Let it flow: Healthy ways to release emotions - Book Review

Let it flow: Healthy ways to release emotions! 

Lipp, R., & Philips, C. (2021). Wilding Books. 

I spend a lot of time talking to parents and teachers and writing about how we can support our tamariki to calm down when they’re feeling big emotions. It’s personal to each child, and while their whānau and teachers will generally have an idea of what helps some of the time, this book is a useful tool to support this further.  

It’s a book where each page is filled with a strategy that supports our bodies and minds to relax. There’s our favourites like breathing and talking, but I love the ideas that hadn’t occurred to me before - ‘patting it out’ with your pet, ‘create it out’ when your child loves making things. Of course these things are soothing for those of us who enjoy them! 

The best thing about this book is that it creates the opportunity for more parents and teachers to have the kōrero with tamariki about what helps when they’re feeling jumbled or frustrated or overly excited. It supports us to understand emotions as energy, and we just need to allow the energy to flow through us in healthy ways - ways that make us feel good. 

Better still (if that’s possible!) the book iterates that if our tamariki are experiencing a big emotion, they don’t need to be punished for it. They just need to practice and do the things that relax them. 

It’s the book I’ll take with me when facilitating parenting programmes, or working individually with parents who are stuck on how to best support their tamariki with their big emotions. It opens the conversation about emotions being normal, and provides guidance on what can support our tamariki, and us, to feel good and function well - in the challenging moments, or any moment.  

Again, I love that Lipp and Phillips bring emotions electrically to life through colour and formations of energy. They present the strategy, the emotions it supports and a physiological explanation. Their combination is reassuring - it all makes good, kind sense.  

It’s honest to say, I love this book and all it offers. 

Anna Mowat has a background in psychology and works across many national projects which support children's wellbeing. She works under her business name Real Collective.

Disclaimer: Please note these reviews are not intended as endorsements or recommendations from the Mental Health Foundation. This feature introduces resources that may be useful for individuals with an interest in mental health and wellbeing topics.