What Does Well-Being Really Mean?

If You Had To Explain The Concept of Well-Being, How Would You Do It?

There are many aspects to the concept of well-being. We hope that this video helps give a little guidence to one possible perspective. Take the time to find out what your perspective on it is!

Why Finding Happiness At Work Is Crucial To Your Overall ...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/business/ 
Why Finding Happiness At Work Is Crucial To Your Overall Well-Being. The Huffington Post | By Alena Hall 

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3 Beliefs about Well-Being that Don't Work - Psych Central

There are many beliefs about well-being that get perpetuated over and over. They might show up in articles or on social media sites. They might be deeply ingrained into our society. And they totally miss the mark. This month ...

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The Way of Mindful Education: Cultivating Well-Being in Teachers and Students (Norton Books in Education)

Check out customer reviews Price:$23.50

A new educational paradigm for youth mindfulness. “If you are a teacher, or an educator, or involved in school administration and curriculum development, the book you hold in your hands has the potential to transform your life, the lives of your stud ...

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The Happiness Industry: How the Government and Big Business Sold us Well-Being

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In winter 2014, a Tibetan monk lectured the world leaders gathered at Davos on the importance of Happiness. The recent DSM-5, the manual of all diagnosable mental illnesses, for the first time included shyness and grief as treatable diseases. Happine ...

10 Steps to Teaching Your Child to Communicate Effectively - Pt 2

Background:

Effective communication is the foundation to success. When one can communicate well, they have a bigger advantage over those who don’t. If you look around at the heads of major companies, you will notice that most everyone has great communication skills. But communication starts long before adulthood. In fact, learning to communicate effectively starts even before a child can talk. Let’s continue to look at some ways to help your child learn to communicate effectively. 



4. Confirm your understanding. After the child has talked a bit and there is a lull in the conversation, confirm that you understood what was said by rephrasing what you heard. For example, "It sounds like your feelings were hurt when your friend ignored you." 

If you misunderstood something or your child wants to add more details, this is a great way to get input from your children.

5. Convey your feelings. Talk to your child about your feelings and encourage them to open up about theirs too. When doing so, start your sentences with “I” not “You”. For example; you might say “I get upset when you….” instead of “You make me mad when…”

This teaches your child how to speak directly about their feelings so others will understand. It’s a skill that will especially useful later in life when they life and work with others.   

6. Have them give presentations. The sooner you get your child talking in front of others, the more confident they will become.

Ask your child to give a presentation about something they like. This can be done at just about any age, just ensure the topic, length and difficulty of the presentation is age appropriate.  For the first couple of times, have them present it just to you. Then expand their audience to include others in the family, family friends, neighbors or even places like retirement homes.  

Ok that may be a bit much, but you get the idea!

Teaching them how to present themselves in a calm, confident manner will boost their success in adulthood. 

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10 Steps to Teaching Your Child to Communicate Effectively (Pt. 1)

Teaching Your Child to Communicate Effectively (Pt. 1)

Here is part 1 of a 3 part presentation on helping young people learn to effectively communicate in the face to face world! 
It almost seems that today children are born knowing how to communicate electronically, texting, facebook, Instagram ect., ect.... but what about communicating in person? 

Interpersonal, face to face communication, will always be an important part of being a well rounded individual. 

