#TodayIFeel: An Activity on Being Open to Increase Positive Affect
Our group initially divided the tasks for the project in order for us to still have a unique experience when we become the participants of the project. Allison Sy and I were the ones assigned to prepare the slips of positive and motivational quotes as well as the boxes needed to store them. Sophie Cua and Mary Maala were the ones who did the promotional poster or picture. Amanda Tolentino was the one who prepared the illustration board and its actual design. Luis Macatangay was the one who reserved a rolling board in JSEC and was also the one who prepared the markers to be used.
Preparing the slips of positive and motivational quotes was easy since I only had to search the Internet for quotes said by famous people. Nonetheless, it became a little confusing since there were quotes that may be categorized as both positive and motivational. As such, it became my own decision to categorize them accordingly. I collated and cut over a hundred quotes and it was fun. My groupmates also did their respective roles. At first, we planned to conduct the activity last March 6 and 8, but due to issues concerning the reservation for the rolling board, we decided to conduct it the following week.
The initial #TodayIFeel board.
Last March 11, our group put up a poster of #TodayIFeel in JSEC and were the first ones to write about how we felt for that specific time with corresponding colors. Yellow, blue, green, angry, and pink were for happy, sad, disgust, angry, and scared respectively. After coloring, we left the poster in JSEC for other people to participate as well.
The promotional poster for #TodayIFeel that was designed by Sophie Cua and Mary Maala.
I thought that coloring on the poster about my emotion would be easy. However, when it was my turn, it took me around a minute to color and decide about my emotion at that time. It was not as easy as I initially thought because I still had to grasp everything that I felt during that moment and decide what emotion prevailed. I tried my best to be mindful. In the end, I got the pink-colored marker and wrote that I was anxious during that time. When I wrote that I was feeling anxious, the reasons why I felt that way suddenly piled up on my mind. I remembered it was because I had so many things to do for that afternoon and I was not sure if I could accomplish them all on-time. In addition, I also had numerous scheduled meetings for that day, and I was doubtful if I would be very attentive during the meetings since I lacked sleep. Nonetheless, writing the word “anxious” on the #TodayIFeel poster made me less nervous and more confident afterwards. It was like telling the world that I knew that I was nervous and scared, but I also knew and believed that I can conquer the challenges for that day. It was an act of being open.
Since I was feeling anxious, I picked a motivational quote from the box that we prepared. The quote I got was by Bette Davis and it stated, “The key to life is accepting challenges. Once someone stops doing this, he’s dead.” The quote was truly appropriate to what I was feeling. The quote inspired me to keep going and face the challenges that were waiting for that day even if I was feeling nervous and scared. Because I was affected and inspired by the quote, I was able to confirm that I was truly anxious.
Group photo with the #TodayIFeel board after installation in JSEC.
Our group did not expect that people would actually write and participate in our #TodayIFeel activity. We were surprised that the board was already full of colors and of various emotions. There were those who wrote that they were sad, tired, happy, thrilled, gay, depressed, drained, and flabbergasted. Some also wrote phrases like “yaw ko na,” “I want to cry,” “It’s Monday,” and “could be better.” These made me realize that we are all experiencing different things at the moment, thus feeling different emotions. I hope that like me, those people who participated were able to increase their positive affect by some degree with the help of #TodayIFeel. I was grateful and happy that they participated because it means that our activity was able to increase their positive affects like how it helped us increase ours.
The #TodayIFeel board after the activity was conducted.
The #TodayIFeel activity made me realize that it is not very easy to practice mindfulness. I realized that you cannot be immediately mindful whenever you want to be. It needs practice, focus, and a lot of attention in order for a person to be fully aware of oneself in the present moment.
The #TodayIFeel activity emphasized how being open can increase one’s positive affect. I believe that by being open, we are able to understand more our current emotions, accept them, address them using our own personal techniques or mechanisms, and share them to others, which thereafter decreases the negative emotions. This highlights the need to be open to experience, to be aware of the negativities, to continue loving oneself despite the failures or shortcomings, and to extend oneself to others.
The #TodayIFeel activity may be a good starting point for me to be more open. From now on, I will try to practice mindfulness more often and conduct my personal “emotions journal” to be more aware of my daily emotions and feelings.
