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The 5 Keys to Social and Emotional Learning- Edutopia

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The 5 Keys to Social and Emotional Learning- Edutopia

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5 Keys to Successful Social and Emotional Learning

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Studies show that sustained and well-integrated social and emotional learning (SEL) engages students and improves achievement. Explore classroom practices that make up the most effective SEL programs.

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CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning)

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CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning)

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Advancing Social and Emotional Learning - CASEL

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CASEL is helping make evidence-based social and emotional learning an integral part of education, preschool through high school.

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CASEL. “Social and Emotional Core Competencies”

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CASEL. “Social and Emotional Core Competencies”

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Foster knowledge, skills, and attitudes across five areas of social and emotional competence;

Establish equitable learning environments and coordinate practices across four key settings that support students' social, emotional, and academic development.

Download more information on the framework (available in and Spanish).

Use our reflection protocol to facilitate a discussion on implementation efforts in your school, district, or other setting.

Read more about the 2020 update to our framework, which highlighted the potential of SEL in promoting educational equity and excellence.

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Communities

Communities. Community partners often provide safe and developmentally rich settings for learning and development, have deep understanding of community needs and assets, are seen as trusted partners by families and students, and have connections to additional supports and services that school and families need. Community programs also offer opportunities for young people to practice their social and emotional skills in settings that are both personally relevant and can open opportunities for their future. To integrate SEL efforts across the school day and out-of-school time, school staff and community partners should align on common language and coordinate strategies and communication around SEL-related efforts and initiatives.
Learn more: CASEL Guide to Schoolwide SEL - Community Partnerships

Families & Caregivers

Families & Caregivers. When schools and families form authentic partnerships, they can build strong connections that reinforce students' social and emotional development. Families and caregivers are children's first teachers, and bring deep expertise about their development, experiences, culture, and learning needs. These insights and perspectives are critical to informing, supporting, and sustaining SEL efforts. Research suggests that evidence-based SEL programs are more effective when they extend into the home, and families are far more likely to form partnerships with schools when their schools' norms, values, and cultural representations reflect their own experiences. Schools need inclusive decision-making processes that ensure that families-particularly those from historically marginalized groups-are part of planning, implementing, and continuously improving SEL.

Schools can also create other avenues for family partnership that may include creating ongoing two-way communication with families, helping caregivers understand child development, helping teachers understand family backgrounds and cultures, providing opportunities for families to volunteer in schools, extending learning activities and discussions into homes, and coordinating family services with community partners. These efforts should engage families in understanding, experiencing, informing, and supporting the social and emotional development of their students.
Learn more: CASEL Guide to Schoolwide SEL - Family Partnerships

Schools

Schools. Effectively integrating SEL schoolwide involves ongoing planning, implementation, evaluation, and continuous improvement by all members of the school community. SEL efforts both contribute to and depend upon a school climate where all students and adults feel respected, supported, and engaged.

Because the school setting includes many contexts-classrooms, hallways, cafeteria, playground, bus-fostering a healthy school climate and culture requires active engagement from all adults and students. A strong school culture is rooted in students' sense of belonging, with evidence that suggests that it plays a crucial role in students' engagement. SEL also offers an opportunity to enhance existing systems of student support by integrating SEL goals and practices with universal, targeted, and intensive academic and behavioral supports. By coordinating and building upon SEL practices and programs, schools can create an environment that infuses SEL into every part of students' educational experience and promotes positive social, emotional, and academic outcomes for all students.
Learn more: CASEL Guide to Schoolwide SEL

Classrooms

Classrooms. Research has shown that social and emotional competence can be enhanced using a variety of classroom-based approaches such as: (a) explicit instruction through which social and emotional skills and attitudes are taught and practiced in developmentally, contextually, and culturally responsive ways; (b) teaching practices such as cooperative learning and project-based learning; and (c) integration of SEL and academic curriculum such as language arts, math, science, social studies, health, and performing arts. High-quality SEL instruction has four elements represented by the acronym SAFE: Sequenced - following a coordinated set of training approaches to foster the development of competencies; Active - emphasizing active forms of learning to help students practice and master new skills; Focused - implementing curriculum that intentionally emphasizes the development of SEL competencies; and Explicit - defining and targeting specific skills, attitudes, and knowledge.

