That's space video.

Hi everyone, it's Sam here.

Welcome to Radio Headspace and to Wednesday.

So I was recently studying emotion science in the context of child development.

And I came upon the term emotion culture.

This term refers to the norms, patterns, and habits around emotions within your family.

And it has to do with how difficult emotions were handled.

What emotions were safe and unsafe to express.

And which emotions were considered acceptable and unacceptable.

The emotion culture of our home during our upbringing has a huge influence on our lives

and how we regulate our own emotions as we get older.

There were times in my home when my sadness was greeted with rejection, as those around

me thought I was overreacting or just choosing to focus on the negative instead of the positive

in my life.

I remember feeling so utterly alone in those moments, internalizing the rejection and

reinforcing the narrative that something was wrong with me.

Whenever I hear a parent telling a child to stop crying, my heart sinks.

It's a plea to the child to turn off their emotion because the parent is uncomfortable

with it or ashamed of their child's display of the emotion.

We inherit certain tendencies around emotions from the emotion culture that we grew up with.

Think back to how your caregivers responded to your sadness, anger, and disappointment.

What feelings were safe to show and which ones did you sense were off limits?

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