Transforming Beliefs about Self
Shawn Achor: The Happy Secret to Better Work This is a funny and inspiring talk about positive thinking and its connection to learning. I appreciate the list of 5 activities to create positive change, and is what I teach in my sessions with you.
Carol Dweck: The Power of Believing That You Can Improve “Carol Dweck researches “growth mindset” — the idea that we can grow our brain’s capacity to learn and to solve problems. This talk gives us another way to see failure.”
Body Mind Connection-Change the way you
think about yourself
Amy Cuddy: Your Body Language May Shape Who you are
This talk supports Yoga philosophy of the body/mind connection. This gives us a powerful tool- choice for changing our negative thoughts and beliefs.
Gabor Mate, a brilliant thinker and speaker on the mind-body connection to learning, addiction and ADHD talks about the connections between emotions and cognitive functioning.
More videos of Gabor Mate speaking to addiction.
I love this Four Minute Workout, a new concept of exercise that revolves around the body’s ability to use Nitric Oxide for muscle growth. This is an efficient anaerobic workout that can be done multiple times per day. This is a great 5-minute Pomodoro break exercise to get the blood moving, re-energizing you and lose weight while studying for long periods of times. The more frequently you do it, the better your results!
Body- Physical Domain
Dr. Axe is a popular holistic medical practitioner who offers alternatives to conventional remedies. This page will give you some suggestions around diet, lifestyle and supplementation that will support your healing. I address the physical domain in my work with my clients.
Gut Brain Connection This is a free online series which includes interviews with holistic practitioners about the impact an unhealthy gut has on mood, depression, anxiety and more with solutions for healing. This PDF document is a introductory resource for your general understanding. Gut-Brain_ebook
Motivation
Simon Sinek: How Great Leaders Inspire Action
This is one of my favorite talks, which I have shared since seeing this in 2013. I was inspired by the power of the “why” and how it motivates us to move towards our potential.
Brendon Burchard: 4 Ways to become more self-disciplined. Brendon is one of my favorite people, bright, effusive and generous. This reminds us that self-discipline can be fun and rewarding!
ADHD: Managing Distractions
This is a podcast from the Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos.This is an excellent talk on the effect of phone distractions on our social connection and subsequently on our mental/emotional well being. There are also some helpful tips to get us to put our phones away or at least on pause.
Autism Spectrum
Temple Grandin: The World Needs All Kinds of Minds Temple Grandin, diagnosed with autism as a child, talks about how her mind works — sharing her ability to “think in pictures,” which helps her solve problems that neurotypical brains might miss. She makes the case that the world needs people on the autism spectrum: visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, verbal thinkers, and all kinds of smart geeky kids.
Through Our Eyes, Living with Aspergers is a beautifully filmed story by Alyssa Huber, a young woman with Aspergers. It is a heart warming documentary spoken from her personal experience in school and with friends.
Time Management & Productivity
Brendon Burchard: Simple Time Management Rules Brendon is one of my favorite people, bright, effusive and generous. Here is a lifetime strategy for time management and how it is about the big picture planning so you can build momentum and move towards your goals.
Pomodoro Technique is a powerful tool to have in your box of strategies that helps to motivate, be more productive, more focussed and concentrated and generally happier after completing a major project. There are many versions of this app that you can get for Apple and Android. I use Focus Keeper for my iphone and have introduced many of my friends and colleagues to this time and energy saving app.
Mindfulness
Richard Hanson, is a psychologist, Senior Fellow of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, and New York Times best-selling author. Here he talks about our unique ability to foster happiness with mindfulness practice.
RAIN is a mindfulness practice of allowing difficult emotions, giving them the space to be felt while bringing compassion to ourselves and others. This practice is led by Tara Brach, an American leader of Insight Meditation. She combines both Western Psychology and Eastern spiritual practices.
Eckhart Tolle speaks here on Tips to Stay Present and in Stillness. He is delightful and funny so enjoy!
The benefits of journaling are countless but this article gives an in-depth list of benefits with tips, prompts and exercises. Here is another article with more benefits of journaling.
Heartmath is a technique based on 26 years of research recommended by thousands of health professionals and used by hundreds of hospitals, schools, corporations and humanitarian organizations to build emotional wellbeing, resilience and to manage stress. I teach this technique to students to help with test anxiety and lower stress. Read about the science of Heartmath.
Shawna Shapiro speaks in this heartfelt and compelling Ted talk about self compassion and accepting ourselves whole heartedly. She is a clinical psychologist who researches the role of mindfulness in mental and emotional wellbeing.
Incorporating Mindfulness into Everyday Life: This is a one hour talk with guided exercises in mindful movement and meditations.
This is Ted Talk by Dr. Richard Davidson, a pioneer in the area of psychology and the power of mindfulness to transform the brain. He has worked with the Dalai Lama and other long time meditators, and one of the first to use MRI’s to measure the effect of meditation on the brain.
“In this eye-opening talk, Richard Davidson discusses how mindfulness can improve well-being and outlines strategies to boost four components of a healthy mind: awareness, connection, insight, and purpose.”
Here is Alexandra’s Master’s research study which demonstrates that when students use mindfulness based practices (MBP) they raise their GPA’s, find more ease and confidence in school and life, and have greater capacity to manage new projects.
Efficacy and acceptability of using MBP for university students ALH
Self Assessments
VARK Questionnaire: A guide to learning preferences This is a helpful tool to identify how you study and learn best. It is helpful when we start working together to have this information so we can focus in on specific strategies and how to deliver them.
Learning and Study Strategies Inventory LASSI
The Delta Screener: Screening Adults at Risk for Disabilities is used when working with a counselor or advisor to identify the potential of a learning disability. You can save it as a PDF to print.