SEL instruction is carried out most effectively in nurturing, safe environments characterized by positive, caring relationships among students and teachers. To facilitate age-appropriate and culturally responsive instruction, adults must understand and appreciate the unique strengths and needs of each student and support students' identities. When adults incorporate students' personal experiences and cultural backgrounds and seek their input, they create an inclusive classroom environment where students are partners in the educational process, elevating their own agency. Strong relationships between adults and students can facilitate co-learning, foster student and adult growth, and generate collaborative solutions to shared concerns.
Learn more: CASEL Guide to Effective SEL Programs

Self-Awareness

Self-awareness: The abilities to understand one's own emotions, thoughts, and values and how they influence behavior across contexts. This includes capacities to recognize one's strengths and limitations with a well-grounded sense of confidence and purpose.

Such as:

Integrating personal and social identities

Identifying personal, cultural, and linguistic assets

Identifying one's emotions

Demonstrating honesty and integrity

Linking feelings, values, and thoughts

Examining prejudices and biases

Experiencing self-efficacy

Having a growth mindset

Developing interests and a sense of purpose

Check out this video from PBS Learning Media for more information.

Self-Management

Self-management: The abilities to manage one's emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations and to achieve goals and aspirations. This includes the capacities to delay gratification, manage stress, and feel motivation and agency to accomplish personal and collective goals.

Such as:

Managing one's emotions

Identifying and using stress management strategies

Exhibiting self-discipline and self-motivation

Setting personal and collective goals

Using planning and organizational skills

Showing the courage to take initiative

Demonstrating personal and collective agency

Check out this video from PBS Learning Media for more information.

Social Awareness

Social awareness: The abilities to understand the perspectives of and empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and contexts. This includes the capacities to feel compassion for others, understand broader historical and social norms for behavior in different settings, and recognize family, school, and community resources and supports.

Such as:

Taking others' perspectives

Recognizing strengths in others

Demonstrating empathy and compassion

Showing concern for the feelings of others

Understanding and expressing gratitude

Identifying diverse social norms, including unjust ones

Recognizing situational demands and opportunities

Understanding the influences of organizations and systems on behavior

Check out this video from PBS Learning Media for more information.

Responsible Decision-Making

Responsible decision-making: The abilities to make caring and constructive choices about personal behavior and social interactions across diverse situations. This includes the capacities to consider ethical standards and safety concerns, and to evaluate the benefits and consequences of various actions for personal, social, and collective well-being.

Such as:

Demonstrating curiosity and open-mindedness

Learning how to make a reasoned judgment after analyzing information, data, and facts

Identifying solutions for personal and social problems

Anticipating and evaluating the consequences of one's actions

Recognizing how critical thinking skills are useful both inside and outside of school

Reflecting on one's role to promote personal, family, and community well-being

Evaluating personal, interpersonal, community, and institutional impacts

Check out this video from PBS Learning Media for more information.

Relationship Skills

Relationship skills: The abilities to establish and maintain healthy and supportive relationships and to effectively navigate settings with diverse individuals and groups. This includes the capacities to communicate clearly, listen actively, cooperate, work collaboratively to problem solve and negotiate conflict constructively, navigate settings with differing social and cultural demands and opportunities, provide leadership, and seek or offer help when needed.

Such as:

Communicating effectively

Developing positive relationships

Demonstrating cultural competency

Practicing teamwork and collaborative problem-solving

Resolving conflicts constructively

Resisting negative social pressure

Showing leadership in groups

Seeking or offering support and help when needed

Standing up for the rights of others

Check out this video from PBS Learning Media for more information.

Social & Emotional Learning

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is an integral part of education and human development. SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.

