LK TommiAs an educator, I have been able to help young people learn all about themselves. I have seen the power of our young people being able to make connections between their emotions, thoughts, energy and experiences.
An important lesson for our young people to learn is how we view the experiences that we have and we act or react to different life experiences. This is self-mastery in action.
How can we help young people to feel confident and feel a strong connection to themselves, their friends and family?
Take action now, for a better future
Don’t wait until your young people have problems to seek help – help your young person to connect and develop their mental health now. An essential element, is that as parents we are proactive rather than reactive, in developing positive mental health for our young people. The clear result and evidence are that when life does throw the usual hard times at them, they have the skills to understand the experiences.
Tap into the current climate that actively encourages young people to learn about their mental health
Thankfully times have changed. Generations ago, no-one talked about emotions or feelings. That, didn’t work to enable them to understand their life experiences? How did that help people of early generations to understand what was happening in their lives?! The result was generations of young people going into adulthood with a huge number of emotional issues and a severe lack of support and understanding.
So, it is pleasing to see our society is realising that looking after your mental health is just as important as taking care of your physical health. Just like eating a healthy diet and taking part in regular exercises, our brains need to grow! Neuro-science has now taught us about brain-plasticity, that our brains are mouldable and can grow. This occurs by connecting new information and experiences, the result creating strong neural pathways.
Learning fact: To learn more about brain plasticity watch this video by Sentis
Encourage your young person to create positive life experiences
We can all encourage young people to develop their brain to be able to understand how our experiences shape our emotions. Our neurons can be moulded and shaped to create dynamic life experiences.
Is it reasonable to say that we can discover and design our life experiences from a young age?
Once we understand how our body, mind and experiences are connected, we are able to identify when we are having negative thoughts. The key is to recognise if the negative thinking, is helpful or unhelpful. If it is unhelpful, we can learn the skills to change our thinking to be helpful for us. The result is changing our thoughts, experiences and connections to the neurons and neural pathways. Creating everlasting change and truly connecting with self-mastery. Self-mastery occurs when we practise a skill to a mastery level. When we practise new skills, we develop and grow dendrites, which is part of the neurons, creating new connections.
Learning fact: To learn about emotions and the brain watch this video by Sentis
We all have voices in our head – that’s completely normal! It’s how we manage our internal dialogue – the inner commentary that strives to make sense of the world – that matters.
Self-mastery requires observation but also recognition. The task is to label the emotions and thoughts as they present themselves and then decide how to engage with them.
Understand we are all different – and that’s good. Ditch the labels
It is essential to look honestly at our strengths and weaknesses. Some young people have high-energy. They get labelled hyper-active. I want to teach you that we can change our perspectives about this trait. The young person might need help to focus and harness their energy from high to centred.
Learning fact: Did you know your brain consumes a lot of energy?
In my online-course, we play games to help young people understand themselves and their energy. We really focus on when you might need to use high energy, centred energy or low energy. We also look at when we need to use the different types of energy – for example, young people need to be in a high-energy space when doing activities like playing sport.
We personalise the course to each young person and family. So that each young person learns how to understand what is happening in their body, mind and increase their overall wellbeing.
Young people deserve a safe space to learn about their experiences, emotions, thoughts, and energy. With my online course, there is an opportunity to develop strong resources to understand and cope with life’s challenges; register your interest for my 6-week course or simply get in touch.
I would love to connect with you through:
Website: thetommiconnection.com.au
Jacq Koloski
Gerard Bini
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