Typical mental wellness curriculums or programs that addresscopinguse deep breathing asthe mainmeans of calming down.Many also often encourage positive and flexible thinking as means of coping. However, sometimes this concept of coping lacks significant engagement. Perhaps because coping may on the surface sound somewhat blasé, but it’s really the building block to resiliency. Resiliency has more of a striving connotation, but you can’t strive before you can cope.
Coping plans are not not just be for those who consistently struggle with self-regulation, anyone can experience a significant stressor at any point that could result in a poor decision or unhelpful behaviour. The more we are prepared the more we will likely use our strategies. This way even teachers, fellow-students, friends, or co-workers can remind someone who is experience significant stress to check their coping plan; to figure out what to do for that 15-20 minutes to calm down while they are unable to access the decision making part of their brain
When Daniel Goleman first started to help bring the education system’s attention to the social and emotional needs of its students, the majority of his early focus was on emotional intelligence. In fact his first 3 books, as illustrated by their various titles (Emotional Intelligence, 1995, Relaxation and Mindfulnes: Demystifying Stress, 1996, and Working with Emotional Intelligence, 1998) really made emotional intelligence the primary focus of his work. This focus on emotional wellness or intelligence seemed to exist across all domains within the social emotional movement. On the surface it appeared social intelligence played second fiddle to emotional intelligence. From my...
There have been many books and articles written about the power of metaphors in both the worlds of education and psychology. At its heart, metaphors in both education and psychology help people conn
ect a new idea to an already established concept. This connection aids intrinsic understating of the new idea. Since social-emotional learning (SEL) is connected to both the disciplines of psychology and education, it would be valuable to explore the metaphor’s impact and role within the field of SEL.
I was recently in my car listening to CBC Radio 2 (for Americans, this is like Canada’s version of NPR Radio) and I heard a song titled Count it Up by the UK band Field Music. I didn’t necessarily love the song but I thought the content of the lyrics were quite meaningful. It went through some of the basic things that we often forget to be thankful for or recognize the value of what we already have. The song asks the listener to consider if they “own their own car” or “If your mom or dad had a job growing up”, or...
