There are many components to healthy youth and 4-H healthy living programming takes a holistic approach: healthy eating habits, physical fitness, the capacity to manage emotions and the ability to develop and maintain positive relationships.

Today we are going to focus on the concept of managing emotions.

Emotions are a part of everyday life and many times emotions are expressed in many different ways at 4-H Club meetings. Emotions such as “angry,” “happy,” and “sad” are just a few emotions that could be expressed at a meeting by a 4-H member.

Managing our feelings and emotions is an important life skill for youth to learn. Helping youth recognize their emotion is the first step in helping them build this skill. We also need to help youth understand how to express their feelings or emotions appropriately.

It is good to talk about feeling or emotions as a group. Maybe before a big show or event, you would want to talk about how people are going to feel once the show is over. Some youth may be happy because they won and other may be angry because they didn’t.

Having youth think about positive ways to express their feelings is the next step in helping them manage their emotions. If a 4-H member gets angry or really upset, it is not appropriate to hit or hurt someone or something. Work with that member and talk about constructive ways to solve the issue. It could be that the solution is trying harder next time or walking away to think before they react.

Healthy Living Programing is a mission mandate from National 4-H. Making sure youth in our 4-H programs are healthy is an important role for all 4-H club leaders to incorporate into club meetings.

For more ideas on healthy living programming, contact your county 4-H Program Coordinator.

Other Michigan State University Extension news articles:

• Healthy living programming in 4-H Club meetings – Part 1
• Healthy living programming in 4-H Club meetings – Part 2
• Healthy living programming in 4-H Club meetings – Part 4