Blog post: Resilient Kids

Working with Youth is an amazing thing but working with Youth in a way that the Center for Resilience does is amazing.  I thought it was amazing about how they teach mindfulness and the techniques that they use and that I often use some similar techniques with the youth that I work with.  It is amazing when you are able to reach a youth person who is struggling with stress, school, anxiety, and other issues and you can give them techniques to succeed and not have to feel that way or not have to act out a certain way and can have an internal victory.  This goes a long way with youth and when they get it, it excites them to tell others and as for us when they get it that is what excites us because we know we had something to do with that internal victory.  Those little "wins" add up and can make a young person see their try potential and strive to be better. I try to do this not only with youth but with everyone I meet, I want people to see their true light and get to their full potential. This program gives youth the techniques to deal with the internal issues that arise and has them overcome them and find their purpose.  I believe is finding your WHY and your purpose in life and it's that WHY that drives you.  

Watching these videos it made me think about how I was as a student and how I could have benefited from mindfulness techniques in high school.  I think that this is a great way to keep kids on top of their feelings and understanding what is appropriate for the classroom and what isn't.  It also helps students understand that it is ok to feel like this but it is not ok to act out on it and the mindfulness techniques help the student calm themselves down in school and outside of school.  I loved the fact that the young person who was wearing the champion hoodie had showed the technique on how to fall asleep faster and that he used it last night.  I've never thought about that and I am going to use that technique to help me fall asleep as well as help some of the youth that I work with that have trouble sleeping.  Overall I think that this program can be helpful to youth and I am looking forward to learning more about this in class on Friday. 

Here is a video that I like about finding your WHY and your purpose and being resilient.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNQhuFL6CWg

Election Post

In my life I have always followed elections even before I could vote.  I am also a big history fan so I have done some research on other elections and other presidents candidacies.  That wasn't until recently though.  I wanted to know what happened in the country and why and where our country started to become what it is today.  I am very uneasy about this upcoming election and I do not like either candidate nor do I think that they are strong enough to even put a dent into what this country needs.  I believe that the problems with the country will get worse before they get better.  I have many different opinions about why this would happen and I could write a lot more on it.  I feel very informed about the candidates and what they are about and what the issues are and where they stand but I don't believe that they can fix or even begin a process that will attempt to fix the problems.  I know I sound negative but a lot of the problems steam back many years and I think it will take many years to pull us out of it not just 4 or 8 years.  I believe youth should be informed about issues and common issues that reoccur time and time again and if they youth are educated before they can vote they are more likely to have a better understanding when it comes time for them to vote.  I like the websites because they talk about the issues at hand and also show people where they can go to vote and what to expect which is nice because when I was able to vote for the first time I was nervous and not sure what to do and the website can give people an idea of what to expect and what they will see when they have to vote which will lower anxiety.  I am not drawn into this election and I am not sure if I will be voting this year because I don't believe in the candidates.  Some questions I have would be:  How can we educate youth about politics?  Does it start with digging into the history of the problems?  Can these candidates solve or begin to solve some of the problems?  How? 

These are just some of the questions I have coming into this election and I would have some more and I will bring some of them up in class this week.  I just hope that the country doesn't go too far into a hole and that we can pull ourselves out of it.  I think it begins with education about what the problems are and the youth of the nation are the solution.  We need to grow and be together rather then divided because I look at our country as a divided country.