S3 E5: Balancing Emotions – Staying Steady When Life Feels Busy

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Sometimes life can feel like a juggling act of emotions—happiness, worry, frustration, and excitement all at once! In this episode of Mindful Moments with Miss Harrison, we explore how to recognize, prioritize, and manage emotions in a healthy way so we don’t feel overwhelmed.  

Through the story of Noah and His Spinning Plates, engaging activities, and simple strategies, children will learn:  

✔️ What it means to balance emotions and why it’s important 🏗️  

✔️ Three steps to stay calm and steady when emotions pile up 🧘‍♂️  

✔️ How to check in with feelings, prioritize emotions, and take action or let go 🌿  

✔️ A fun Balancing Emotions Challenge to practice self-awareness and mindfulness 🎯  

📖 Storytime: Follow Noah as he feels overwhelmed by a tough school project and an upcoming football game—until he learns a powerful trick to slow down, check in with his emotions, and feel more balanced. ⚽📚  

✨ Challenge: The next time you feel overwhelmed by multiple emotions, try these three steps:  

1 Check in with yourself – What am I feeling right now? 🤔  

2 Prioritise your emotions – Which feeling needs attention first? 🎭  

3 Take action or let go – What can I do about it? If nothing, breathe and release. 🌬️  

🎯 Perfect for Kids, Parents & Educators! 

This episode helps children develop self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and healthy coping strategies for handling daily ups and downs.  

🔔 Subscribe now to Mindful Moments with Miss Harrison and help children learn how to balance emotions and stay steady no matter what life brings! 🌟  

Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome back to Mindful Moments with Miss Harrison. I'm Miss Harrison and I'm so happy you're here for another episode in our series about resilience. In our last episode we talked about finding courage and taking brave steps, even when something feels a little scary. Did you try something new this week? If you did, I hope you felt proud of your bravery. Today we're tackling a tricky feeling we all experience from time to time. Frustration.

Frustration happens when things don't go as planned and it can feel like a big, heavy knot inside us. But don't worry, by the end of this episode you'll have some great tools to manage frustration and stay calm when things get tough. So let's get started. Frustration is that feeling we get when something doesn't work the way we want it to. Maybe you're trying to

build something and it keeps falling apart or you're working on a hard problem and the answer just won't come. Have you ever felt your body tighten up or heard yourself say oh this is so annoying? That's frustration showing up. It's a normal emotion and everyone feels it. Children, grown-ups, even me. The good news is frustration doesn't have to stay. We can learn how to untangle that heavy knot inside us and feel calm again.

Let's hear a story about a boy named Jake and how he handled his frustration. One windy afternoon Jake went to the park with a brand new kite. He was so excited to fly it, but no matter how hard he tried, the kite wouldn't stay in the air. It twisted and crashed to the ground again and again. Jake felt his frustration growing. This isn't fair! he shouted, clenching his fists.

But then he remembered what his dad had told him. When you feel frustrated, take a break and think about what you can change. Jake put the kite down, took three deep breaths, and noticed the string was tangled. He untangled the string, tried again, and watched as his kite soared into the sky.

"'I did it,' he said, feeling proud." What do you think helped Jake manage his frustration? Just like Jake, we can all learn how to handle frustration when it shows up. Here are three steps to try. First, we can pause and breathe. When you feel frustrated, stop what you're doing and take three deep breaths. This helps your body and mind calm down. Next, we can talk to ourselves kindly. Say something

positive about yourself like, I can figure this out or it's okay to take my time. Being kind to yourself can make frustrations feel smaller. And finally we can change our plan. If something isn't working think about what you can change or ask for help. Sometimes a new approach is all you need. These steps can help you untangle frustration and keep going. Let's practice managing frustration together. I'll describe some frustrating situations and you think about how you could handle them using the steps we've talked about. The first situation, you're building a tower and it keeps falling over. What could you do to feel calmer

and try again? Perfect. Next, you're stuck on a homework problem and you don't know the answer. How could you handle your frustration? And finally, you're trying to draw a picture and it doesn't turn out the way you wanted. What could you say to yourself to keep going? Great job! Every time you practice handling frustration you get better at staying calm and figuring things out. You've done amazing work today learning how to manage frustration. Remember frustration is a normal feeling and it's

okay to feel upset when things don't go as planned. The important thing is knowing how to pause, breathe and think about what you can do next. Here's your mindful moment challenge for the week. The next time you feel frustrated try frustrated, try the three steps. Pause and breathe, talk to yourself kindly and change your plan. Notice how it helps you feel calmer and more in control. Next time on Mindful Moments with Miss Harrison, we'll talk about balancing

emotions and how to stay steady when you feel like you're being pulled in lots of different directions. I can't wait to see you then. Thank you for joining me today. Remember, you are doing an incredible job just by showing up and learning about your emotions. Until next time, take care and keep shining.