Understanding emotions as part of meaningful aging

Comprender las emociones para envejecer con sentido: una invitación a nuestra próxima jornada

En los últimos años, cada vez más investigaciones coinciden en algo fundamental: comprender nuestras emociones y cultivar competencias emocionales es clave para un buen envejecer. Aunque llevamos toda la vida sintiendo, no siempre sabemos poner nombre a lo que nos ocurre. Como decían Fehr y Russell, “todo el mundo sabe lo que es una emoción hasta que se le pide que la defina”.

Understanding emotions as part of meaningful aging

Understanding emotions to age meaningfully: an invitation to our next conference

In recent years, more and more research has agreed on something fundamental: understanding our emotions and cultivating emotional skills is key to aging well. Although we have been feeling all our lives, we do not always know how to name what is happening to us. As Fehr and Russell said, “everyone knows what an emotion is until they are asked to define it.”

Since 2017, Matia Instituto and Afundación have been exploring this reality through the “Understanding Emotions” program, a pioneering project that was born from a hypothesis: if we create the conditions for people to understand what is happening to them and give them the tools to make changes in their daily lives, they will be able to improve their emotional world and their day-to-day well-being.

A program co-created from the outset and based on evidence

The program has been designed following a people-centered design methodology, in which the participants themselves have shaped the content, focus, and pace of learning. After a process of piloting, testing, and redesign, a training itinerary was consolidated that has now been implemented in 25 entities, with more than 500 participants from whom we have collected feedback on its impact.

And what people tell us confirms the value of this initiative:

"We learned a language, tools that we may not have been so clear about or only had part of, or it depends on each person, right? [...] Now, because we have confidence and we have tools, they have provided us with the tools and we have gotten to know each other. (Participant 5).

“These experiences help you get through each day, the joy, the excitement, the fear, the anxiety that tie you down in your daily life. That's what has enriched me. [...] Participating in the course has benefited me. I've always been looking for that balance.” (Participant 21)

"It changed, because by keeping the sessions in mind during the week, I was assimilating what had been discussed and... coming here already made me happy, and then I left, I left the sessions much calmer, I took it with me, and when I put it into practice, it also made me happy. [...] Seeing everything more positively, searching, finding a way out, finding something. Well, that was very valuable to me. (Participant 14).

The repeated interest of the participants and the perceived benefits have led us to continue this program, co-creating at different times the responses to the needs that both the participants and the facilitators detect. These needs are as diverse as delving into issues such as loneliness or relational conflicts, loss and grief, or the need to address emotions in care settings.

A day to share, learn, and look ahead

This March, we will celebrate a very special day, where experts will share with us trends in aging and care, as well as findings on meaningful aging, which challenges the more normative models of active aging and vindicates the richness of meaningful bonds, continuity of identity, and emotional validation.

We will combine this content with the results of the program's implementation experience with our network of facilitators and in care settings, listening to the experiences of participants, facilitators, and experts.

If you want to hear about the experiences of the people involved firsthand, discover practical resources for well-being, or simply reflect on how to build a more meaningful life in old age, this conference is for you.

Check out the conference program and register here: