On this 100th Anniversary of Armistice Day, we are moved to remember. Each in our own way. Each with our own stories. Each with our own past. What we know is that somewhere in all of the fighting was a desire for peace and calm for our families and future generations. And as we now stand here on November 11, 2018, the world is changing so rapidly that we struggle to feel this desired peace and calm. This morning, I … Read More
Recognizing our natural reactions. Trauma. My natural reaction to the word is to close in, back away and shut up. It is not comfortable for me to talk about suffering and I don’t like to talk about things that are not comfortable. I was born into a culture and a family where we didn’t spend a lot of time talking about our emotions or our reactions. I learned to be resilient. I handed my suffering to God and moved on … Read More
Fear is a derailer: When we ask ‘Is fear real power?’, some may respond with a ‘Yes’ because it triggers a response and it drives action. But fear relates more closely to force and to ‘power over others’. Fear relies on position and authority to trigger reactions in others rather than holding space for others to generate creative thought. Fear is a derailer! Rather than building on the collective strengths of individuals by fostering collaboration, it explodes, divides and destroys. In … Read More
Why improve productivity? Improving productivity allows us to achieve more with less. We often think of this as achieving more financial benefit with less of the organization’s financial resources. There is also great opportunity to achieve more with less of our personal resources. Think for a moment of the time and/or energy that goes in to building our personal resources: exercise; healthy eating; sleep and others. Significant energy expenditure in order to build our personal resources to have energy available … Read More
What if we can relieve our distress rather than have to learn to live with it? Think about this for a moment. We live our life and events happen. We react with a wide range of emotion, depending on the nature of the event. Distress is a combination of emotions, sensations and thoughts that result in a feeling of discomfort. We may notice that we get stuck in habitual reactive patterns as a result of this distress. The symptoms can … Read More
Confidence through experience is crucial. Self-reliance, resilience and self-awareness are all rooted in experiences. To be reliant on our own efforts and abilities requires that we gain confidence through our experiences. This confidence influences our resiliency, known as our ability to recover or adjust to misfortune or change. This confidence also influences our own awareness of our behaviour and emotional characteristics. Self-reliance supports growth. In the book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Harari, 2015), the author makes the argument that … Read More
We are undergoing immense change and uncertainty. We all want to put students first, yet look around and it is easy to recognize an escalation in the pace of change. All of our systems are feeling the pressure of adapting to intense uncertainty and the external demands often exceed the ability to cope, resulting in breakdown. Schools feel the intensity every day, as children arrive with tensions from home, as parents react out of fear and frustration and teachers, … Read More
Anxiety is common in Canada. According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, mood and/or anxiety disorders are common and individuals are active in learning more about the condition: In 2013, an estimated 3 million Canadians (11.6%) aged 18 years or older reported that they had a mood and/or anxiety disorder. Most people with mood and/or anxiety disorder(s) are currently taking, or have taken, prescription medication(s) (93%), but few (20%) have received psychological counselling to help manage their disorder(s). 83% said that … Read More
Love and kindness as feelings. Love and kindness. If we consider these words as feelings rather than choices, we recognize the sensations as coming from the heart and not the head. When we feel love and kindness, we experience sensations in our body, generally in the area of our heart. We often see a person or hear a voice that triggers these sensations. Different people will trigger varying degrees of intensity of emotion and we will feel different sensations in … Read More
Actions are often reactions: MYActionsMatter is a campaign by the Government of Canada to mark 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. The theme provides a strong callout to reinforce that our actions are not just meaningless behaviours. Our actions make a difference to everyone around us. The actions highlighted in the campaign messaging are common behaviours that are often excused or discounted. We think that we are making deliberate actions when in fact, most of these behaviours are reactive … Read More