Help Your Child Develop a Positive Attitude: Here’s How

Jerry Daskoski's image of a little girl looking surprisedPositive thinking as a medical practice has grown in popularity in recent years. Research shows that optimism goes far beyond the idea of a glass being half full or empty, and can, in fact, be the difference in managing stress and the ailments which comes as a result, like heart disease, digestive issues, headaches, and insomnia. While adults understand this concept well, extending it to children is not as common; nevertheless, it certainly makes sense to lay a foundation for these practices and develop positive mindsets in children as early as possible, rather than undoing the harm later in life.

While some may believe that children can’t understand positive thinking as a concept, research shows that children as young as five begin to make associations of behaviors and emotion and, through cognition, can decipher how certain situations make them or others feel, whether positive, negative or indifferent. Furthermore, as children grow, they become better with those associations. Those in whom positive thinking is nurtured are said to be more resilient and better able to deal with upsets.

The importance of such cannot be overstated. Being able to manage stress will ultimately lead to more successful opportunities, relationships and better overall health, over time. Here are some ways parents and professionals who work with children can introduce positive thinking:

Be An Example
Children mimic nearly everything adults do. Their behaviors are learned as a result of what we say or how we act in front of them, whether we’re aware of it or not. Thus, this is one of the first and perhaps most important tool through which one can affect his or her child’s positive mindset. Having already established, or at least committing to, a set personal positive practices makes this step easy.

Count  Blessings
It’s important to have conversations with your child about what he or she is feeling or their experiences throughout the day. First, listen attentively to what the child has to say in full. While doing so, take note of every emotion. Acknowledge all of the bad feelings or experiences, they are important; however, probe the child about what good happened to them today, no matter how small. If there are no good things, suggest some which the child may have overlooked. Doing so may help the child recall them going forward, leading to more positivity overtime.

Affirmations
There is no doubt that parents love their children and have appreciation for small behaviors or characteristics which their children display. Affirming the child with what makes them great or when they accomplish a task goes a long way. This step is as simple as expressing to the child that he or she is smart, handsome, kind, or a number of other positive affirmations. It helps.

Prohibit Complaining
There’s a huge difference between expressing discontent and complaining. Discourage your child from complaining about behavior; instead, empower them to develop solutions to what is bothering them. Doing so teaches children that even when negatives things occur, countering them with positive actions puts them in control, helping them gain more independence and control of their own lives.

Positive Thinking Books To Add To Your Library

Reading is fundamental, but it can also be helpful in a variety of ways, especially if you’re doing so to learn more about adopting new behaviors. Currently, there are a number of books from different authors available in the self-help positive thinking landscape. Some are more popular than others, thanks to the likes of Oprah, who have brought the genre to popular culture. Still, there are some which you may not have heard of or, maybe, have not heard enough about. Thus, I’d like to share with you all 10 books that range from positive thinking to examples of  how being aware of thoughts can better affect your life. All of these books can be found and purchased online. Click the picture below to view the list:

Jerry Daskoski's cover for his presentation on positive books

3 Secrets to Successful Snoozing: Improve your Sleep for a Better Day

Family SleepingEach day brings about a new adventure. Whether your waking hours involve thriving at school, succeeding at work, keeping the household running smoothly, or some combination of all that and more, one thing is certain – to do your best, you need to feel your best. To accomplish that end, you will need to be rested. This is a simple truth that all of us can attest to anecdotally. Everyone is well aware of how much longer a day can feel when you start it feeling groggy and unprepared on the wrong foot. However, what many people completely undervalue, is how severe the consequences can still be when your lack of sleep persists in a less dramatic fashion.

If you stay up all night, the negative impacts are obvious. However, cheating yourself out of an hour or two of sleep each day until it becomes a habit yields equally destructive results. In contrast, prioritizing your sleep and well-being can be nothing short of transformative in your ability to be productive, sharp, emotionally balanced, and full of energy. Here are three tips to help you maintain the highest possible level of cognitive function and achieve your best self by knowing when it is time to making snoozing your number one mission.

