by Nicola Morgan | September, 2018 | Education, Nicola Morgan
In the early days of positive psychology, there was a ‘neck up’ approach; how to be happy, how to live well, how to be ‘positive’. One of the ground-breaking pioneers in promoting a more holistic approach was Kate Heffron (Heffron, 2013) who started to consider the importance of the body in optimal functioning. This article is about food and ways in which it can help us flourish or live well. I must confess a personal interest in the subject matter here – I am a foodie. By that I mean, I am passionate about food. On my last count, I owned 76 books on the subject. I like growing food, cooking food, shopping for food, eating food, photographing food, sharing food with others and going out for food. I think you might have got the idea here. Food for Good Health – it’s important but doesn’t need to be complicated The importance of food in health is increasingly the subject of public discussion. A study published in the Lancet in 2015 advocated the recognition of diet and nutrition as central determinants of mental and physical health. Essentially, our bodies need to work properly for us to function well and what we feed our bodies will be of primary importance – it is more significant, more fundamental than other measures such as journal writing or other similar measures when it comes to our optimal functioning. (Heffron, 2013), Good nutrition can significantly reduce the risk of a wide range of illnesses. Sugar has been identified as one of the bad guys in the quest for a healthy mind and body. While...
by Lee Newitt | April, 2018 | Education, Mindfulness
Children are amazing because they are mindful. When a child is shy they may express their feelings of shyness without fear, they are just ‘being’. They may be open to and aware of what they are experiencing in that moment without repression. Children start life inherently mindful and through their experiences they learn to cooperate, to collaborate, to consider, to understand and to empathise becoming socially aware and responsible adults. Disconnect However this journey in our modern world of fast pace, distraction, complexity and technology can lead to a person becoming disconnected from himself or herself, their experiencing and from others, a mindlessness. How can a person truly know another and give freely of himself or herself, if they do not know themself first? What if children were encouraged to grow and develop mindful awareness throughout their childhood into adulthood? How would those adults be different? More ‘in tune’? More connected? More giving? Happier? Evidence Base Research describes mindfulness as a moment-by-moment “awareness of present experience with acceptance” (Germer, Seigel and Fulton, 2013, p.7) or an “awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose in the present moment, non-judgementally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment” (Kabat-Zinn, 2003, p.145). Studies Studies have linked mindfulness with reduced; anxiety and depression (Shapiro et al, 1998), mood disturbance (Rozenweig et al, 2003) and increased; wellbeing (Grepmair et al, 2007), nonjudgmental self-insight (Chung, 1990), empathy, compassion and selfcompassion (Neff, 2003; Neff and Germer, 2013; Shapiro et al, 2007), openness and acceptance (Bishop et al, 2004) and attention regulation, emotional regulation and psychological flexibility (Hözel et al, 2011; Hayes et...
by Bryony Shaw | January, 2018 | Bryony Shaw, Education
At the start of the year I can look back over the first term of teaching in the academic year, and this year I am very appreciative of an unexpected experience I had. In the autumn term I write references for my students who are applying to university. This is a time consuming and cognitively demanding job to which I always give my all. However, this year I experienced a completely new dimension to it. After many years of doing this I found myself aware that I had been in a state of flow. Feeling Great I had been working on a student’s reference in a break and then returned to the classroom to start teaching and I felt extremely uplifted, the feeling appeared to come out of nowhere. I didn’t think too much about it and just passed the mood on to my students. When the same thing happened again I stopped to consider where did this mood come from, and I realised that it resulted from writing the reference. When I write student references I focus my full attention on each individual student; reminding myself of their character strengths, drawing out their attributes that make then unique. My aim is to reflect their true nature and potential, relating the particular skills and characteristics they have to those required on the degree. I enjoy putting together a full picture of the student; combining academic qualities with the student’s often busy home life, integrating their work, sports, caring and other commitments. Deliberate Reflection This process gives me the chance to slow down and reflect in a conscious and deliberate...
