...Learning about frustration seemed like a good place for a boy to begin his lessons in emotion. There’s something very male about frustration. In my counseling practice, I’ve heard women use a wonderful variety of words to identify their feelings. But men tend to describe a wide range of feelings with one simple word: frustration. I’ve tried to help men expand their feeling vocabularies by providing them with printed lists words such as angry, hurt, afraid, vulnerable and embarrassed, encouraging them to look over the list and select the word which best describes the emotion they are feeling at the moment. Most men look over the list carefully, then they pick a single word: frustration. For me, the exercise is entirely, you know, frustrating...

Tags: communications & discipline