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The Brain and Stress

On July 5, 2016   /   Effectiveness  

The healthier your brain is, the better you’ll be able to handle stress. Since the brain is a muscle, it needs exercise and nutrition to perform optimally. Following are some suggestions for increasing your brain power:

1. EXERCISE

Exercise can improve the brain’s executive functions of planning, organizing, and multi-switching to name a few. Exercise is also well known for its mood-boosting effects, and people who exercise are less likely to develop dementia as they age.

Exercise increases blood flow to the brain, which also increases the delivery of oxygen, fuel, and nutrients that encourage growth, communication, and survival of neurons. Exercise also improves sleep quality and immune functions. Senior citizens have shown that as little as 20 minutes of … >>>

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Disagreement and Stress

On June 30, 2016   /   Stress Management  

Disagreement between people causes stress—there’s no doubt about it. Sometimes the disagreement elevates to the point of verbal fighting. Once that occurs, the stress levels of both parties will be high, and agreement will be elusive.

Fortunately, you always have a choice in how you handle a situation. Rather than let a disagreement escalate, you can reduce stress by doing the following:

Say to the other person, “I don’t want to win; I just want to understand what you are saying. My objective is to CLARIFY, NOT INFLUENCE. You’re saying that you believe A B and C. I believe A B and D. So we really agree more than we differ.”

At the worst you have clarified. At the best … >>>

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Sitting Is The New Smoking

On June 19, 2016   /   Reduce Stress, Stress Management, Weekly Tips  

Sitting is the new smoking.

The human body was developed for movement.

A sedentary culture of sitting is taking a major toll on people’s health. When sitting for long periods of time, our bodies become less efficient. Sitting more than six hours a day puts you on a very unhealthy path—even if you exercise.

Sitting for long periods of time can actually make bottoms bigger because sitting down puts a large amount of force on the body tissues that make fat cells. People who sit for prolonged periods throughout the day are predisposed to developing diabetes as well as other health problems. In addition, lack of movement increases a propensity for depression and feeling blue.

Here are a few suggestions … >>>

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How To Handle a Monkey

On June 18, 2016   /   Reduce Stress, Stress Management, Weekly Tips  

When we do things for people that they can do for themselves, we deprive them of the opportunity to learn, grow, and become more self-sufficient.

Here is a technique I used as an elementary, middle, and high school principal and as a district director of education.

When my office was large enough to hold a table as well as my desk, I immediately welcomed the person and offered a seat at the table. This immediately removed any feelings of my being in an authority position.

I listened, and if the conversation was about a problem that I thought the person could handle, I immediately envisioned a monkey sitting on the person’s shoulder. My intent was to be sure that when … >>>

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Implementing Discipline Without Stress in Elective Classes

On June 16, 2016   /   Classroom Management  

Not all teachers see their students all day (or even every day for that matter). In many schools, elective type classes, such as art or music, only meet once per week for 45 minutes. For these teachers, implementing the Discipline Without Stress approach with such limited time can be a challenge. For these situations, here are my suggestions to make discipline easier.

  1. Make a poster or purchase one of the Levels of Development. At the outset, obtain examples from students or share your examples of what each level would look like so that students have a mental image of them. Let students know that you believe one of the most important things they can learn in school and in
… >>> READ MORE >>> →
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With Discipline, Your Questions Matter

On June 14, 2016   /   Discipline, Reflection  

One of the key concepts of the Discipline Without Stress book and approach is to ask reflective questions. Always remember, though, that “why” questions are not reflective and often will not curb the discipline problem you are trying to correct.

So, what’s wrong with “why” questions, especially when trying to discipline a youngster? “Why” questions have an accusatory overtone. They also block communications because such questions prompt negative feelings.

Let’s prove the point. Say the following question out loud so you can hear yourself:

“Why are you doing that?”

Notice that when you asked this question, your voice pitch rose higher and your volume increased. Also, notice the effect on your emotions when you asked this “Why?” question.

