The Psychology of...

[This is the Spanish version of a post I wrote last year entitled " How to have a Merry Christmas "]  Llevo 2 años ense ñ ando la psicología positiva a niños de la escuela primaria. Lo siguiente es una compilación de los consejos infantiles sobre “Como pasar una feliz navidad” 1)      Comer conscientemente – No hay nada que más me anime que la comida navideña. Pozole y tamales la nochebuena, pescado y pasta, la carne asada, y los dulces, ¡por favor! Sobre comer es una tradición honrada en mi casa. Pero ¿Por qué voy a deshonrar la comida más deliciosa del año al comérmela con prisa y sin atención? Comer despacio y con intención nos ayuda a gozarnos de la comida más que nunca pero también, y quizá más importante, nos ayuda a mejor incrustar la significancia a nuestra memoria, para así poder seguir disfrutándola en el futuro. 2)      Meditar – Es una ocasión especial cuando tú y 25 niños de 6 años se disfrutan del silencio por 5 minutes. Mis alumnos recomiendan

We human beings are safer now than we ever have been in the history of humans being. Yet we are also the most anxious that we have ever been. What gives? It doesn't seem like the threat matches the response. Here is my opinion on the matter, thank you for asking. First, I need to preface this rant by asserting that there IS such a thing as biologically caused anxiety. The right genetics + neurochemistry + neurological structure + environmental input (eg. health & nutrition) = generalized anxiety disorders that can often be remedied by medication, exercise, nutrition, and relaxation. Second, there is also anxiety that is a direct result of maladaptive thinking patterns which through cognitive therapy can be unlearned, thus allowing the symptoms of anxiety to be managed and often eliminated. Having anxiety without symptoms is another way of saying you are a healthy, adaptive, average human being. Neither of these two epidemiologies, in my humble opinion, account for the

This summer I gained an increased sense of reverence and respect for the First World War. I listened to Dan Carlin's 6-part program on the war entitled, "A Blueprint for Armageddon". I realized that my knowledge of the two world wars had a real American bias that came from movies and literature. There are not many blockbuster movies about The Great War, primarily because the U.S. did not play as significant a role in it and no major production company is going to bank on a movie that extols the heroism of the Canadians in Vimy Ridge or the Australians in Gallipoli. In any event, I learned that I had a lot to learn about World War I and I also learned that it was horrible. This Remembrance Day I have reflected on the accounts of trench warfare, gas attacks, and years of painful and miserable stalemates and my first reaction was, "couldn't they have done something else? Was this just prideful, evil men who were willing to let their people suffer and die just to

It's World Mental Health Day and I wanted to quickly share my opinions on how we can all engineer our lives so that we can improve our psychological well-being. I chose the term 'engineer' because I think we often feel like our mental health is either fatalistically determined by our genes or our current life situation, in either case giving us little hope for any sort of change. While those are significant factors in our well-being there is still plenty of intervention within our realm of control and influence that can result in a higher quality of life. The first set of engineering tips have to do with building up and investing in family and community . I use these terms loosely to represent both our core and peripheral social networks. By family I refer to a dense group of 2-10 people who are your primary sources of attachment, connection, and safety. Within a family you would hopefully find mutual respect and affection. Healthy families have a set culture of stan

As a child (and as a not so young anymore child) one of my favourite past-times has been fantasy sports. Whether through trading cards, action figures, or video games I would design the ultimate starting lineup. In honour of World Teacher's Day I have compiled my fantasy teaching team. I am taking a handful of my most desired experts to teach me each of the typical school subjects. I would love for this to be a "thing" and I'm curious about what your choices are. Have a read and then share this post on your feeds. This could be an interesting conversation. Thank you teachers for all you do! STEM (Sciences, Technology, Engineering, Math) Neil de Grasse Tyson , renowned astrophysicist and science advocate has both the depth of knowledge and a unique ability to explain complex scientific theory to the lay person like myself. If you have watched Cosmos or his interviews with Stephen Colbert you will see that he is an engaging speaker that would turn science class int

"Saying I taught it but they didn't learn is the same as saying I sold it but they didn't buy." Thomas Guskey image from pbs.org What is self-regulation Self-regulation is the name of the game in education these days. A large portion of our students have the basic skills and intelligence to do their school work and learn at a reasonable rate but are hindered by the lack of skills in the area of "self-regulation". There are many definitions of this term that you can find but the gist is that it is the ability control one's emotions and behaviours in order meet the challenges of day-to-day life. Dr. Stuart Shanker  defines it more specifically as thus: Self-Regulation  refers to how people manage energy expenditure, recovery and restoration in order to enhance growth. Effective self-regulation requires learning to recognize and respond to stress in all its many facets, positive as well as negative, hidden as well as overt, minor as well as

Can you recall a time when you felt attacked? Maybe it was a physical attack if you were so unfortunate but I'm primarily thinking of an attack of a more emotional variety. Recall the visceral response of defense that was triggered in your body. Your desire to find safety through either running away and hiding or striking back with equal or greater force than what was originally thrust upon you. Were you able then to identify the limits of your humanity as you sought or at least fantasized about retribution? Are you able to recall those extremes today? When we are hurt, backed up against a wall, scared; we have a defense strategy that typically lies dormant underneath layers of personality and humanity that, when surfaced, is capable of remarkably terrible behaviour. Our fear can incite and invoke our fiercest monsters. The monsters of some lie closer to the surface that those of others but rest assured we all have them and they when they arise they are looking for conflict becau

Click  here  to see my ten minute video on some back to school goals that lead to flourishing.

                                                                                                   ***********disclaimer********** I have never personally spent a nickel on multi level marketing products or businesses, I am just annoyed as you are at the vague sales pitches or when you get invited over for a social visit only to discover you're being sold a "once in a lifetime opportunity" to sell snake oil, and I ignore 99% of the Facebook posts. But my wife is involved with a direct sales company and is doing remarkably well and I can't help  but be very proud and supportive of her hard work, even if it's at the cost of annoying some of our friends. These are my biases. Continue to read if you dare. Here we go. So first things first, I believe that people have the right to be called what they want to be called. My name is Zac. Please call me Zac. The Canadian indigenous wish to be called First Nations etc. Some people complain that this is political corr

If there is one thing that Ayn Rand and Che Guevara would ever agree on is that we consume too much in relation to how much we produce. I doubt that there are many of us that could accurately estimate how much media we truly consume. We could track our internet, television, and radio use to the minute but still not even scratch the surface of how much and what exactly we have consumed in a day. We can do our best to limit, manage, and filter what comes through our eyes and ears but it is inevitable that we are going to partake in information and art that was made and delivered by somebody else. So as I lay my case against consumerism I have to concede that we are all consumers and anything that we eventually do produce needs the consumers' support. I think that if and when consumers truly unite we would hold the power to make the ultimate difference in our world but uniting the consumer to do anything beyond spending their hard earned money on cheaply made clothes and food is ap