Sharing Good Practice
WHAT’S YOUR EMOTIONAL WEATHER?
BY ZOE GRIFFITHS
A
fter that superhuman rescue
made in Thailand by an
International team to save
the lives of 12 students aged
11-15. I reflect on the revelation that the
capacity to physically go from danger
to safety in this high risk environment
without emotion to influence outcome
became the difference between life and
death. An Australian anaesthetist and
experienced cave diver administered
the sedation to the boys inside the
cave and rapid advancements in
full face mask technology by French
Yves Le Prieur from 1933 enabled the
boys to continually breathe even if
they became unconscious. WAW!
Our global networked labour market,
advancements in technology and
collective ability to execute as a team
under pressure made a life changing
impact locally in a small village in the
Chiang Rai province. An amazing
example of what the world of work
looks like today.
Since January 2017 the UAE has set
out its ambitious vision to align the
National Agenda 2021 with the United
Nations Agenda 2030 highlighting the
inter-linkages between the Worlds
Sustainable
Development
Goals
(SDG) and Nationally determined
contributions.
The
National
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Qualifications Authority (NQA) is
developing national occupational
skills standards in key sectors
and aligning their qualifications
frameworks to countries across the
world playing its role in developing
the UAE’s knowledge economy
to operate locally and globally. I
consider the level of importance
placed upon exceptional emotional
balance to effectively work within and
across cultures as one team in the
challenging situations that the SDG’s
will present. Change is uncomfortable,
failure is inevitable when solving real
life problems, overcoming setbacks
and being receptive to new ideas
requires resilience, confidence and
composure to succeed, as observed
in the example above during the cave
rescue.
'What's your emotional weather?'
Daniel Goleman asked on week 1
of the pilot project on Emotional
Balance which I took part in. Curiosity,
wonderment and intrigue leapt to
mind; blue sky with some cumulous
clouds, the kind that you see in a
Class Time
Michael Angelo painting. Have you
considered your emotional weather?
And does your family have different
climates within your home? Opening
up the dialogue with your children
using the analogy of weather as an
inference to develop awareness
that emotions can change daily
and be forecast according to the
environment around can be a very
powerful tool to initial engagement
and
understanding.
Supporting
your child in being self-aware in the
safety of the home provides the
building blocks to develop emotional
balance as a life learner. At home you
will be promoting and reinforcing
positive behaviour for learning that
can be drawn upon to help develop
relationships with others at school and
embrace challenges and setbacks as
part of developing emotional balance
in a wide range of situations. No better
way to develop the gap between
impulse and action than through the
extracurricular programme or outdoor
education provision at your school. In
just one hour, a child can experience
disappointment, fear, elation, conflict,
injustice, being uncomfortable in
oneself, success, failure, enjoyment
and
physical
challenge.
These
experiences challenge our emotional
balance at every opportunity and
in later life will ultimately be the
difference between whether we excel
or fail in our future endeavours at work
and be happy in life.
Compared to the habits and rituals
you create in the home to support
and guide success academically in
school, how much emphasis do you
as a family place upon developing
emotional balance? I challenge you
to seek out an opportunity in your
family to turn a failure into a sweeping
success as JK Rowling, Beyoncé,
Bill Gates and David Beckham
did in their quest to become the
best they could be. A change in
focus and incorporating emotional
development into everyday life at
home is a game changer and will set
your children apart as a life learner.
A former international athlete, authentic leader and socially responsible
entrepreneur with sustainability rooted in all that she does. Zoe is currently
the Founder/CEO of Alchemy of Learning an educational consultancy based
in UAE.