This article kind of blew me away today with its simplicity and relevance. We often see children act out and react accordingly. But did we ever think of teaching them about emotions and how to recognize how they’re feeling before they act out? Smart idea!

An educational approach known as social and emotional learning (SEL), being implemented in individual schools—and now, for the first time, whole districts—has proven effective at simultaneously improving students’ academic performance, behavior, and well-being.

SEL prescribes approaching students as complex human beings whose learning and behavior are just as impacted by their emotions—and their control over those emotions—as they are by the quality of instruction and discipline. Recognizing that intellectual and emotional faculties develop symbiotically, the approach involves teaching students how to recognize and talk about their feelings, empathize with others, and resolve conflicts peacefully as a way to strengthen both academic achievement and emotional stability.

SEL students exhibited markedly improved social and emotional skills, attitudes, and behavior, compared to similar peers who were not enrolled in SEL programs.

For example, the PATHs (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies) program teaches self-regulation to early elementary students with the “Turtle Technique,” which involves using self-talk to inwardly analyze emotions and come up with ways to express oneself other than acting out. Young students learn this technique through trainings on identifying and labeling emotions and using specific strategies to manage them.

Read more here.

Imagine what could happen if instead of focusing on worst-case scenarios and fears, we put our attention on what we deeply desire and are working toward?

Whether you are for or against the Occupy Wall Street movement, one thing can be agreed on: people have the power to make change globally. If you believe in what these groups are doing around the world, help them in whatever way possible. Here are some suggestions.

We cannot go on expecting solutions to come from the political and economic elites who ride in limousines with security guards. They are not exposed to the impacts of their policies, so the feedback loop has been broken by the concentration of wealth and power in a few hands. This is why so many people are out in the streets demanding a transition from the dominant system (guns and money) to a new system that will give social justice and environmental restoration a higher priority than corporate profit-making.

By Kevin Danaher – Co-Founder,  Global Exchange

A friend of mine is struggling with a break-up. This once-considerate man she dated suddenly seems like a real creep, ignoring her and distancing himself from her as if she were a stranger. She’s mad, hurt. She doesn’t want to remember him like this. She wants someone to be gentle with her feelings even while parting.

A mentor of hers suggested this technique: remember the most loving moments you felt with that person. Feel them completely, to the depth of your bones. Relive them. Feel the natural pain that comes along with letting go of someone you felt so strongly about. Remember the love and let it lead the way to healing.

I also suggested she recognize that everyone has the right to handle separation their own way. Because someone is distancing themselves doesn’t necessarily mean he or she has no feelings for you. Everyone is allowed to cope in their own way and each way should be respected, even if you can only muster a little bit of it. Someone people open up and release emotions during a difficult time while others retract or reject the feelings they may be experiencing.

Remembering love when you’re angry is no easy task; this isn’t spacey new age advice meant as an emotional placebo. It simply means, amidst your pain and anger, remembering the goodness of a loved one and allowing that to move the process forward.

Besides, we are never truly separated. Our relationships, on one plane or the other, go on and on and on and on and on….

This is a touching piece based on a change of names and roles of 285 special girls in India:

Hundreds of Indian girls whose names mean “unwanted” in Hindi chose new names Saturday for a fresh start in life.

A central Indian district held a renaming ceremony it hopes will give the girls new dignity and help fight widespread gender discrimination that gives India a skewed gender ratio, with far more boys than girls.

The girls — wearing their best outfits with barrettes, braids and bows in their hair — lined up to receive certificates with their new names along with small flower bouquets from Satara district officials in Maharashtra state.

In shedding names like “Nakusa” or “Nakushi,” which mean “unwanted” in Hindi, some girls chose to name themselves after Bollywood stars like “Aishwarya” or Hindu goddesses like “Savitri.” Some just wanted traditional names with happier meanings, such as “Vaishali” or “prosperous, beautiful and good.”

Read more at MSNBC.

Anyone out there remember Wild Kingdom? Well, the host of that decades-old television show has taken it upon himself to make a worldwide difference to people in medical need. Kudos to this man and his flying-high medical organization, Remote Area Medical!

Letter From The Founder of Remote Area Medical Stan Brock

A half century or more ago, I was living in a part of the upper Amazon basin where health care was a 26-day march away on foot. I survived malaria, dengue fever, numerous wild animal attacks and various encounters with Longhorns and mustangs without the help of a doctor. Others were not so lucky and I buried a number of them. It occurred to me that designing an all-volunteer health and veterinary care program for such desolate places might make life easier for a whole lot of people. It took a few years to work out the concept, but in 1985, Remote Area Medical® was born. We have been called RAM ever since and in quite a few parts of the world, the appearance of a RAM Team means an opportunity for poor folks to get some real treatment free of charge from real doctors and veterinarians. But real doctors can’t do it without real help from nurses, technicians and all sorts of support people. In fact, over 26,000 of you have temporarily left your comfortable homes, jobs and families behind and signed up as RAM volunteers and about 300,000 patients are very glad you did.

Let’s take a moment of thanks and appreciation for the Occupy Wall Street protesters. You don’t have to agree with them. But they are exercising their rights as US citizens and taking a stand and attempting to make a positive change.

What can you do today to take a stand, no matter how small? Make a difference in your own life first and the ripple effect will occur. How can you instill in others around you the importance of standing up for your rights?

