What We Say ‘Sticks’

We sometimes don’t even remember being frustrated enough that we used ‘words’ that hurt…or that our little ‘teasing’ could make an impression that would last a lifetime on the people we love the most…

We have a big responsibility when we give birth to these little people that will become the future leaders of this world. The things I would love for everyone to teach their children;

1. Respect one another, say kind things to show you care NOT to prove you are right or the ‘parent’

2. Teach your children NO one is better than another. They ALL deserve your respect, love and trust.

3. Think of HOW your words and actions will affect someone before using them.

4. Only use what you need…save for others or a rainy day, you may need those resources later

5. Always remember to say what you ‘feel’ as long as it honors yourself and honors another.

6. TRUST that your child knows how to do a task, and if they need guidance along the way, that is what you are there for! When we do not trust their abilities, they do not either!

7. Make sure they know and understand their safety is your number one concern, even over their mistakes…you would rather help them through one mistake and SAVE them from making another to ‘cover-up’ their initial mistake!

8. Use the 80/20 Rule! Giving them 100% positive reinforcement will NOT teach them that some things are wrong! But only pointing out their faults will not give them confidence! So 80/20… 80% POSITIVE reinforcement and 20% correction words, (in an understanding way, we weren’t born knowing it all either!) 🙂

9. Teach your child to care for their stuff but to share, holding on to everything our whole life makes us dependent on our ‘stuff’, yet not caring for our stuff makes us feel as if the world is disposable!

10. Yelling mean things, saying derogatory words will not help your child to learn to be kind (even to you)! You are raising the person that will care for you as an elder adult…remember to treat them as you wish to be treated!

11. Surround yourself and your family with supportive people. Your children will perpetuate this group of people as well, marrying a person they can live with for the rest of their lives and be happy raising your grandchildren!

12. Help your children see the good in others, not raising them to be ‘judgmental’ of others, always finding the bad is addictive!

13. Remember the difference between being ‘witty’ and being ‘sarcastic’. Sarcasm is like watching movies…it should be rated and only used when age-appropriate, otherwise, the children try using sarcasm and it sounds rude, and disrespectful. They can be totally misunderstood and it comes across as a behavior issue instead.

14. Always be aware of what you are ‘allowing’ your child to witness, whether it is in a movie, another family or at home. The ‘appropriate’ movie rating doesn’t mean it is appropriate to watch! The ‘craze’ in movies is to make them something a parent will want to sit through, so they have subtle sexual innuendo’s, sarcasm, violence and all enveloped in humor, making it look as if it is a good and appropriate action! These scenes will ‘stick’ with your child forever.

15. Always look at what you are feeding your child…is it good food? If it comes in a box, can, or frozen…think twice, try to always use fresh food and create FUN ways of eating what you might consider boring foods. They may LOVE it!!!

Life is fun…wake-up every morning saying and thinking FUN thoughts 🙂 and remember to tell them you love them…

Thank you for raising YOUR children to love and tolerate ALL people no matter their race, religion, gender, political view, sexual orientation or intelligence levels. We all deserve to love and be loved!

Social Anxiety…Test Anxiety…Panic Attacks… is this YOU?

The physical effects of anxiety can play out in your body in a damaging way from chest pains and sweaty palms to lack of memory and focus! It is the leading cause of most physical and mental illnesses!

What do you do in your life to reduce stress?

Yoga?
Biofeedback?
Dance?
Laugh?
Exercise?
Swim?
Sing?
Massage?
Hike?
Neurofeedback?

So many options… 🙂

You Have Another ‘Think’ Coming…

Do you find yourself thinking good thoughts???? Like how awesome you are?
Do you compliment yourself on how you look or on how you performed at work or school? Probably not 😦 most people don’t…

We may occasionally say something nice to ourselves…however, most of the time, we beat ourselves up! The thoughts that come to mind are not worth believing!

Today, I am giving you homework!! Go to the mirror and look yourself in the eye and tell yourself 1 thing you like about yourself! And repeat that nice comment through-out the day!

Here’s the next part…every time you say something BAD about yourself, I want you to replace it with the 1 nice thing you said to yourself that day in the mirror…and in your head I want you to burn that bad thought…bury it and tell yourself this bad thought does not serve me or my purpose in life and more!!

Everyday I want you to have a new best thought to say in the mirror…”I love the color of my eyes”, ” I made the best comment on behalf of my students”, “I am a thoughtful person”, or “I love the way I can sell houses, with integrity and honesty” etc…whatever you do for a living, whoever you are in your heart…share your love and passion of who you are with yourself! Remind yourself of all the good in YOU!

Then, I want you to keep a record of all the nice things you say to yourself and start a “Little Book of Good Thoughts” On a hard day…you can read your good thoughts and love the little person inside you all over again!

This will allow YOU to be more confident, and energized!! Creating a HAPPIER person! Then the ‘thinks’ you think will be worthy of thought and believable! 😉

Happy St. Patty’s Day!

Why do we celebrate and make a big deal out of just another day?

We need to LAUGH…have FUN…enjoy others! It is part of our nature!

Laughing heals the body…it actually ‘massages’ the internal organs, releases neuro-hormones that relax the body and it even creates a light-heartedness that soothes the spirit.

On the contrary, watching, participating, and hearing about mean horrific events has been proven to create a different neuro chemistry, one of aggression, anger and even violence.

We make a conscious decision what we choose to watch or participate in ‘putting into our brains’, (or in our children’s brains). Knowing that watching and being involved in aggressive acts can lead to an acceptance of anger and violence, is that how YOU choose to live your life?