SEL advances educational equity and excellence through authentic school-family-community partnerships to establish learning environments and experiences that feature trusting and collaborative relationships, rigorous and meaningful curriculum and instruction, and ongoing evaluation. SEL can help address various forms of inequity and empower young people and adults to co-create thriving schools and contribute to safe, healthy, and just communities.

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Our SEL framework, known to many as the "CASEL wheel," helps cultivate skills and environments that advance students' learning and development.

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How the two mindsets influence behaviour

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How the two mindsets influence behaviour

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Carol S. Dweck on how the two mindsets influence behaviour and achievement

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The human mind is an individual's most important performance tool. The Sentis Brain Animation Series takes you on a tour of the brain through a series of short and sharp animations. The series provides insights into psychology and neuroscience, and how these learnings may be applied to improve both individual and organisational outcomes. At Sentis, we use the animations to aid learning, share leadership messaging and embed training concepts.

To view more videos and animations visit the Sentis YouTube channel. If you are interested licensing our Brain Animation Series or using for non-profit educational purposes, please complete our licensing request form.

How the brain works

Discover the most amazing part of your body-your brain. This quick introduction provides a brief overview of the brain, including some fun and quirky facts.

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Brain Animation Series - Take a tour of your brain - Sentis

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The human mind is an individual's most important performance tool. The Sentis Brain Animation Series takes you on a tour of the brain through a series of short and sharp animations. The series provides insights into psychology and neuroscience, and how these learnings may be applied to improve both individual and organisational outcomes.

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Growth mindset. The power of "yet".

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The power of yet | Carol S Dweck | TEDxNorrköping

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Approaches to Learning across the IB Continuum

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Now that meditation has hit the cover of TIME, the Wisdom 2.0 conference has brought meditating executives to the headlines, and figures from Arianna Huffington to 50 Cent do the practice, a bit of backlash was inevitable.

But I was surprised to see my friend Tony Schwartz dissenting (at least a bit) in a New York Times blog " More Mindfulness, Less Meditation." Tony's sense of the working world ranks first class, but this time I think he got the facts wrong, in two ways.

To be sure, he nods to the well-established benefits of meditation: it lowers levels of the stress hormone cortisol, enhances the immune response, lifts mood, helps us recover more quickly from stress and sharpens focus.

But where he gets it wrong, in my reading of the data, is in expecting that practicing meditation should mean we experience fewer distractions. In fact the mind is wired to wander about 50% of the time, a Harvard study found (and FYI, it wanders most on your commute, while working, and when you're looking at a digital screen).

The scientific data suggests it's not that we have fewer distractions, but that we can handle them better. In fact, meditation takes advantage of the mind's wiring to wander to create an opportunity for mental training.

Wendy Hasenkamp and Laurence Barsalou at Emory University used brain imaging while people meditated and found four basic moves: you focus on one thing (say, your breath), your mind wanders off, you notice it wandered, and you shift attention back to that one thing again. And you do this over and over again.

Turns out that this simple movement of mind strengthens connections among the brain's circuits for concentrating. The more you practice, the stronger the connections.

This is the basic rep in our mental gym, quite akin to lifting free weights. The idea is not to stop our mind from wandering. The point is to be mindful of its wandering and shift to where you want it to be.

Some clarification here. "Mindfulness" refers to that move where you notice your mind wandered. With mindfulness you monitor whatever goes on within the mind. "Meditation" means the whole class of ways to train attention, mindfulness among them.

Some meditation methods just have you be mindful of whatever goes on within your mind-thoughts, feelings, fantasies, etc-without judging or reacting; this self-awareness in itself tends to quiet the mind. But in contrast many meditation methods are concentrative-you continually bring your mind back to one point of focus like your breath or counting or a simple sound you repeat mentally. Concentrative methods use mindfulness to notice when your mind wanders so you can bring it back to that one focus.

