Weaving Well-Being Empowering Beliefs Activity Book

Weaving Well-Being THE MORE YOU WEAVE. THE BETTER YOU FEEL! E WERI N PO M G Lesson 4 Belief 3: I can recognise Thinking Traps Rec Think ognise ing Tra p C O PY s We have thousands of inaccurate thoughts every day. Our BE minds often think in inaccurate patterns which are called LIE F S Thinking Traps. They are called Thinking Traps because if we think like this, we often feel trapped and stressed. Two types of Thinking Traps are Mind Reading and Catastrophizing. Mind Reading is when we assume we know exactly what someone else is thinking, usually in a negative way! Catastrophizing is when we jump to the worst possible conclusion about what might happen. Once we recognise these Thinking Traps, we can notice them and try to avoid them! We avoid them by using our reasonable and logical thinking. Types of thoughts IE W Activity 1 Read these thoughts and put the numbers into the correct boxes below. 1. R EV I’m not going to enter the talent show because I will be devastated if I don’t win. 2. I missed that shot on goal and now all the team hate me! 3. My Mum is late collecting me from basketball, something awful must have happened. Mind Reading 4. I forgot to bring my homework in, the teacher will think I didn’t do it. Catastrophizing Weaving Well-Being - Empowering Beliefs - Activity Book 2017 www.otb.ie - Copying of this page is illegal 11

Weaving Well-Being THE MORE YOU WEAVE. THE BETTER YOU FEEL! Activity 2 Catastrophizing: Going from A to Z in ten seconds! If we don’t recognise that we are catastrophizing, we can soon ind ourselves in a spiral where one negative thought leads to another and another. Before we know it, we are imagining all kinds of disastrous future situations! Here is an example: C See what happened? Your mind went from doing badly in one test to not being able to go to college within a few seconds! That’s catastrophizing in action! O PY ‘I did really badly in the irst maths test of Sixth Class. I’m going to really struggle with maths this year, I just know it! I will probably get worse and worse and then when I go to Secondary School I won’t have a clue what to do. I’ll probably fail my Junior Cert and maybe even my Leaving Cert come to think of it! So bang goes my chance of going to college ’ R EV IE W Now in the green thought bubble write down where catastrophizing could lead you from this thought I’m so upset that I had that ight with my friend. They’ll probably never talk to me again . Let your imagination run free! Then in the yellow bubble write down a more helpful way of thinking about this situation. Work in pairs or on your own. B K AC SH FLA 12 If you completed the Tools of Resilience programme, you might remember the Helpful Thinking Helmet! This tool reminds us to question our thoughts by asking three questions: Is it true? Is it helpful? Is it kind? Weaving Well-Being - Empowering Beliefs - Activity Book 2017 www.otb.ie - Copying of this page is illegal

Weaving Well-Being THE MORE YOU WEAVE. THE BETTER YOU FEEL! Lesson 4 Homework: Applying logical thinking PY Homework O Wouldn’t it be great if our minds gave us a warning like this when we were about to catastrophize! Unfortunately, we have to work hard to train our minds to C become aware of catastrophizing and mind-reading, otherwise we can get sucked into the Thinking Trap and our feelings and actions become negatively affected. IE W This week, try to recognise these two Thinking Traps and use reasonable or logical thinking to escape from them! Write down an example below. EV My inaccurate thought: Type of Thinking Trap: R Did I recognise it before I got sucked in? Did I use reasonable thinking to challenge it? What was the result? (Feelings / Actions) Remember to try out your new belief this week and notice any effect it has. Parental signature/comment: Weaving Well-Being - Empowering Beliefs - Activity Book 2017 www.otb.ie - Copying of this page is illegal 13

