THRIVE

THRIVE has been developed locally to support our schools, early learning centres, sport and recreation clubs. This THRIVE presentation will explore the science of Positive Psychology and how the THRIVE actions can be used to boost happiness, resilience and achievement. 

 

https://www.trybooking.com/BRJAL

At EMC we want to create an environment where students are healthy, capable, and confident and feel empowered and supported in their future aspirations. To achieve this, we are developing a 10 year strategic plan Shape EMC 2030.

 

Our aim is to hear a variety of voices to identify the goals and actions that we can all contribute to, to support our students to thrive in their personal lives and our local community. Stay for an interactive activity session to have your say! 

 

In a typical day we have about 50,000 thoughts so our brains are constantly working away. Sometimes our thoughts are really helpful and rational and sometimes they’re not. Cognitive restructuring is a process where we challenge our internal dialogue. Andrew Fuller is a psychologist and has found a way to help children understand how we can defeat that negative inner voice. Fuller has explained that we have shark thoughts, which are thoughts that circle around and gobble away at our confidence. A dolphin thought is a more helpful way of looking at the situation. A shark thought could be “I’m terrible at math” while a dolphin thought could be “math is hard but with practice I’ll get better. If we are having 50,000 shark thoughts a day you can imagine the impact that will have on our confidence, performance and wellbeing. By understanding how the brain works we can empower students to be the boss of the messages they are telling themselves. 

 

Tip

 

Defeat the sharks

If you notice your child having lots of shark thoughts see if they can come up with a dolphin counter argument. You may need to give an example so they understand. If they get stuck you can also try ask them “What would you say to a friend if they had the same problem?” Sometimes we are a lot kinder to others than we are to ourselves and this phrasing can help them think about their self-talk from a different perspective. It is really important that we try and encourage them to find the dolphin thought. If we simply offer it to them they can reject it or may just look for more shark thoughts.

 

Thoughts aren’t facts. It is important to remind children that just because we think it doesn’t mean it is true. It is important for children to learn to be critical of their thoughts and challenge unhelpful ones. Encourage your child to reject the thought in the absence of evidence. 

 

Resources

https://andrewfuller.com.au/