【推荐1】The teenage years are a transformative period marked by great physical, psychological, and emotional changes.     1     They refer to the feelings that arise during interactions with others, such as gratitude, shame, sympathy, guilt, and pride.

Understanding and managing social emotions can help develop teenagers’ identities. Teenagers experience a wide range of emotions from social interactions, which significantly influences their self-understanding and social awareness. In the process, they learn to understand, and appropriately respond to both their own emotions and those of others.     2    

In academic settings, social emotional competencies like self-regulation, motivation, and social awareness directly impact a teenager’s ability to learn, participate, and engage in school activities.     3     Teenagers with strong social emotional skills are better equipped to handle stress, resist peer pressure, and avoid risky behaviors, reducing the likelihood of developing mental health issues.

Learning social emotions involves a combination of personal experience, guidance, and formal education.     4     This environment influences teenagers’ earliest understanding of how to communicate and manage their emotions. They feel safe and supportive to express their emotions freely and learn to manage them without fear of judgment. Schools also play a significant role through social emotional learning programs that teach these skills in a structured environment. Community involvement, extracurricular activities, and peer (同伴) interactions offer additional opportunities for teenagers to practice and refine their social emotional skills.

    5     It contributes to a teenager’s ability to manage their own emotions, understand others’ emotions, and face social complexities. This learning is a cornerstone for shaping their identity, influencing their interpersonal relationships, academic success, mental health, and future life outcomes.

【推荐2】It’s all right to cry. Really. Although it’s often seen as a sign of weakness, crying can be just what the doctor ordered for sorting through chaotic(混乱的)emotions and cheering up.

Our general disapproval of emotional expression and crying specifically stems from childhood, said Stephen Sideroff, an assistant professor. As kids, we’re often taught to restrain(抑制)our emotions. Maybe you remember being teased in elementary school for crying when you were hurt. Many of us learned there were feelings, such as anger or resentment, that we shouldn’t have or express. As children grow into adulthood, we gradually learn to regulate our feelings. So what, you might say? Who cares? But we don’t hold emotions in only our heads, Sideroff said. We store them in our bodies, too.

Holding back your feelings can hurt. “These feelings have energy,” Sideroff explained. “You (then) have to restrain them in different ways.” That interferes with natural processes and creates imbalances since the body’s need is still there. If you’re sad or hurt or angry, you need to find something to resolve that imbalance. If you don’t, you might express those imbalanced feelings in inappropriate ways—like lashing out at(猛烈抨击)your family or friends. Emotional restraint can limit our ability to experience positive feelings, such as joy and love, as well.

Generally, the three types of tears include emotional tears, which result from strong feelings such as joy or sadness. Basal tears lubricate(润滑)your eyes. Reflex tears release when dust or onion oxides annoy your eyes. Humans are the only animals who cry into adulthood and have emotional tears.

People often report feeling better after they cry. That could be because crying forces us to pay attention to what triggered(触发)us and work through our emotions and thoughts. Crying might also help in understanding what’s important to us, especially if we cry over something that upsets us unexpectedly.