Now, say … >>>

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How To Avoid Saying NO

On June 12, 2016   /   Reduce Stress, Stress Management, Weekly Tips  

Ever say “NO!” to a person?

It seems rather obvious that the response to this question prompts negative feelings. If you ask for something and you receive a negative response, you will not be very pleased.

The negative response not only may prompt stress for the receiver of the comment, but it can also prompt negative feelings and some stress for the person giving the response. What parent or manager derives pleasure in saying “NO!” to someone?

Someone who was about to adopt a child asked me how to avoid the common response by so many parents of NOT continually saying, ‘No!’” (“No, you cannot do that!” “No, you cannot have that!”)

My response: Say “Not yet.”

These two words … >>>

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A Classroom Management Idea

On June 9, 2016   /   Classroom Management  

To encourage learning and reduce discipline disruptions during class time, consider implementing a jigsaw classroom. With this classroom management approach, students work in teams to master an assignment on which they will be tested. Just as in a jigsaw puzzle, each student in the group holds one piece essential for full understanding.

For example, in studying the creation of the American Constitution, each team member becomes a specialist on one area: the Southern viewpoint, the Northeastern Viewpoint, the middle states viewpoint. The specialists study their specific viewpoint with students from other groups studying the same topic. Then the specialists go back to their home group and teach the others.

To master the subject, the whole group must listen to what … >>>

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Discipline and Society

On June 7, 2016   /   Discipline Help  

Those who use the Discipline Without Stress methodology quickly realize that the approach has far reaching effects beyond the classroom. 

Presently, our whole society is plagued with values confusion, resulting in inappropriate behaviors and decisions in every aspect of life: work, politics, home, etc. In fact, undesirable behaviors (Levels A and B) are prevalent and rampant in our society. The news provides us with endless examples of this. It seems apparent that our whole society is now in need of “raising responsibility” and of becoming more conscious of choices made so that our society as a whole does not feel the negative effects.

Knowing this, schools need Discipline Without Stress now more than ever so that the emerging generations can … >>>

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Employing Your Nonconscious Mind

On June 4, 2016   /   Reduce Stress, Stress Management, Weekly Tips  

Make your nonconscious mind your friend.

The nonconscious mind believes what the conscious mind tells it. When a thought flits through your mind, your nonconscious mind “hears” it, believes it, and records it. Your conscious mind may forget about it immediately, but it’s in a permanent file in your brain.

Your nonconscious mind is the storehouse for your habits and all of what you do without consciously thinking about them, which means that your nonconscious mind has a profound effect on you.

For example, if you think that you will not sleep well tonight, your conscious mind believes you and creates a roadblock. If you think that you will not pass some employment or other exam, you are programming negative … >>>

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Avoid This Discipline Without Stress Mistake

On June 2, 2016   /   Discipline Help  

If you are new to the Disciple Without Stress approach, here is some advice:

One common early mistake teachers make is to think that knowledge of the levels, ABCD, is the “magic key” to Discipline Without Stress—that once students know the levels and can identify their level at any point in time, that all the teacher has to do is ask, “At what level is this behavior?” and the child will magically move to level C or D. If only it were that easy!

Realize that the levels are just a UNIQUE vocabulary aspect of Discipline Without Stress that enables teachers and students to more easily communicate about types of behavior choices. They also enable students to reflect silently in … >>>

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An Example of Why Rewards Don’t Work

On May 31, 2016   /   Discipline Help  

When it comes to discipline, many people think rewards are effective for changing behavior. Although the intentions are admirable, giving rewards for expected appropriate behavior does as much harm as good. Rewards are simply not an effective discipline approach.

The following example of why rewards don’t work was sent to me from a reader:

“I just wanted to quickly relay a rewards-based disaster. One of our seventh graders, in fact, the daughter of a teacher, recently wanted to go to the Positive Behavior Support (PBS) reward dance. She is an A honor roll student, never a discipline problem, and a wonderful kid. In the haste of ‘bribing’ misbehaving students to be good, we neglected to ‘reward’ her for doing what … >>>

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Working with Fear

On May 30, 2016   /   Reduce Stress, Stress Management, Weekly Tips  

Fear is often a by-product of negative thoughts. Unfortunately, we have an innate capacity for fear.

