B is for Believe (Secondary)

Identify the problem with Unrealised Belief

When things don’t go to plan, sometimes our heads tell us stories. We can get caught up in worrying or stressing about things that we really can’t change. We might also think that we can’t do certain things or that difficult situations will last forever.

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Deal with Your Expectations

The good news is that it doesn’t have to always be this way, here’s some simple tips:

1. firstly Don’t Believe Everything You Think! Remind yourself that thoughts are just mental events happening in your head and your brain, amazing as it is, might be making up a story. Ask yourself, what’s the truth of this situation? Perhaps someone else can give you a different perspective, who can you ask?

2. If you’re self-conscious and need some confidence, use your body to send a strong message to your mind by doing a Power Pose. Believe in yourself! Stand tall, feel your feet on the floor, place hands on hips and stay there for 60 seconds. Check out Amy Cuddy on YouTube for more of her power poses or watch a slightly longer and more involved TED talk on the subject here

(NOTE: Some of the findings presented in this talk have been referenced in an ongoing debate among social scientists about robustness and reproducibility. Read "Criticisms & updates" below for more details as well as Amy Cuddy's response.) Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves.

3. Remember that magic happens when we find things difficult, we grow, we learn, we create new neural networks in our brains. By reminding ourselves that we learn by making mistakes, by getting things wrong, by telling ourselves that we can’t do hard things YET, we send ourselves strong messages of adjustment, change, belief in our own abilities. We develop a mindset focussed on growing and learning rather than fixed and set in stone.

With this simple steps, you’re showing yourself that you have choices.

Managing your Choices

That often when we think situations are out of our control, we can learn to believe in ourselves, to manage how we feel and to choose how to respond, key features of developing our resilience

Ps thanks to Amy Cuddy, Ashley Boardman, Carol Dweck & Mindfulness in Schools Project for their inspiration & to @peopleiveloved for fab image x

“Our thoughts can impact on how we feel & what we do next. ”

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The not-so-small small print

There is none! Simply return to this part of the website daily to get the next part of this program. No payment or subscription required. This is a resource we are sharing with all of you through the website and aiming to help our youngsters, in the various stages of their lives. This program contains information and practices that are aimed for two different age groups and we intend to mostly post the primary level information in the morning and the secondary level in the afternoon. Please leave us a comment and let us know how you are getting on or get in touch if you require additional support. If you want to be notified of new content, courses and free resources subscribe to our mailing list.

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