I hope you pick a FUN, entertaining way to spend your St. Patrick’s Day and everyday thereafter!

It takes a Whole Village…Will You Help?

Dear friends,

Please help us to prevent economic catastrophe for the families of autistic persons caused by failure to mandate autism care under PPACA.
Please sign the petition for a federal Autism treatment mandate. We were limited to only 800 characters, so please read the background information below.
We need A LOT of signatures for our case to be heard, so PLEASE forward to family, friends, local support groups, post on Facebook, Twitter, etc.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/prevent-economic-catastrophe-families-autistic-persons-caused-failure-mandate-autism-care-under/4KBbZ8ct

“The goal of this petition is to ensure that families with autistic dependents have access to adequate healthcare for treating autism. Health coverage for autism was not included in the Federal Health Care Plan (PPACA), and it was deferred to the states. However, the states have no authority over most self-insured employers and many families are losing their coverage and will not be able to provide care. In addition, Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) with unlimited levels are very helpful to families with special needs, but these are now limited to $2,500. Many special needs families also fall victim to Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). Under AMT, medical bills are generally impossible to effectively deduct. Lack of adequate coverage and these tax repercussions will cause severe economic hardship on families with autism.”

Thank you for your help!

It is Said That 80% of What We Do in a Given Day is Auditory Based…

The Auditory brain comprises a variety of our basic skills from hearing information, and localizing sound, to listening so as to formulate new associations with existing information. The auditory brain also contributes to controlling our ability to divide and divert our attention so we can sustain attention to learn new information.

Many of our memory systems rely on our ability to listen, to decode, and then to recall auditory information. If any component to our auditory brain is slow to process (such as happens with auditory reception) then our auditory brain is unable to do its job efficiently, therefore, speed processing is essential to this part of the brain.

I know some people struggle to stay focused on the main speaker in a classroom/work environment while other individuals may read each word in their head as they read to themselves. If they have difficulties with their auditory brain, they can even get lost in their own reading just as when they are listening to someone speak and not remember what they just read or heard!

If these are of concern to you then here are a few ideas to help with your auditory brain!
1. Play the handheld game of Simon
2. Listen to nonsense sentences and repeat them aloud exactly as you heard it.
3. Listen to recorded vocal music you do not know very well and stop the recording every so often and try to repeat the sentence, phrase, or verse word for word. This will increase the amount of information you can retain at one time.
4. Listen to someone tell about themselves or about a book they just read and see how many details you can remember 2-3 minutes later.

For more ideas or information on the auditory brain contact us:
http://www.cognitive-connections.com
317-258-7444

Is Your Mind too Full to be Mindful?

Life can feel crazy when our thinking is unorganized feeling overwhelmed with things to do…we feel stuck and stagnant.

Our brain functions best when we have an organization to our life this creates a simplicity. This also allows us to be creative to move with the ebb and flow of life. Life will change, that is one constant in our life…it WILL change.

Therefore, the ability to be flexible within that change is also the ability to ‘switch’ quickly and fluently with ease. This is a ‘learned process’ and one that can be retaught! It is the youth elixir…switching and mental flexibility= mindful living.

Do you ever wonder why our children have a difficult time ‘listening’ in school?

Well, think about this scenario…you have this adorable new baby…only a few months old! And you are trying to get her to fall asleep…shhhh… only, the environment you have chosen for her to sleep is a soccer game where you are yelling over her head (or every other person is yelling) while you are training her to sleep through the noise (ignoring auditory information)!

Listening is a ‘learned art’ hearing is a physiological function.

Now we need to “re-train” the brain to listen, retain, and retrieve on command!

Need exercises to ‘teach listening’? Send me your email and your request and I will get them together for you! I have them for all ages, this happens to adults as well as children!

Memorization of facts versus a playful use of the knowledge

We succeed in school and business when we can memorize enough information to ‘shine’ above the others…however, is that really the most important use of information?

I started a school (many years ago) called Meridian Academy of the Arts, and for 15 years it focused on learning all the academics through; music, dance, drama/puppetry, language, literature and the visual arts. We started this learning adventure by creating a platform of ‘conceptual need’. Even the toddlers wanted to know the answers to these questions; who, what, when, why, where, & how. This was the premise for learning, the tools were the arts and we ended up with a program that taught through love, respect and trust. NO tests…NO grades… the measurement tools for success were productivity, inspiration, and creativity.

I wonder how many more people would succeed in life if they were taught in a small individualized classroom, that focused on teachers giving their trust in the students’ abilities.  This would assure that what they need is HOW to apply the knowledge they have not how to gain more knowledge than someone else within the classroom.

Application WITH memorization can be taught in a most creative way! And what powerful human beings these people are! I know I have witnessed it with my own eyes 🙂

Our Life as a Sponge…

Do you remember this old adage “brains are like sponges”. We may want to think of our life as a sponge as well. The experiences we have had through-out life can be considered the ‘water’ (or stressors) that we absorb. As a young sponge we can squeeze out much of the water and keep our elasticity however, as life bogs us down with more and more events that add stress to our world we are unable to squeeze all the water out and therefore, we become less ‘flexible’ and more rigid in our thinking. I invite you to remember how flexible you used to be…how easy it was to ‘let it all go’ and know you can have that control and elasticity again. Flexibility and resilience are two attributes that we all should strive for in our life. It allows us to be able to go with the flow, which decreases the ‘effects’ of stress on our system. It also allows us to be tolerant and even appreciative of other people’s ideas and thoughts! Honor thyself…wring out your sponge… 🙂 Don’t know how? Call me 317-258-7444, We can work remotely, so no worries that I am too far away!!