In 1919 psychologist John B. Watson conducted a controversial experiment to see whether fear could be learned.

A young boy he named “Little Albert” was shown different creatures, including a rat. At first, Albert showed no fear of the rat.

Then Watson paired the exposure with a harsh sound that scared the little boy. Soon, Little Albert would react with fear at just the sight of the rat alone.

In essence, this was an example of classic conditioning. We are all familiar with the example of Ivan Pavlov and his experiments of feeding a dog while ringing a bell. Soon Pavlov just rang the … >>>

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Procedures, Discipline, and Feelings

On May 26, 2016   /   Discipline Help  

When students are following procedures, they are at an acceptable level of behavior: Level C. At this point discipline isn’t an issue, and you don’t need rules. The procedures and expectations accomplish what rules are supposed to do, and your need for discipline help diminishes. Even better, the procedures and expectations are better than discipline because they spell out clearly and exactly what you want students to do.

Level D is always available as a choice. You might refer to that option a lot, but always word it as an OPTION, which is the secret to making it even more attractive.

With very young students, aim at getting them to understand the difference in a very simple concrete way … >>>

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Teach Procedure to Reduce Discipline Problems

On May 24, 2016   /   Discipline Help  

Why is classroom management (procedures) so important for reducing discipline issues?

1) If you don’t have good classroom management, you will have (to a greater or lesser degree) chaos. You can’t teach someone to be SELF-disciplined in the midst of chaos. Simple as that!

2) The Discipline Without Stress approach itself is actually based on handling most discipline problems by helping the undisciplined students with procedures to keep themselves in control. It’s hard to help someone else create effective procedures if you aren’t doing it well yourself.

The foundation of the RAISE RESPONSIBILITY SYSTEM (Part III of the DISCIPLINE WITHOUT STRESS TEACHING MODEL) is to be PROACTIVE by teaching procedures BEFORE problems occur. In fact, effective teachers don’t focus on … >>>

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Overcoming Fear and Anxiety

On May 22, 2016   /   Reduce Stress, Stress Management, Weekly Tips  

Fear and anxiety are natural emotions.

You may not know exactly why you feel these emotions, but when you do, you think something bad is about to happen—even if you don’t quite know what.

Since fear and anxiety do not naturally accomplish something positive, the trick is to manage them and put them to your use, rather than trying to ignore them.

The first step is to acknowledge these emotions—since you cannot initially change them.

The next step is to visualize them as positive sources for motivation. This can be likened to a soldier about to go into battle. The soldier uses courage to act regardless of the fear and anxiety.

My father, as articulate as he was, feared to … >>>

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Defeat Stress and Negativity

On May 19, 2016   /   Stress Management  

Stress levels for most people are at an all-time high these days. But does the greatest stress come from natural causes, or do PEOPLE prompt their greatest stress?

Upon reflection, I believe you will find that a NATURAL DISASTER or other negative circumstance stimulates us to think, “What can I do now?” and “What are my options?” However, when a SOMEONE ELSE does or says something that stimulates us in a negative manner, we may not think of our options. We simply suffer—allowing the unintentional, selfish, or cruel comment to actuate depressing feelings. So often, we allow ourselves to become victims without even realizing it. We create a life of stress instead of a life of joy.

As I state … >>>

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Make Discipline Stressless

On May 18, 2016   /   Discipline Help  

For many people, discipline is tough. And often, people seek out discipline help because they feel helpless in a situation—as if they have no choice in the discipline situation. (The youngster did this, which means I must react this way.) But the fact is that you always have a choice as to how you respond when a youngster makes a mistake or does something wrong. Choice makes discipline much easier.

Here are your choices: You can focus on the PAST, as in, “You should have been more careful!” Or you can focus on the FUTURE, as in, “Next time, what can we do so that your milk will not spill?” (Notice the use of the collaborative “we,” rather than “you.”)… >>>

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