by Nicola Morgan | October, 2017 | Education, Nicola Morgan
Ancient wisdom has suggested that books can be therapeutic from Plato’s time through the enlightenment to modern day Bibliotherapy courses. Literary fiction has been a source of fascination for me since the eighties when my teacher announced that the study of literature was about ‘The Art of Living’. I believe she had a point and I later spent a stint in my career as a teacher of English Literature trying to persuade teenagers who would ask ‘but is it in the exam Miss’ of the same. Still on a mission, I am now investigating the value of literature in positive psychology. I briefly outline just a few of the connections in this blog. Mindfulness The benefits of Mindfulness are well-documented. Mindfulness can take the form of meditation but it can also involve pursuing activities mindfully; being in the moment, paying close attention and observing. Reading can most certainly be pursued in this way. In a lovely article by the writer Tim Parks, ‘Mindful Reading’ he considers the pleasures of reading. In reading carefully, mindfully, you can feel and observe your own reactions to the world that a writer is creating for you, to the characters that you are being presented with, to the problems and dilemmas and worlds that unfold in the pages of a novel. “…the excitement of reading is the precarious one of being alive, and reacting from moment to moment, in the most liquid and intimate sphere of the mind, to someone else’s elusive construction of the precarious business of being alive now.” – Tim Parks In Dr Mark Williams’ ‘Mindfulness’ one of the pieces of...
by Kelly Seaward | September, 2017 | Education, Kelly Seaward
In a world of increasing pressure on teachers and their students it is very easy to fall into negativity when challenges are never ending and being thrown from all directions. Just as you move through one set of obstacles then the next ones are already in line to enter. With work load increasing, curriculum changes and the continuous need for assessment and accountability it is all too easy to get lost in the labyrinth of modern teaching. As more teachers leave the profession and more young people suffer from mental illnesses, it is no wonder that escaping seems to be the favourable option. Challenges in life Feeling disillusioned as a Middle Leader and a teacher of 15 years, I too at the beginning of the year wanted very much to escape the profession, I had lost touch with initial reason I became a teacher and I had also experienced a bereavement, my aunt was in a coma for 10 days over the Christmas holidays and into the New Year. Unfortunately, as a family we got that dreaded decision to make whether we keep her alive or let her pass away. In the hours of her husband of 50 years having to make the one decision he did not want to make, he summoned his courage to revisit what her essence as a person was and how these attributes would live out if she would continue to live, as the infection on her brain would result in her needing 24 hour care and she would no longer know who we were as the brain damage was too severe for her...
by Maggie Bevington | June, 2017 | Education
As the tragic news of the loss of life from terrorist attacks in the UK fills our TV screens, I continue to worry how this is affecting our children, both now and for their future lives. In my last blog, I described how when working with high school teens on ‘positive exam prep,’ I asked what they would change in the world if they had a superpower. When one lad replied ‘Kill all terrorists’, it became apparent that their strength of feeling and fears around terrorism was on a par with any exam worries. As I prepare to deliver wellbeing sessions to primary age kids in a local school, I wonder if younger children are equally affected or more able to distract themselves through their natural desire to play: I guess this depends on how the adults around them respond and handle such issues. I decided to focus the planned session on encouraging physical activity for wellbeing through outdoor play and having fun rather than competitive sport, as a positive complement to the school curriculum. Remembering how much I hated sports lessons at school and knowing that this is not uncommon – especially in girls – exercising through outdoor play seems a better way to go. Nature-Deficit Disorder I wholeheartedly agree with authors such as Louv, Selhub and Logan that our children are suffering from a lack of ‘Vitamin N,’ or nature-deficit disorder that is having a profoundly negative effect on their psychological and physical wellbeing. It’s not just that they aren’t getting enough outdoor exercise; they are losing an innate sense of nature-connectedness that is such a powerful...