The other place Tony gets it wrong is in the expectation that meditation will resolve our inner conflicts or fix dysfunctional relationship patterns. It was never designed for that-psychotherapy was. Mindfulness and psychotherapy are like hammers and saws-different tools for different jobs.

Except that it turns out the two in combination are particularly powerful-witness the rise of mindfulness integrated with cognitive therapy, which studies find to be one of the most powerful treatments for everything from depression to, just perhaps, dysfunctional relationship patterns. The first big discovery: John Teasdale at the University of Oxford found that mindfulness plus cognitive therapy reduced episodes of depression by 50% in chronically depressed patients who were not helped by any other means, from drugs to electroconvulsive therapy.

Full disclosure: my wife Tara Bennett-Goleman was a pioneer in combining psychotherapy and mindfulness in her books Emotional Alchemy and more recently, Mind Whispering. (I just told her what I wrote here and she said, "Don't over-simplify, honey. It's a work in progress!")

This post was originally published on Daniel Goleman's LinkedIn blog. To read the original post, click here.

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Daniel Goleman responds to popular misconceptions of mindfulness.

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Understanding the Science of Moods at Work

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Understanding the Science of Moods at Work

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By Daniel Goleman

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Understanding the Science of Moods at Work By Daniel Goleman

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The Emotional Atmosphere of a Classroom Matters

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The Emotional Atmosphere of a Classroom Matters

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Daniel Goleman: The Emotional Atmosphere of a Classroom Matters

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Room to Breathe explores the personal transformations that happen for students, their families, and educators as mindfulness is introduced in a truly challenging public school environment. By providing a raw and realistic look at the experience, it shows how integrating mindfulness, along with patience, skill, collaboration and more, can transform even the most difficult classrooms.

The trailer and the full-length film are available to watch, below.

Watch the Trailer

Watch the Film

Continue the Conversation

Share it with your principal and colleagues, and tell us what you think at community@mindfulschools.org.

Inspired to learn more about integrating mindfulness in your work with youth? Take a course to learn mindfulness or teach it to youth.

Buy the DVD of Room to Breathe, with special features, for your library, school, or institution from The Video Project. Use Promocode "MINDFUL25" for 25% off.

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Room to Breathe explores the personal transformations that happen for students, their families, and educators as mindfulness is introduced in a truly challenging public school environment. By providing a raw and realistic look at the experience, it shows how integrating mindfulness, along with patience, skill, collaboration and more, can transform even the most difficult classrooms. The trailer and the full-length film are available to watch, below.

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We've partnered with 500 schools, trained over 70,000 educators, and we're just getting started. We help school communities create equitable and joyful learning environments that center collective well-being. #mindfulness #mindfulschools #wellbeing #belonging #mindfulteacher

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An Interview with Susan Kaiser Greenland

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An Interview with Susan Kaiser Greenland

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Taking Charge of Your Health & Wellbeing

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Susan Kaiser Greenland is a former corporate attorney who began to practice meditation when her children were young as a way of coping with a family crisis. As she developed mindfulness awareness through this practice, not only did she survive the crisis, but she learned that it is possible to access inner peace and stillness, even when the world seems out of control.

She began teaching these practices to her children with success and is now the author of the book, The Mindful Child, which aims to help other parents and professionals teach mindfulness awareness practices to children. Susan is also the co-founder of the Inner Kids Foundation, a program dedicated to bringing mindful awareness practices to inner-city and underserved communities in Los Angeles. She blogs regularly for The Huffington Post and the book has been heavily covered in the media, including The New York Times, National Public Radio, and CBS News, among others.

Watch the interview with Susan below to learn more about the book and how you can implement mindfulness practices with your children.

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Teaching Mindfulness to Children: An Interview with Susan Kaiser Greenland | Taking Charge of Your Health & Wellbeing

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Susan Kaiser Greenland is a former corporate attorney who began to practice meditation when her children were young as a way of coping with a family crisis. As she developed mindfulness awareness through this practice, not only did she survive the crisis, but she learned that it is possible to access inner peace and stillness, even when the world seems out of control.

