Emotional Honesty & Self-Acceptance

Emotional Honesty & Self-Acceptance offers a compelling rationale for parent, adolescent and adult emotional education. By learning and practicing the principles of emotional honesty, parents can raise more resilient children, adolescents can gain greater confidence by knowing and trusting their feelings, and adults can develop more fulfilling and emotionally intimate relationships. These same skills can prevent hurt feelings from erupting into destructive behavior aimed at ourselves and others.. Ronald Brill describes the dangerous consequences of emotional dishonesty (EDH), the self-deceptive process of lying to ourself about what we feel. He calls EDH an emotional protection racket that is particularly alluring to adolescents. Rather than truly protect us, however, EDH often disables feelings and intensifies distress. This book offers parents and educators basic information necessary for practicing and teaching emotional honesty as a healthy way of handling everyday hurt feelings. Here in non-technical terms is an “emotional road map” for navigating the perilous path of adolescence. It is also useful for understanding emotional issues that can sabotage happiness and relationships. By honoring what we really feel, we can become more accepting of ourself and others. The emotionalhonesty.com web site has more on this subject.Vital information for: parents, educators, counselors, adolescents; law enforcement & violence prevention personnel

Emotional honesty involves listening and attending to the meaning of each hurt feeling. Children and adults can learn this process of naming and disarming emotional wounds so they do not accumulate and become infected with shame, fear, and anger. Emotional honesty helps to prevent violent and self-destructive responses to emotional pain that threaten to tear apart ourselves and our society. Rather than focus on violence-proofing schools, Brill advocates using schools to violence-proof children. By learning to accept rather than judge feelings, we honor our feelings and ourselves. Self-accepting persons have no need to harm themselves or others. They have no reason to punish others or themselves for their painful feelings.