Yesterday, I was discussing the concept of, 'you are your thoughts' as I was fortunate to have been invited to speak on a podcast called 'The Spark.' This is something that I teach in a very gentle way to the children in my club. 

The Irish have a wonderful saying, “tá brón orm”, it means: “sadness is on me." I love this so much for many reasons. Firstly, it means that they have separated out the emotion from themselves, there is an understanding here that emotions come and go; they visit us and pass by. This is such a powerful concept. I love teaching this to children during Zen Club. It is very easy for youngsters to feel overwhelmed by emotion and carried along on a tide of powerful feelings. Empowering children to understand that emotions are separate from us and come to 'visit' helps them feel control. It allows children to see that THEY are not the emotion. They are not sad. They are not anger. They are experiencing this emotion and that is valid but the emotion is not who they are. They are still themselves before, during and after the experience.