Weaving Well-Being Belief 4: I can act ‘as if’ WERI N PO M G Lesson 5 E THE MORE YOU WEAVE. THE BETTER YOU FEEL! Act ‘as if ’ PY If we want a certain quality, such as to be more conident, we can act as if we already have this quality BE LIE F S and that is what we will become. The act ‘as if’ principle can be used to help us to become more conident, brave, persistent or many other qualities we may desire. In fact, in so many ways we can act ‘as if‘ we are already the type of person we would like to become, and this can help us to reach our potential! Learning from the past O Activity 1 IE W C In order to act ‘as if’ it can IF YOU WANT A be very useful to think about QUALITY, ACT AS a time when you experienced the quality you now IF YOU ALREADY desire to have more of and remember what you were doing to help re-create that feeling. So, in HAD IT. pairs, discuss a time that you felt ONE of the - William James following qualities: ‘Confidence‛ or ‘Bravery‛ or ‘Pride‛. EV Discuss what activity you were doing, how you felt and what you were doing with your body. Then answer the following questions: What was the quality? R Write a very brief description of what you were doing. Write down three speciic elements of your body language that you could apply to recreate that quality in the future (e.g. your eye contact). 1. If you completed the Character Strengths or Tools of Resilience BA programme, you might remember that SH A FL Bravery is one of the 24 strengths! Can you remember your top 5 strengths? Think about them and try to use them as much as possible to help your well-being! CK 2. 3. 14 Weaving Well-Being - Empowering Beliefs - Activity Book 2017 www.otb.ie - Copying of this page is illegal

Weaving Well-Being THE MORE YOU WEAVE. THE BETTER YOU FEEL! Role models Think of a person that you really admire. We tend to become like thos e whom we a d mire. - Thoma s S. Mon son O We often admire people because they have 'qualities' that we would like to have. However, we should remember that many of these qualities are simply actions or behaviours that we can model and copy. By doing this, we too can develop many of the qualities of the people we admire. PY Activity 2 C Name of person: IE W What qualities do they have that makes you admire them? EV What way do they act or behave that tells you that they have these qualities? R Write down any of these actions/behaviours that you could mirror to get the same results in your life. Weaving Well-Being - Empowering Beliefs - Activity Book 2017 www.otb.ie - Copying of this page is illegal 15

Weaving Well-Being THE MORE YOU WEAVE. THE BETTER YOU FEEL! Homework Lesson 5 Homework: Practising act ‘as if’ Confident · Proud · Brave Friendly · Persistent PY Choose a quality or characteristic that you would like to have more of in the future. Would you like to be more: O You may have your own favourite quality you would like to have more of. C Write down the quality you would like to have more of: IE W This week, look for opportunities to act ‘as if’ you already had this quality. Try to do this at least three times this week. Then write about your experiences below. What do you do differently to act 'as if' you already had this quality? EV How did this make you feel? R If it didn‛t work this time, decide if there is anything else you can do to develop this quality. Be persistent and your efforts will pay off! Parental signature/comment: 16 Weaving Well-Being - Empowering Beliefs - Activity Book 2017 www.otb.ie - Copying of this page is illegal

Weaving Well-Being WERI N PO M G Lesson 6 Belief 5: I can choose to focus on the positive E THE MORE YOU WEAVE. THE BETTER YOU FEEL! Focu on th s posit e ive Spotting the positives O Activity 1 PY What we focus on each day actually shapes our reality. If we always focus on the negatives we can feel bad about our BE LIE F S life and ourselves. However, if we can develop the habit of spotting the positives that are already in our lives each day, we can increase our happiness and feel good about ourselves. IE W C Work in pairs. Take a couple of minutes to share the good things that have happened to you in your life this week. Think of anything at all that you could feel good about, no matter how small. Then write down your own personal list of good things here. . I had a laugh with my friends . The match on TV last night was great R EV . I got 3 questions right in my test What did you discover from this activity? Don’t worry if you ind it a little dificult to think of good things to write – you may not have been focusing on them today. But you will be tomorrow! Weaving Well-Being - Empowering Beliefs - Activity Book 2017 www.otb.ie - Copying of this page is illegal 17

