When at the age of thirty I learned how to deal with my emotions for the first time my immediate reaction was:  Ï should have known this when I was fifteen - th... » 

When at the age of thirty I learned how to deal with my emotions for the first time my immediate reaction was:  Ï should have known this when I was fifteen - this could have prevented of lot of personal misery".  The truth is that I should have learned how to handle them much earlier in life.  In "Joost is happy:  talking with young kids about emotions" children are taught how they can handle their emotions effectively from an early age on.

The consequence is that kids react as follows:  "It was not so bad  that Joost was in a fight because it made him look funny ", says Meintje (5).  "When I feel something like a black circle in my tummy it means I am angry and I take it out, turn it round and it becomes a purple-pink circle.  I make the pink go round and round.  Then I put it back into my tummy and I feel all happy again !   The donkey-ears (ass-ears is misschien iets te populair?) I  liked best!   At school when a kid is nasty to me I imagine her suddenly looking different, like a baby in a dirty diaper or so!  And then I start laughing out loud.  The two girls first bulllying me all the time are now nice to me every day.  And I like them a lot again .  " 

Joost van der Leij is an international NLP coach trained by the founder of NLP , dr. Richard Bandler.  From his 'Institute of Unconventional Wisdom'  he offers NLP training in the Netherlands, Belgium and the United States.  He is a member of the Society of NLP. «