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The Impact of Intensive Mindfulness Training on Attentional Control, Cognitive Style, and Affect

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The Impact of Intensive Mindfulness Training on Attentional Control, Cognitive Style, and Affect

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The Impact of Intensive Mindfulness Training...

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Daniel Siegel TEDx talk: Mindfulness and Neural Integration

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Daniel Siegel TEDx talk: Mindfulness and Neural Integration

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Mindfulness and Neural Integration: Daniel Siegel, MD at TEDxStudioCityED

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Carol Dweck - A Study on Praise and Mindsets

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Explore relevant areas of the brain with the 3D Brain Atlas. Click read more to access the Brain Atlas.

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Mindfulness is the state of active, open attention to the present. It is achieved by purposefully focusing on unfolding your experience in the present moment with a gentle and open mind. It means becoming aware of what is happening in the here and now, both internally and in the external world around you. It allows you to observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance without judging them to be "good" or "bad." When you're mindful, you live fully in the present moment instead of letting life pass you by.

The Mindfulness Toolkit was designed to introduce you to the concept of mindfulness, share the most current information regarding its benefits and applications and provide you with practical tools for beginning to incorporate mindfulness into your everyday life. As you explore the ideas and tools within the Mindfulness Toolkit, know there is no "right" or "wrong" way to begin practicing greater mindfulness. Remember, the journey of a thousand miles always begins with a single step.

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Mindfulness is the state of active, open attention to the present. The 'Mindfulness Toolkit' offers a variety of resources, such as audio files and tip sheets, to help users live more mindfully.

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Duck! Rabbit! | Read Aloud Storybook for Kids

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The Neuroscience of Reframing - And How to Do It

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The Neuroscience of Reframing - And How to Do It

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The Neuroscience of Reframing - And How to Do It

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The effects of praise for effort versus praise for intelligence on vocational education students

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The effects of praise for effort versus praise for intelligence on vocational education students

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Full article

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When another person gets you, how does it make you feel? At times, it seems like we don't really want to understand one another. Maybe it's because we're too busy paying attention to our own feelings or perhaps we're so immersed in our digital worlds that we simply forget about in-person interactions. Yet those of us who have previously experienced empathy, even only once, will likely agree that it could profoundly change how we see the world and, of course, our roles in it.

Empathy is practical and beneficial; because of it, people are able to reach out to one another in a time of need or during a time of celebration. It has the power to unite strangers and solidify bonds between communities helping people maintain positive relationships, as well as respect for one another. Knowing that we are understood makes our suffering more bearable and our lives more enjoyable.

Because of our hyperconnected age, information about what's happening in the world travels very fast. With just a few clicks of our mouse, we can find information about different products, places and their inhabitants. Statistical studies tell us that we can reach anyone in the world via five to eight connections; referrals are now more efficient than ever. Communication is becoming easier by the minute, but without empathy it's superficial at best.

Empathy is wired in our brains. As a matter of fact, we have entire circuits dedicated to it. For instance, when we see someone engage in an activity or go through a particular experience, mirror neurons ignite in our brains. They play a role in helping us understand what someone else is going through, as if we were the ones having the experience. However, there is much speculation about their exact function. Many cognitive neuroscientists and neuropsychologists believe that mirror neurons play an important role in helping us learn new skills by imitation. Others believe that they act as the neural basis of empathy itself; we don't know.

More important, we're not even sure if the capacity for empathy is unique to humans. It could be natural to other life forms since there are many studies that suggest animals and even plants have empathetic tendencies. In humans, mirror-neuron activity has been found in areas related to somatosensory input and motor circuits, and, from an evolutionary perspective, they help us cooperate with other members of society more efficiently. In other words, they are survival mechanisms.

There are other very interesting findings about how empathy affects our choices and behaviors. Dr. Paul Bloom, a professor of psychology at the Yale Infant Cognition Center, and his team carried out research that showed how 3- to-9-month-old infants had an almost universal preference for kind and social behaviors when exposed to different simplified behavior patterns that were either kind or unkind, social, or anti-social.

