18 Feb 2012

Building up your emotional fitness (emotional resilience)

Stress is a part of everyday life. Stress has many sources of stress. Romantic breakdowns, friends changing, loosing a job, parent’s pressure, failing an exam and extraordinary events like deaths, serious illnesses and natural disasters etc can occur without a warning. People easily become frustrated by the pressures created that transform into stress that make you wear out. Here are few tips to improve your emotional fitness.


1. Talk to someone
Communication with someone help you express your innermost feelings and relief the tension rather than keeping it inside. You have to be careful who you are talking to. It should only be someone who you trust and someone has a interest at heart for you. Start with small things that make your sad, end up laughing about difficult experiences. It will help you improve your relationships and to connect with people.


2. Improve your self-esteem
Your self-esteem is the way you feel about yourself. Many things can cause drop your self-esteem. Romantic break-ups, not getting something you wanted or failing in something. Nothing can make you less worth, although you may feel so.
One way to improve your self-esteem is to treat yourself as your best valued friend. Value yourself as your best friend; be honest and never let down your best friend. Think bright side of yours not negatives. What you can do other's can't is your value.


3. Manage your stress levels
You may have lots of stress in your lifestyle. Exams, Schools, Teachers, Parents, Friends and Society may put pressure on you. With a stressed state of mind, it makes it easier for you to overreact or feel negative compared to someone who is relaxed. Managing stress is a gradual process. First look at your lifestyle. Are you involved in lots of activities? Genuinely ask your parents, teachers, partners and friends to help you to reduce work load. Take relaxing activities like yoga, photography and listening to music. Change your working hours. Do regular exercises. Do Breathing exercises for stress.


4. Enjoy yourself
Enjoying yourself is important for emotional health. Watch sports and go picnics with friends. Having a cup of tea with a friend can improve your day. Do something you are good at, such as cooking, singing, dancing, making something or helping someone. Try to achieve something of what you do. It’s better to avoid things that make you feel worse afterwards, such as alcohol.


5. Choose a well-balanced diet
You need to make healthy choices about your diet that can make you feel emotionally stronger. Read about healthy eating.


6. Do exercise
Even little exercise releases chemicals in your brain that lift your mood. It can help you to sleep better, have more energy and keep your heart healthy. 


7. Get enough sleep
Make sure you sleep seven to eight hours in average to make your body and mind to rest fully. 


8. Develop good relationships
Think about each relationship you have with family, friends and your partner. Are you really happy when you are with them? Do they have best interests at heart about you? Do they enjoy their company? Are you happy with the way they act towards you? Start to think about how you can improve your relationships, and then make little changes. You could even drop relationships if it does not really works out.


9. Know the warning signs
Try to recognize when negative emotions start creeping in, whether it’s stress, anxiety or feeling sad. Don't let them take over your mind. Start doing things that help you overcome them. Take a day off, go somewhere, talk to someone or just relax and have a good sleep.


10. Plan your work
Lots of people work without a proper plan for life. Ask yourself; what you would be doing tomorrow, next week, next month, next three months, next year, next three years, next 10 years. What will help you achieve them? What will not? What will you need to be there? Be realistic and Practical try to achieve what you can. 


11. Keep your mind healthy
Negative thinking of your self as well as about others makes your mind ill. Do not plan to hurt someone. Don't think about things someone has done wrong to you. Anything you plan to hurt another person will come back to you as an echo. Avoid negative things, negative activities and negative people. They always bring trouble even they seem so close.


12. Help others in problems
Helping others in their problems will help you understand nature of problems they face. One day it could be yours. The most voluble help you can do is asking whether they need a help. Listening is a good help to anyone. Help disabled people, elders or anyone in trouble. But don't make the problem yours or act as it's yours.
13. Connect With the nature
Plant a tree. Pour water to flowers. Take a walk in environment. Take a photograph of nature and post it online. Enjoy wind, breeze, rain and greenness by taking a trip.



Do you have the Resilient Attitude


Emotionally resilient people are more effective at managing stress as they have a specific set of attitudes concerning themselves and their role in the society. These attitudes help them to cope with issues and problems than their non-resilient peers.


The emotionally resilient people tend to:



  • Have realistic and attainable expectations and goals.
  • Show good judgment and problem-solving skills.
  • Be persistent and determined.
  • Be responsible and thoughtful rather than impulsive.
  • Be effective communicators with good people skills.
  • Learn from past experience so as to not repeat mistakes.
  • Be caring how others around them are feeling.
  • Caring about the welfare of others in society.
  • Feel good about themselves as a person.
  • Feel like they are in control of their lives.
  • Be optimistic rather than pessimistic.



11 Feb 2012

The new teaching model of the world

The new teaching model of the world incorporates problem based learning, project-based learning and challenge based learning focusing on real problems faced in the real world . It engages students’ curiosity and desire to learn to solve of real problems at the center of the curriculum, and giving students access to 21st century tools, help them to work collaboratively on their own time . In 21st century learning students direct the course of their learning and engage teachers in a supportive role as guides .


Challenge-based learning brings relevance to class work . It gives students the opportunity to focus on a challenge of global significance, yet apply themselves to developing local solutions, challenge-based learning creates a space where students can direct their own research into real-world matters and think critically about how to apply what they learn . It increases their engagement, time spent in learning, creative application of technology, and increases student satisfaction with education . And students master the subject-area of content and developed many of the skills identified as vital for 21st century learners.


in problem-based learning, the teacher’s primary role shifts from dispensing information to guiding the construction of knowledge by his or her students around an initially ill-defined problem . Students refine the problem, develop research questions, investigate the topic using a wide variety of primary source material,
and work out a variety of possible solutions before identifying the most reasonable one . Documentation of the process and a high-quality production of findings further serve to give the process relevance to the world of actual work .