Mind Over Mood: Using The Text
As part of an education graduate course at Brock University, I was asked to engage in an interview with a class member to bring forth an understanding of my own literacy story. A series of open-ended questions were asked that allowed me to engage with recent literacy based events.
I found that I gravitated towards reflecting and expressing my thoughts about the cognitive behavioral therapy that I have been engaging with for the past six years to cope with a generalized anxiety disorder. I was able to articulate how effective and valuable the engagement with the text Mind Over Mood: Change How You Feel by Changing the Way You Think was to my personal and teaching philosophies. The text became the scaffolding that structured my meetings with my doctor and allowed me to continue learning, exploring, and reflecting when I was on my own. This, being the goal of CBT, is to enable mind over mood as a self-reflexive practice in all aspects of your life.
Five Pillars of Happiness
One of the exercises that resonated with me deeply from this book is conceptualizing, understanding, and creating pillars of daily happiness. The idea is to create five things that you feel are the most important to achieve or do in order for you to have a positive, healthy, happy day. There are many examples of 'ideal pillars/ scaffolded pillars' that may help you to create your own.
Scaffolded Pillars:
1. Eating properly/ drinking enough water
2. Getting proper sleep
3. Connecting with loved ones
4. Connecting spiritually
5.Getting your heart rate up
Monica's Five Pillars of Happiness:
1. Getting proper sleep
2. Eating well/ drinking water
3. Engaging with someone I love
4. Engaging with something I love
5. Engaging spiritually / self reflection
I challenged my EDUC 1F95 Seminars to consider and create their own pillars of happiness. This is the brainstorming that both of my classes completed as part of 'Happiness in Education' week.
What are your daily pillars of happiness?
