Thursday, January 5, 2017

Food For Thought: Looking forward to a great 2017 at ISHCMC

Dear all,

Hope you have all had a fantastic vacation and are ready to set ISHCMC on fire for the second half of the year. You can afford to blitz the first three weeks we are back because we have Tet looming at the end of January. 




This is a long Food for Thought, but i would really like everyone to read through the articles and watch the videos. I want our work with students on positive behaviour, language and thinking, through mindfulness and our own control of negative thinking to be an area of focus for the second half of the year. If we are going to make a difference to our students, that counters the constant bombardment of negativity that they receive from the press, media and reported news, I believe it has to be deliberate and consistent across the School. This effort cannot be haphazard or random and needs all of us to contribute and reflect upon our own modeling. If we get this right we will all feel better and ISHCMC would be an even more special place to work and learn.




The more research that appears regarding positive behavior it becomes obvious how important this is for both ourselves and our students. In this article from the Huffington post, How Complaining Rewires Your Brain For Negativity, a logical rational is created for looking on the bight side and avoiding taking the easy route of thinking negatively about events that occur in and around us each day. this article concludes by giving us strategies to find the positive in our everyday lives. As we continue to understand positive emotions it would be a good exercise to try to think positively and not complain and to try and be more grateful for what we have in our lives.

This second article from the NY Times builds on the Huffington post article and challenges us to take better control of our thoughts and stop allowing negativity to dominate how we see our daily lives and the world about us. 





Kathy Osborn

"Here’s a New Year’s challenge for the mind: Make this the year that you quiet all those negative thoughts swirling around your brain.
All humans have a tendency to be a bit more like Eeyore than Tigger, to ruminate more on bad experiences than positive ones. It’s an evolutionary adaptation that helps us avoid danger and react quickly in a crisis.
But constant negativity can also get in the way of happiness, add to our stress and worry level and ultimately damage our health. And some people are more prone to negative thinking than others. Thinking styles can be genetic or the result of childhood experiences, said Judith Beck, a psychologist and the president of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy in Bala Cynwyd, Pa. Children may develop negative thinking habits if they have been teased or bullied, or experienced blatant trauma or abuse. Women, overall, are also more likely to ruminate than men, according to a 2013 study.
“We were built to overlearn from negative experiences, but under learn from positive ones,” said Rick Hanson, a psychologist and senior fellow at the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley."


Why for you:


Why for our students:


Wishing you all a great 2017 in which you all flourish,

Yours
Adrian

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