Effective communication is the foundation to success. When one can communicate well, they have a bigger advantage over those who don’t. If you look around at the heads of major companies, you will notice that most everyone has great communication skills. 
But communication starts long before adulthood. In fact, learning to communicate effectively starts even before a child can talk. Let’s look at some ways to help your child learn to communicate effectively. 
1. Start early. Most parents don't think about effective communication skills when their children are babies; however, that is the ideal time to start. While babies don't understand specific words, they do recognize voices and they are affected by tone of voice.
With babies, practice using different tones such as surprised, happy, sad, loud, soft, high, low, etc.  Be available to your children, regardless of their ages.
2. Teach listening skills. Good communication skills start with being a good listener. Show your child that you are interested in what they have to say.  Do this by fully facing the child, giving them eye contact & nodding affirmatively.  Smiling, changing facial expressions according to what is being said and holding comments until your child is finished talking will also show you are paying attention. These visual cues all tell your child that you are listening and what they are saying is important to you. 
In turn, when speaking to your child, ask them to repeat back to you in their own words what you said. Clarify anything they misunderstood and praise them when they get it right. This teaches them good listening skills. 
3. Ask the right questions. At times, children need you to get the ball rolling by helping them open up. The key to doing this is to ask an open-ended question, which has no right or wrong answer.
Begin with who, what, where, or how. An example would be, "What did your friend do that made you mad? “
Stick to asking one question if you can, too many questions may make children close up. Sometimes children pause to think about what they want to share next so be careful not to jump in with another question too quickly.
Thats it for now. Part 2 will be posted in the next couple of days so keep an eye out for it.
Be sure and encourage effective communication skills as an overall effort to help your child develop confidence in their ability to influence their enviornment and the out comes of the events in their lives.  Fuctional Self-Confidence is a must!
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Cyberbullying - We Are Only Seeing A Part Of The Problem

Cyberbullying – An Explanation

We know that physical bullying takes its toll on our loved ones. It affects their self-image, their self-confidence and may have consequences that last a lifetime!

Cyberbullying has increased along with the popularity of the internet. To effectively qualm cyber bullying, it is important not only to know the meaning of cyberbullying, but also how it presents itself and the possible effects. Awareness is the key to preventing any occurrences and to ensure that your children do not become victims.

What one may consider cyberbullying can vary. Essentially, cyberbullying occurs when one teenager singles out another teenager or group of teenagers in a negative way online. This can include harassment, threats and even smearing someone’s name by spreading lies. With the usage of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, it is very easy for teenagers to bully each other in an online environment. 

Cyberbullying is not usually a one-time deal. Most often, it is several messages being exchanged by the parties involved. These messages can take place using an instant messenger such as AIM or Yahoo! Negative blogs can be written about teens that are unaware of such slanderous activities. In some extreme cases, teenagers will hack another teen’s account and post degrading comments or send messages to others posing as that person. 

Many teens do not give the forethought to the issue and do not realize that they are setting themselves up for a possible criminal charge. Others are simply not aware or do not care that they are damaging reputations and causing depression which may even lead to suicide or murder. 

As a parent, it is important to spread awareness to your children about cyberbullying and its effects. What may seem like innocent fun to one teen is embarrassing to another and may lead to social problems. Stories are always in the news about teenagers who have committed suicide because of comments posted online. Teenagers have killed another in similar situations. 

Issuing threats is a criminal matter. However, it is very difficult to sue an offender of cyberbullying as the burden of proof may not exist. Teenagers may claim that the comments were posted by someone who hacked into their account or simply that they were just joking around. 

Many offenders get off with a slap on the wrist as opposed to any criminal charges. When a teenager commits murder or suicide, it can be very hard to prove that the events surrounding the death were caused by cyberbullying. One can argue that the child was depressed before any instances of cyberbullying took place. 

Cyberbullying can take many forms. Teenagers can smear another’s name on a social networking site such as Twitter and Facebook, or create a damaging blog or website devoted to degrading another teen. Cyberbullying only pertains to teenagers and children; when an adult gets involved it becomes cyberstalking and cyberharrassment. 

Knowing the forms of cyberbullying and what to be aware of will help to stop another child from cyberbullying yours. Be sure to discuss cyberbullying and its consequences with your children as well so that they do not become cyberbullies themselves.

We have just put together a quick guide to raising responsible kids. It is free and we will post it up over on the safekidz facebook fanpage.

Teach Your Child To Tie Their Own Shoes

Heres a quick and easy way that you can teach your child how to tie their own shoes. This is a great boost for their self esteem not to mention a great help to Moms, Dads, teachers, etc.

Check out these great resources at our express shop!