This past Sunday, we continued our study of the Power of Understanding, which is to learn, to perceive, and (ultimately) to connect with another through curiosity. We also continued working on our spiral collage by looking through magazines and other material for images that remind us of Unity' 5 Principles. AND we talked about the Divine Spaciousness between Affect and Emotion. This topic was a heady and hearty one.
"Affect" can be defined as the bodily sensations of an experience. "Emotion" is the culturally specific word or phrase describing that sensation. "Affect" is the individual's nervous system - as well as the "energetic" co-regulation between two or more people - responding to the environment. "Emotion" is the phrase or word attributed to the sensation by that individual's culture. For example, we looked up the english word for the feeling of "nostalgia" in arabic (حنين للماضي / "hanin lilmadi") and koren (노스탤지어 / "noseutaeljieo"). We shared that in Brazilian Portuguese, there is the word saudade, or "an emotional state of melancholic or profoundly nostalgic longing for a beloved yet absent someone or something."
From this thesis of affect <=> emotion, it was posited that the distance between the sensation and the logical word are connected by a spaciousness of Understanding. The other ways we have talked about this are "resonance", "attunement", or "co-regulation". But today, specifically in the YFM's lesson, we called it "Divine Understanding." For if we can sit "in between" the sensation and the word, or in the distance between the Affect and the Emotion, we can invite God in; and we can witness the Christ within; AND we can honor the communal experience of our Diving Understanding.
[ I will admit this language you've read above wasn't spoken aloud to the children. But there was a palpable feeling in the room, which resonated with Understanding. ]
WHAT'S HAPPENING NEXT SUNDAY?
Join us to dive deeper into Understanding ourselves in the context of Unity with each other and with God/Divinity.
Mark your calendars for our first Youth and Family Movie Night on Friday, July 17! Doors open at 5:00pm, food at 5:30 and the movie "Flow" starts at 5:45! LEARN MORE HERE
We invite you to join us at Unity Center of Peace on Sundays at 11:00am with your younger family members. While you enjoy our Celebration Service in the sanctuary, they will benefit from participating in our robust, loving, nurturing curriculum for children and youth.All programs are age-appropriate and are led by our carefully selected, and fully background checked, Spiritual Education staff members.
Our YFM rooms are in the upstairs part of the building and Sunday School resides from 11am-12:10pm. Please be sure to sign your child in using the clipboard on the door. Near the end of service, the children will be brought downstairs by the Youth Ed teacher to give a brief announcement about what they did and what they learned and to receive a special UCP blessing by the minister and congretation. We currently do not have a program for teens (Y.O.U). Teens are encouraged to sit in the Sunday Service with their parents at this time.
OUR YFM VISION STATEMENT We envision young people growing up with a clear grasp of their spiritual nature and power, living from their ability to make a difference in the world, to express love, to choose kindness, to relate authentically, and to model spiritual values.
MORE about our Youth Education Director (YED), Shannon Preto
