through the eyes of the mind to the safe place.
With a reassuring background music the children were accompanied by the
teacher's voice in an activity of body relaxation which brought them to focus on the
safe place chosen by each one, to observe it carefully, to stay there for a few
minutes and experience feeling of physical and emotional well-being.
The activity ended with the "return from the trip" and comments on its effects.