The Emotional Literacy Museum - Six Seconds

The Emotional Literacy MuseumIntroductionThe Emotional Literacy Museum is a self-directed learningexperience teaching about the physiology of emotions, emotionalregulation, and emotional literacy.The Emotional Literacy Museum was developed byJoshua Freedman, Director, Six Seconds Institute for Organizational PerformanceAnabel Jensen, Ph.D., President, Six SecondsMarsha Rideout, Director of Instruction, Six Secondswith contributions fromTodd Everett, MBA, Organizational Programs Manager, Six SecondsTom Wojick, MA, Senior Consultant, Six Secondsand thanks toDavid Caruso, Ph.D., for inspiration for several exercises©2006 Six Seconds, www.6seconds.org/museum staff@6seconds.org

IntroductionThe Emotional Literacy Museum is a dynamic, engaging, learner-driven tool that teachesone of the foundational skills of emotional intelligence.Emotional Literacy is recognizing, naming, and understanding feelings. Feelings have“rules,” and by learning the basic “moves” emotions can make, their causes and effects,and the ways they combine, people have a much easier time managing feelings. At a basiclevel, simply naming a feeling sooths the limbic brain’s activity related to the feeling – asif that part of the brain says, “Ok! Now you understand me.”The training package includes acomplete Emotional LiteracyMuseum and courseware for a ½-dayinteractive training. The packageincludes a CD with Powerpoint®slides and speaker notes, a handout,and masters for reproducing itemsneeded for the Museum.Objectives• Increased knowledge aboutemotions and how to learn about them.• More useful attitude toward emotions as something valuable and interesting.• Stronger skills in recognizing and managing feelings.Primary outcome: participants leave with an expanded awareness about emotions asuseful, neurobiological responses to the environment. In other words, they leave saying“emotions are real – and they have value.”ApplicationThe Emotional Literacy Museum is designed as self-guided learning process. Theseinstructions describe a half-day workshop based on the Museum. The workshop iseffective for groups ranging from 8-24 participants; a larger group can be accommodatedwith two sets of the Museum stations. The curriculum has been field-tested with a widevariety of audiences in business, education, health, and government. It has worked wellwith participants from over a dozen different countries, and in all job levels.The components are highly versatile, so in addition to the stand-alone workshop thispackage can be used as a:• brief interactive session (30-60 minutes).• breaktime activity during a related training or conference.• lunch-and-learn experience.©2006 Six Seconds, www.6seconds.org/museum staff@6seconds.org

• interactive learning component to another event such as open house or learningday.In addition, the Museum can be segmented into a series of activities to intersperse withinother training.Museum StationsThere are many components in the Museum. Depending on space available and yourapplication, you may choose to use only some of the exercises. Each is identified as a“station” – like an exhibit in a real museum.Feeling CardsActivity: Sort cardsinto groups accordingto the emotion shownon the picture.Heart-Mind-Body*Activity: Take bloodpressure, read a newsarticle, then take blood pressure again.Tipples’ FacesActivity: Copy facial expressions bylooking in a mirror.Magnetic FacesActivity: Create an image of anemotional expression.Feeling PhotosActivity: Identify the emotionsconveyed in four photos.Inside/OutsideActivity: Depictfeelings experienced vsfeelings exhibited,discuss.Musical Feelings*Activity: Listen to music and expressthe feelings conveyed through sculpture.FreezeFramer*Activity: Use theHeartMath FreezeFramer® to graphheart rate variability.BiodotsActivity: Experiment with a Biodotstress monitor.EmotionometerActivity: Complete a worksheetshowing the gradations, or varyingintensities, of an emotion.EmotionFlowerActivity: Partners,identify andexplain theemotions.Moon FacesActivity: Identify the physical“symptoms” of various emotions.* Value-addedstations availablein addition to thebasic museum.©2006 Six Seconds, www.6seconds.org/museum staff@6seconds.org