A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Empathy isn't always what people think of when considering important factors in leading a good and successful life. It's difficult, uncomfortable, and doesn't seem to yield any immediate, tangible gain for either the giver or the receiver. Like many words to do with emotions it's also fuzzy; hard enough to define, let alone quantify. Despite [...]
With all the emphasis on academic performance now being placed on young people, it can be easy for emotional learning to fall by the wayside. We might, if prompted, agree that we want our kids (or students, or the kids we work with) to be kind, but how much action do we take to make [...]
In February, award-winning children’s author Morris Gleitzman was named the new Australian Children’s Laureate for 2018–19. As laureate, he will join his predecessors, Leigh Hobbs, Jackie French, Alison Lester and Boori Monty Pryor in promoting the importance of reading. Morris kindly shared his time with us to discuss the laureateship; why the need for stories [...]
GWS coach Leon Cameron says the AFL industry is heading in the right direction when it comes to mental health. The days of being told to harden up at an AFL club are long gone, for both coaches and players. Sydney veteran Heath Grundy this week became the latest player to take time away from [...]
Whether you’re dating, making friends, looking for a job, hiring employees, or joining a club or organization, it can be helpful to know some of the warning signs for people with narcissistic personality disorder or significant traits. In relationships, they usually consider themselves superior to you, are insulting and demeaning, do not reciprocate attention, demand [...]
There’s a lot of talk about Social Emotional Learning, but what exactly is it? The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) defines Social Emotional Learning or SEL as “the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve [...]
Life’s too short to sweat the small stuff isn’t it? It’s what adults often say to each other. But a child’s attitude to the ‘small stuff’ is often a different matter. This is an observation that a dad made: Children do ‘sweat the small stuff.’ There’s no doubt, children can get very emotional very quickly [...]
Have you found yourself checking email at dinner, or skipping from book to screen, unable to focus? The closer the world gets to our fingertips, the more we stand to lose. Psychologists who study empathy and compassion are finding that, unlike our almost instantaneous responses to physical pain, it takes time for the brain to [...]
Some people are genetically inclined to be highly empathic or not. But, generally, we develop empathy as children, primarily through observing how others show it. We may be on the receiving end of expressions of empathy and come to value it for the emotional benefits it had for us. Then we may show empathy ourselves [...]
Pixabay Images The types of books we read may affect how we relate to others How important is reading fiction in socialising school children? Researchers at The New School in New York City have found evidence that literary fiction improves a reader’s capacity to understand what others are thinking and feeling. Emanuele [...]
