Accentuate the Positive!

TEDxBloomington - Shawn Achor - "The Happiness Advantage: Linking Positive Brains to Performance" www.youtube.com Shawn Achor is the winner of over a dozen distinguished teaching awards at Harvard University, where he delivered lectures on positive psychology in the most... What if there was a way you could increase your child's intelligence, creativity and energy by 31%? Okay, maybe we don't want to increase our kids' energy by 31%, they're already a lot to keep up with, right? As parents, how much time do we spend focusing on our children's education, wanting to give them every advantage? What if we focused on their happiness instead? Your brain in a positive state is 31% more productive than at negative, neutral, or stressed. Dopamine, the neurotransmitter responsible for feelings of joy and happiness, also turns on all the learning centers of the brain! We learn better when we're happy. How do we help our children become more positive? I think parenting peacefully and unschooling are great ways, but an integral part of that is being positive ourselves. 1. List 3 things for which you are grateful each day. 2. Journal about one positive experience each day. 3. Exercise 4. Meditate 5. Perform Random Acts of Kindness Do this for yourself. Do this for your kids. And listen to this guy. Not only does he have great ideas to share, he's funny too.