Ada learns how others feel.

Disgust helps us survive.

 Since the beginning of time human beings have felt disgust.  It has kept us from eating things that are unhealthy.  It has kept us in good health.  It is a primal emotion.  Disgust is often used to persuade others that it is ok to look at differences with disdain.  It is important to talk with young ones about disgust.  If we truly know our emotions and feelings they can not be used against us.  Lately a politician was talking about others as vermin.  This is an example of using disgust to pit people against one another.  If we can look at disgust as a basic human emotion that is there to serve and can be ameliorated much peace could be had.  I hope my book on disgust will do this.

Ben is disgusted.

Communicating our frustration is an important skill to master

 If you know me well, you will know I often bottle up my feelings instead of tell the person I am frustrated with why I am frustrated.  If we could teach our children early on to share their frustrations verbally, we will not have explosive outbursts later on.  I hope my work with Ada in my book 'I Feel Frustrated When You Won't Come Down." will help young readers to explore ways to communicate frustration.  This is not a one book fits all situations bandaid.  We need to constantly be vigilant about how we feel.  We need to recognize our feelings and ask our inner guidance "What is this feeling telling me?"  Only then is it good to act.  Before we act it is most often best to communicate our frustration in a diplomatic way that will get the other person to try to see the situation from our point of view for just a minute.  If we could do this the world would be a better place.

Ada is frustrated!

Remembering our sadness is important

 I was reflecting on my book with Deb about feeling sad.  When I went to post about the video of that reflection, I realized I wanted to be in gratitude about how my audience has supported me over the years.  I began to write, "Thank you to all my friends who comfort me when I am sad."  When I wrote this, I realized how important it is to reflect upon our own feelings when we reach out to others.  I would be interested in hearing what others say about this.

Deb is sad.