We all give lip service to self-care but do we really know how to practice it? And mean it? This article by Dr. Jennifer Kunst addresses the import of self care on yourself (obviously!) but on others as well:

We resist the art of self-care, perhaps because we get it confused with being selfish.  As children, many of us were taught that selfishness is a bad thing and we ought to put others first.  There’s great value in that, of course.  Concern for others is something that our mothers need to teach us, to help us grow out of the self-centeredness of childhood into the give-and-take of mature adulthood.  We have to be taught to share, to be generous, to make sacrifices for the needs of others.

But sometimes we take this too far and don’t place a high enough value on taking care of our own needs.  We hope that if we take care of the needs of others that the “others” will feel so grateful or so guilty that they will turn around and take care of our needs.  When they don’t, we get to feeling mighty resentful and mighty empty.

So, it turns out that we also need to be taught how to take care of ourselves.  We need to invest in nourishing our whole selves, and do so regularly.  We need to make time and space for relaxing the mind.  For stretching the body.  For opening the soul.

I find that this kind of self-care is harder to learn than it might seem at first.   But I think that if we can make a distinction between selfishness and self-care, we are well on our way to learning this life-giving lesson.My favorite analogy is offered at 35,000 feet high by your friendly, helpful flight attendant.   He or she gives some really helpful guidance.  If there is a sudden drop in cabin pressure, oxygen masks will drop from overhead compartments.  If you are caring for a child or someone else who needs your assistance, put your oxygen mask on first.  Then, since you will be alive and alert, you will have the capacity to help someone else.

It is not selfish to tend and care for your own life.  If you do take good care of yourself, everyone wins.  And if you don’t, who will?

by Jennifer L. Kunst, Ph.D.

Source: Psychology Today

Have you had your bath today?

Many of us are feeling a definite pinch in our pockets with a tenuous economy looming overhead like a black cloud. Many are in debt or are having difficulty finding a decent job to make ends meet. So today, we send some thoughts on prosperity your way:

He is now rising from affluence to poverty.
Mark Twain

Poverty is the worst form of violence.
Mohandas Gandhi

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.
Mother Teresa
Our life of poverty is as necessary as the work itself. Only in heaven will we see how much we owe to the poor for helping us to love God better because of them.
Mother Teresa

Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.
Mother Teresa

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life.
John F. Kennedy

Wars of nations are fought to change maps. But wars of poverty are fought to map change.
Muhammad Ali

Coming generations will learn equality from poverty, and love from woes.
Khalil Gibran

Poverty is a veil that obscures the face of greatness. An appeal is a mask covering the face of tribulation.
Khalil Gibran

In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. The young they keep out of mischief; to the old they are a comfort and aid in their weakness, and those in the prime of life they incite to noble deeds.
Aristotle

Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity.
Coco Chanel

Love conquers all things except poverty and toothache.
Mae West

In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.
Confucius

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.
Barack Obama

As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.
Henry David Thoreau

I worked my way up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.
Groucho Marx

You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humor in anything, even poverty, you can survive it.
Bill Cosby

Poverty is the mother of crime.
Marcus Aurelius

Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.
Woody Allen

Often we think of stress as some vague, amorphous “thing” that takes us over and we can do nothing about. But the power remains within us. Here are some easy changes to implement today that contribute to a stress-free lifestyle:

First, you need to learn how to organize your time. You may find keeping a schedule helpful so you will know when it’s time to say no to other commitments. Excessive demands on your time can put you in a lot of stress. Utilize shortcuts so you’ll have more time to do things and be less frantic. Also, you’ll have spare time to relax or do things that you enjoy.

Maintain an organized home and work environment. A cluttered space can give you additional stress and even drain your energy. Don’t make your environment a stressor. De-clutter and decorate your house or your workplace with things that gives you a soothing feeling. Make it a habit to keep your things and space clean and organized. Not only is it pleasing to the eyes, it will also save you from stressing on taking time to find things and missing some.

Take good care of your body. A healthy body means you are in good condition to handle your daily stressors. Being unhealthy makes stressful things even more stressful and in itself an additional stress for you. So, have a healthy diet, exercise regularly, and make sure to get enough rest and sleep. Take vitamins or supplements if necessary. Pamper yourself sometimes like getting a massage or going on a vacation. It can help you avoid chronic stress and make your body re-energized.

Develop a supportive social network. Studies show that people who have a supportive social network have less stressful lives than those who don’t even have a close friend or partner to lean on during tough times. Meet more people and develop better relationships. You will feel less stress if you can air out your negative emotions with people you trust and get an encouraging response from them. Remember, a burden when shared equals half the burden. Bottling things up inside will only make the pressure increase.

Source: Social Media Ala Carte

“Let it go”, it’s often said. And easier said than done. The strangest thing though, when you do forgive, it envelopes you with warmth and love. You forgive yourself when you forgive others.

A mistake is always forgivable, rarely excusable and always unacceptable.
Robert Fripp

Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much.
Oscar Wilde

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
John F. Kennedy

Forgiveness is a funny thing, it warms the hearts and cools the sting.
Peter Allen

Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself.
Suzanne Somers

Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave.
Indira Gandhi

Forgiveness is like faith. You have to keep reviving it.
Mason Cooley

Forgiveness is the answer to the child’s dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again.
Dag Hammarskjold

Forgiveness is the economy of the heart - forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits.
Hannah More

Forgiveness is the final form of love.
Reinhold Niebuhr

Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.
Mark Twain

Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.
Hannah Arendt

Forgotten is forgiven.
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Genuine forgiveness does not deny anger but faces it head-on.
Alice Duer Miller