Consistency is Key

Identifying and committing to your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle (called your circadian rhythm) is a crucial strategy in achieving deeply restorative sleep. Going to sleep and getting up at the same time every day will help you feel refreshed, significantly more so than if you were to hit the same raw numbers of hours asleep but at dramatically different times. Shifting by as little as one or two hours is enough to throw your body off. So, it is essential to establish good habits and defend them against all the curveballs of life. Set a regular bedtime and do your very best to not break this routine. That includes on weekends, when it may be more tempting to stay up late. By the same logic, also wake up at the same time. You will know you are getting enough sleep because you biological alarm clock will soon set itself. If you find you are unable to get up without the alarm, you likely need to turn in a little early the night before. If you do end up needing a nap, it is better to take one during the afternoon, rather than sleeping in late and thus disrupting your circadian rhythm.

Build the Right Habits

Your body naturally regulates your sleep-wake cycle through the production of a hormone called melatonin, which is controlled by light exposure. Your brain produces more melatonin in the evening, when it is dark, and thus makes you sleep. Alternatively, you produce less during the daytime when the sun is out and you need to alert. The vast advances in modern technology, however, have made it increasingly easy to disrupt melatonin production and thus your circadin rhythm. For example, spending all day away from natural light because you are working in a dark office can alter your wakefulness. On the other hand, exposure to the bright lights of TV, phone, computer, and tablet screens that extends late into the night can suppress melatonin production and keep you wide awake.

To counter these challenges, increase your exposure to natural light during the day. Try to spend more time outside when possible and let as much natural light as possible into your home and workplace. In the evening, turn off all your technology well before bedtime. Many people enjoy relaxing with a TV show or social media session before bed, but this is a mistake because they can be overly stimulating. Instead, listen to music or an audio book. Before sure your room is sufficiently dark and, if you do have to wake up, use a flashlight instead of turning on all your home’s lights to keep your light exposure in the late evening to a minimum.

Treat Your Body Right

Much like how you sleep during the night can affect what you are able to do throughout the day, how you spend your waking hours very much impact how well you sleep. It is especially critical to be aware of what you put into your body leading up to bedtime. Avoid large meals at night and avoid heavy, rich foods within two hours of when you get into bed. Fatty foods require a substantial amount of energy to digest and can therefore keep your body working hard, which will make it harder for you to get to sleep. Similarly, imbibing alcohol before bed might make you fall asleep better but it reduces the quality of that sleep since your body is up and busy processing it. Cut out caffeine as much as possible, especially after noon, given that it can have a measurable chemical impact as much as ten to twelve hours after you consume it. Drinking too many liquids at all before bed is also a sure way to have you waking up throughout the night to relieve yourself, so avoid too much drinking of any kind before bedtime as well.

Your Sleep is Worth It

It can seem counterintuitive that going to bed, which you have likely done just about every single day of your life, stands to benefit so significantly with just a little conscious effort on your part. However, the positive impact of building excellent sleep habits cannot be understated. Put your mental and physical health first by making great sleep a priority.

Treating Anxiety

Anxiety–what is it?Jerry Daskoski

It’s a feeling of worry, of nervousness or unease, most likely in regards to an imminent event, or something out of your own control. Often associated with panic attacks, obsessive thoughts, unrelenting worries, and incapacitating phobias, approximately 40 million Americans aged 18 and older suffer from anxiety disorders.

Myriad therapies cater to the needs of those experiencing anxiety, such as cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure therapy, giving those who suffer the tools to manage anxiety and stress levels, worrisome thoughts, and debilitating fears.

Therapy vs. Medication

Anxiety medication, though widely prescribed, isn’t nearly as effective as anxiety-targeted therapy. This is because therapy, unlike medication, addresses more than just the current symptoms presenting themselves. With therapy, you’re able to uncover underlying causes of your anxieties and fears and find the best tools to manage them in real-world situations.

