Mosley The Feelings Monster

We don't want our children to feel bad. But teaching them that it's okay to feel sad or angry lessens the effect of those negative feelings. Studies have shown that when we avoid or distract ourselves from feeling bad, the emotions don't go away, and may intensify or cause us to respond unintentionally until they're acknowledged. Over time, regularly ignoring negative feelings can also dull the effect of our positive feelings, diminishing our overall happiness.

We refer to difficult emotions as negative, but that doesn't mean they're bad or we shouldn't have them. We don't like to feel negative emotions because they don't feel good. But feeling them is what releases them. Conversely, when we acknowledge our positive emotions, we feel them more intensely. When we feel happy, if we say, "I feel happy," we feel happier.

Putting feelings into words without trying to change them is known in psychology as "affect labeling," and can reduce the intensity of our negative emotions. For example, when we feel scared, if we say, "I feel afraid" our fear decreases.

This book can be used as a tool to begin the journey of processing emotions with children early in life. Happy, afraid, angry, sad, and love are the feelings introduced in this book.

Mosley can help teach children to describe and feel their feelings-all of them-both positive and negative.

Praise for Mosely The Feelings Monster

"Mosley The Feelings Monster is such an adorable story. I love how the author ties the action to the emotion by showing the feeling. This helps children connect their feelings to the emotion. For example, when I stomp my feet and feel growly my emotion is angry. I will definitely add this book to my social-emotional collection." Angie Dalman - Developmental Specialist III, Nevada Early Intervention Services