The Psychology of...

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