Because anxiety disorders differentiate vastly, from a driver’s phobia of bridges to a war veteran experiencing PTSD, therapy can be tailored specifically to fit your symptoms as well as your individual needs. The most popular courses of treatment are cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure therapy, and are relatively short-term, with people showing significant improvement after 8 to 10 sessions, according to the American Psychological Association.

 

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)

The most widely-used course of treatment for anxiety disorders, it has proven effective in helping those suffering from panic disorder, phobias, social anxiety disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder, among others.

Addressing negative patterns and distortions in the way we view ourselves and the world around us, CBT involves two main components: cognitive therapy and behavior therapy. The first examines the relationship between negative thoughts and anxiety, while the latter examines how behaviors and reactions to situations trigger anxiety.

Exercises associated with CBT often involve: learning to recognize your own anxiety and what it feels like both emotionally and physically, adopting coping skills and relaxation techniques to cope with and overcome feelings of anxiety and panic, and confronting real and/or imaginary fears.

Exposure therapy

Experiencing feelings of anxiety is no walk in the park. In fact, for some, it’s completely debilitating. It’s only natural that those who experience it try to avoid triggers as much as humanly possible.

The problem there is that people tend to miss out on a lot, and by avoiding these triggers of anxiety and fear, they remain unconfronted, thus holding power over you and your everyday life.

Exposure therapy does exactly what the name suggests: exposes you to the cause of your fear, whether it be an object or situation. The rationale behind the treatment is that through repeated exposure, participants will gain back control and the power their anxiety and fear once held. Exposure therapy can be conducted on its own, or in collaboration with cognitive behavioral therapy.

These confrontations can happen either hypothetically, in therapy, or out in the real world. Typically, these confrontations start on a small scale step-by-step approach called systematic desensitization, which allows you to gradually challenge fears while building confidence and mastering coping strategies.

Other therapies

While discovering underlying factors and coping mechanisms in anxiety therapy, there are complimentary therapies to help manage overall stress levels you can practice in order to help achieve emotional balance:

Exercise naturally releases hormones that combat stress and anxiety, and research has shown that as little as 30 minutes of exercise three to five times per week has a significant impact on improving anxiety levels.

Practicing relaxation techniques (like mindfulness meditation, progressive muscle relaxation, controlled breathing and visualization) on a regular basis is shown to reduce anxiety and increase levels of relaxation and emotional well-being. It doesn’t hurt that it’s also completely free.

Using sensors that measure specific physiological functions, otherwise known as biofeedback, helps you become more in-tune with how stress and anxiety affects your body, how to recognize it, and control it. Heart rate, breathing, and muscle tension are just some of the physical indicators.

Make it work for you

Anxiety and stress doesn’t go away in a day, it requires time and commitment. Practicing exposure therapy and uncovering underlying causes of your anxiety might make you feel worse before you feel better, but it’s key to stick to your treatment and work together with your therapist. Remember, therapy is giving you tools to manage your anxiety and fears on a long-term scale; it’s not meant to be a quick fix.

You can support your own therapy by making positive, healthy lifestyle choices daily. This includes learning about anxiety and your anxiety in particular, maintaining positive connections with people (family, friends, your therapist, support-groups, etc.), as well as eating healthy and exercising regularly.

10 Mindful Habits for the Work Place

Here are 10 Mindful Habits that Will Make Your work-flow more productive

Recently mindfulness has become increasingly popular amongst various professions, executives and age groups. Mindfulness mediation has been proven to increase memory, awareness and reduce the impact that negative thinking can have on your mind and body.

Mindfulness doesn’t always consist of committing to some sort of Transcendental meditation group or signing up for a yearly membership at your local yoga studio. There are plenty of simple daily habits that you can engage in in order to make you more productive and happier at work.

Here are 10 Easy Practices from Shamash Alidina and Juliet Adams new book “Mindfulness at Work for Dummies

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Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-use-mindfulness-at-work-2015-6?op=1#ixzz3buoFh2ou