When at the age of thirty I learned how to deal with my emotions for the first time my immediate reaction was: Ï should have known this when I was fifteen - this could have prevented of lot of personal misery". The truth is that I should have learned how to handle them much earlier in life. In "Joost is happy: talking with young kids about emotions" children are taught how they can handle their emotions effectively from an early age on.

The consequence is that kids react as follows: "It was not so bad that Joost was in a fight because it made him look funny ", says Meintje (5). "When I feel something like a black circle in my tummy it means I am angry and I take it out, turn it round and it becomes a purple-pink circle. I make the pink go round and round. Then I put it back into my tummy and I feel all happy again ! The donkey-ears (ass-ears is misschien iets te populair?) I liked best! At school when a kid is nasty to me I imagine her suddenly looking different, like a baby in a dirty diaper or so! And then I start laughing out loud. The two girls first bulllying me all the time are now nice to me every day. And I like them a lot again . "

Joost van der Leij is an international NLP coach trained by the founder of NLP , dr. Richard Bandler. From his 'Institute of Unconventional Wisdom' he offers NLP training in the Netherlands, Belgium and the United States. He is a member of the Society of NLP.