What’s My Affective Filter?

How often do you look in the mirror, and tell yourself something depressing….too fat, too skinny, too wrinkled, too many pimples, hair is not pretty, not the right color…….

How often do you look in the mirror, and tell yourself something encouraging…looking good, looking confident, looking happy, looking content…looking alive!

Learning is all around us! But when our “affective filter” is up, we block the possibility of positive inspirational and motivational signals of learning that come our way. Your “affective filter” gets triggered by increase stress, anxiety, depression, and reduced confidence. Your every fiber of being and nervous system is now set in a “non-receiving” mode.

Children are not in control of their affective filter as adults are. Their filter is often triggered by situational or environmental conditions for example, trying to learn information they are not ready to receive like learning a new subject or language, a new school, a new teacher, or someone being mean, all creating a stressful situation, and the child goes into protection mode, and raises their filter.

You can help yourself or a child, lower their affective filter by using encouraging words. Talk to them, or to yourself, about how this is a temporary challenge that you can learn about and overcome. The anxiety that they feel is a natural reaction, but you can help them see the situation by breaking it down to smaller steps, simpler ideas or in a different context.

You can help someone increase their ability to learn by communicating and increasing trust that the situation is safe, and learning will be a positive experience.