Emotional Imprints - Teaching Empathy Institute
Teaching Empathy Institute works to establish emotionally and physically safe learning communities for elementary, middle and high school students and the adults who work with them. Working in the Hudson Valley of New York, TEI creates tailor-made programs designed to foster dialogue about social culture building while strengthening the capacity for the infusion of empathy and compassion into all aspects of the learning experience.
Teaching Empathy Institute, SEL, Social and emotional learning, mindfulness, diversity, education, bullying, anti-bullying, k-12, learning, david levine, school of belonging, belonging, school safety
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Emotional Imprints

The origin of our value system

Wisdom is harder to do than it is to know.

-Yula Moses

Emotional Imprints; The origin of our value system

(taken from the course A Year of Belonging)

READ:

We learn personal values at a very young age from the people and events that surround us.  The effects of these experiences are known as emotional imprinting, and they lay the architecture for the emotional structure of our lives. An imprint, like a tattoo, is a forever phenomenon. Imprints are non-negotiable and are most profound in the first fifteen years of life. They take the form of value statements or family mores and belief systems. Through the years, our imprints are embedded on our psyche; we are often unaware that they even exist.

LISTEN:

(If you do not see the audio player above, you may access the podcast directly by using this link: A Year of Belonging: Imprints)

REFLECT:

Again, the goal is not so much to change your imprints, but to make yourself aware of them. Even if upon reflection you reject certain imprints or belief systems from your childhood, in times of stress you often will return to what is most familiar, not necessarily what makes the most sense or what new beliefs you have come to.

THE IMPRINT MODEL

The Imprint Model provides a view into the complexities of relationships. When communicating with another person, one of two results will occur: success or failure.  If we follow the late Stephen Covey’s habit, to begin with the end in mind, in order to achieve success when interacting with another person, (student, colleague, parent, family member), it is a Belonging best practice to reflect on one’s emotional imprints. Many imprints are invisible to us and they are non-negotiable, meaning we did not choose them. We can, however, choose to do the work in identifying them and managing them as they occur.

PLAN: Inner Focus Imprint Action Plan

Create your own Imprint Action Plan:

  1. Identify one behavior (imprint) you wish to be more mindful of.
  2. Describe your current behavior (what do you do now?  How do you feel when you act this way?)
  3. Describe the desired behavior (what would it look like if you were behaving differently [ie. successfully]? How would it feel?)
  4. What is the benefit of making the change? (What do you want to have happen as a result of the change?)