Weaving Well-Being THE MORE YOU WEAVE. THE BETTER YOU FEEL! Activity 2 The power of negative events PY In this lesson we have learned about the beneits of focusing on the positive events in our lives. Of course, negative events do occur and very often we focus on these more. This is called the negativity bias. Our brains are wired to experience negative events as more powerful than positive. This means that they have the potential to ruin our whole day – unless we also make a conscious effort to focus on the positives and this is the reason we are learning how to do this. O If you completed the Positive Emotions programme you HB S might remember learning about FLA the positivity weighing scales which means we need 3 positive emotions to balance one negative one. C K AC IE W Think about a time that this may have happened to you. Can you recall a time that focusing on a negative thought about an event, a comment or anything else ruined your day? What was the negative event? EV How did focusing it on make you feel? R If it was to happen to you today, what could you do to help balance your positivity weighing scales? P RIDE H O PE L O VE You live with your thoughts - so be careful what they are - Eva Arrington 18 Weaving Well-Being - Empowering Beliefs - Activity Book 2017 www.otb.ie - Copying of this page is illegal A N ER G

Weaving Well-Being THE MORE YOU WEAVE. THE BETTER YOU FEEL! PARENTAL PULL-OUT Parents: Please remove this centrefold carefully to avoid damaging the staples! Empowering Beliefs SPHE Programme - Parent Guide Research suggests that an individual’s beliefs have a powerful efect on their thoughts and behaviours. Self-eicacy beliefs, which are the beliefs a person holds about his/her own ability to master particular tasks or challenges, are strong predictors of motivation, self-conidence and actions. Research also shows that beliefs are formed early in life and can become a ilter through which subsequent events and situations are interpreted. Therefore, it is important to help children to examine and evaluate their beliefs and to expose them to positive beliefs which can build selfconidence and enhance well-being. Empowering beliefs, as the name suggests, are those beliefs which empower individuals by motivating and encouraging them to take action, to persevere, to maintain a positive focus and to deal constructively with failure. In line with this research, this Empowering Beliefs programme introduces children to eight beliefs about speciic concepts. They learn that empowering beliefs are like batteries because they provide us with power and energy. The children are encouraged to try out each belief for a week. They are given an opportunity to observe and record the efects of each belief on their feelings and behaviour. After trying out all of the beliefs on an individual basis, the children are then encouraged to continue to try all of their beliefs together. To gain maximum beneit from the beliefs, your child should be encouraged to use them as much as possible. There is a homework task each week which encourages practical use of the strategies and concepts. In order to help and encourage your child, you may ind the following information useful. IE W C Positive Psychology is concerned with the science of well-being, personal growth and resilience. It is founded on the concept of identifying and developing personal strengths. Positive Psychology uses evidence-based activities which help people to lourish, grow and engage with life on an optimal level whenever possible. Our lessons and activities introduce children to many of these strategies and activities which can empower them to become active participants in creating, maintaining and boosting positive mental health throughout their lives. Activities have been designed in accordance with the SPHE curriculum, and the Guidelines on Well-Being issued by the Department of Education and Skills (2015). Why are Empowering Beliefs important and how can we cultivate them in our children? O What is Positive Psychology? PY This short booklet is designed to give parents a brief introduction to the “Weaving Well-Being” programme and to help them support their children as they complete the Empowering Beliefs (6th Class) section of the programme. The Weaving Well-Being programme is a well-being programme for children speciically designed to promote positive mental health and lourishing in children. The skills are based on current research from the ield of Positive Psychology. R EV The Empowering Beliefs programme consists of ten lessons which are designed to promote and cultivate positive beliefs about eight speciic concepts. These are: Developing a growth mindset, using helpful self-talk, avoiding thinking traps, acting ‘as If,’ adopting a positive focus, making a diference, practising selfacceptance and taking action. Each child has an activity book which gradually builds into a highly personal portfolio relecting their use and understanding of each concept. Weaving Well-Being THE MORE YOU WEAVE. THE BETTER YOU FEEL! Weaving Well-Being by Fiona Forman & Mick Rock - Empowering Beliefs SPHE Programme - Parent Guide 2017 www.otb.ie I

Weaving Well-Being THE MORE YOU WEAVE. THE BETTER YOU FEEL! Lesson 1: What are Empowering Beliefs? In this lesson, children discuss and learn what empowering beliefs are. They explore the comparison between empowering beliefs and batteries. They learn that empowering beliefs are beliefs we have about ourselves which are helpful, positive and accurate. Empowering beliefs give us power because they afect our thoughts, feelings and actions. They help us to take positive action and feel good about ourselves. E O Lesson 2: Belief 1 – I can choose helpful self-talk In this lesson, children learn that self-talk is when we talk to ourselves, about ourselves, in our minds. They learn that self-talk can be helpful, when it is accurate and leads us to take positive action. It can also be negative and unhelpful, when we criticise ourselves and doubt our own abilities. ‘I Can Choose Helpful Self-Talk’ is an empowering belief because it shows us that we can become aware of, question and replace negative self-talk with accurate and encouraging self-talk. WERI N PO M G PY How to support your child: Talk to your child about the importance of empowering beliefs. For the homework activity, help your child to choose some empowering beliefs about himself or herself. Discuss why these beliefs are important and how they might afect feelings and actions. Remind your child of these beliefs in any situations this week when they may ind them helpful. C Helpf self-t ul alk LIE F S IE W BE EV How to support your child: Discuss the meaning of self-talk with your child. Try to tune into your own self-talk and use it as an example to show how it afects your feelings and behaviour. Encourage your child to verbalise their selftalk in any challenging situations this week and see if they can identify if it is helpful or unhelpful. Encourage them to challenge unhelpful self-talk and to replace it with some of the helpful phrases from the homework activity. It is important not to simply replace negative phrases with positive ones however, as this may be unrealistic and inaccurate. The aim is to choose accurate and encouraging self-talk. R WERI N PO M G In this lesson children discover that our talents, including our intelligence, are not ixed and can be developed and enhanced. They ind out the diference between a ixed and growth mindset. They also discover that developing a growth mindset helps us understand the important role that efort and hard work play in achieving success. They learn that we can develop a growth mindset by the language we use in describing both success and setbacks in our life. E Lesson 3: Belief 2 – My effort is as important as my ability My eff impo ort is rtant BE LIE F S How to support your child: Ask your child to explain the diference between a ixed and growth mindset. Discuss examples of times when you used efort and hard work to improve an area in your life or to achieve a goal. Also think about and discuss examples of times when your child worked hard to improve a particular skill or talent in the past. This could be in school, sport and any other extra-curricular activity in which they participate. II Weaving Well-Being by Fiona Forman & Mick Rock - Empowering Beliefs SPHE Programme - Parent Guide 2017 www.otb.ie

Weaving Well-Being WERI N PO M G Lesson 4: Belief 3 – I can recognise thinking traps E THE MORE YOU WEAVE. THE BETTER YOU FEEL! Rec In this lesson, children are introduced to inaccurate patterns of thought which are called Think ognise ing Tra Thinking Traps. They learn that they are called Thinking Traps because if we think like this, we ps often feel trapped and stressed. Two particular Thinking Traps are explored, Mind-Reading BE LIE F S and Catastrophizing. Mind-Reading is when we assume we know exactly what someone else is thinking, usually in a negative way. Catastrophizing is when we jump to the worst possible conclusion about what might happen. E O WERI N PO M G Lesson 5: Belief 4 – I can act 'as if' PY How to support your child: Encourage your child to become aware of any Thinking Traps they may fall into this week. Encourage them to identify the type of Thinking Trap and to challenge their thinking using reasonable thinking. Give examples of times when you might have used Thinking Traps yourself and whether or not you were aware of them. Encourage your child to explore the efects of Thinking Traps on feelings and behaviour. IE W C Act This lesson helps children to consider qualities or attributes that they would like to have ‘as if ’ more of and which they often admire in other people. They discover that they can achieve these qualities by simply acting as if they already had them. These qualities are made up of BE LIE F S a number of speciic actions or behaviours and once they identify what these are and do the same themsel

Empowering Beliefs about myself You will be learning about many empowering beliefs over the next number of weeks. Before that, choose some empowering beliefs for yourself by i lling in the sentences below. Think about them and use them over the next week. See what effect they have. Homewor k I believe that I am a _ person. I believe that I can