In one experiment, babies between 6 and 10 months old repeatedly watched a puppet show. Simple wooden shapes with attached eyes represented the characters. They saw a red circle attempt to climb a hill while a yellow triangle pushed it back down. They also saw a blue square help the red circle by getting behind it and pushing it up. After seeing the puppet show several times, the babies were asked to choose their favorite puppet. They chose the blue square more than 80 percent of the time; it was the helpful character.

In a similar study involving a cat puppet playing ball with two bunny puppets, a helpful one and a not-so-helpful one, yielded similar results. Lead author Dr. J. Kiley Hamlin stated, "Telling the difference between good guys and bad guys might be something that infants come to the world with." How can infants understand social norms? They aren't educated about what's acceptable or even polite; they don't know what's considered good or bad. Yet they almost always show preference for characters that behaved kindly. Is empathy responsible for this phenomenon? Are mirror neurons at work here?

Worldwide empathy can bring about worldwide compassion. If it can be cultivated, shouldn't our culture and society attempt to do so? It's in our best interest to strive for a more peaceful and tolerant coexistence.

This article is updated from its initial publication in Brain World Magazine's print edition.

More From Brain World

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Three- to 9-month-old infants have a universal preference for kind and social behaviors. In other words, we are born with a brain that is wired for empathy.

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Social and emotional learning framework: CASEL

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Social and emotional learning framework: CASEL

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02.2: Example social and emotional learning framework: CASEL

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Learner Profile, ATL skills and SEL skills

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Learner Profile, ATL skills and SEL skills

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Counselors and Teachers Say...

"These days, everyone is buzzing about the need to integrate mindfulness and social and emotional learning into schools. Well, here is a program that has been doing it successfully for almost 20 years. I am astounded by this beautiful curriculum. Linda and her colleagues have created a brilliantly practical guide for teachers, one that understands kids - both how they think, and their imaginative capacities. ...This is a model for the classroom of the future." -Jeff Warren, Mindfulness Teacher and co-author with Dan Harris of Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics.

"I started using the curriculum and it's wonderful! The lessons are easy to follow and very well thought out. The curriculum fits well with the Mindful Schools training that I did a few years ago. I'm very pleased with my purchase." Kree Barus, Elementary School Teacher

"You have done such an outstanding job and this is such a comprehensive curriculum. I am implementing your program ...and strongly encouraging my colleagues in our district to do so also. " Cathy Stainbrook, School Counselor
Read more testimonials here!

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Counselors and Teachers Say... "These days, everyone is buzzing about the need to integrate mindfulness and social and emotional learning into schools. Well, here is a program that has been doing it successfully for almost 20 years. I am astounded by this beautiful curriculum.

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See all of it if you want, but now, only up to 5'37''

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Healthy Habits of Mind focuses on the value of mindfulness in the education system. Learn about the neuroscience, observe educator training, and watch the beauty of children practicing mindful breathing, listening, eating, movement, and heartfulness.

Watch the Film

Continue the Conversation

About the Filmmaker

Mette Bahnsen graduated with an MA in film studies from Aarhus University and has produced educational documentaries since 2001 through her own production company, Persona Film. The vision of Persona Film is to disseminate research, best practices, and create debate while highlighting narrative and visual structures. Mette has produced films on a variety of subjects including mindfulness, language, schizophrenia, relational competence, and more. Her upcoming documentary is about Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction in the Danish Healthcare System, featuring Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn. Learn more...

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Healthy Habits of Mind, The Film | Mindful Schools

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Healthy Habits of Mind focuses on the value of mindfulness in the education system. Learn about the neuroscience, observe educator training, and watch the beauty of children practicing mindful breathing, listening, eating, movement, and heartfulness. Watch the Film https://player.vimeo.com/video/70357535 Continue the Conversation Share it with your principal and colleagues, and tell us what you think at community@mindfulschools.org.

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CASEL - MYP ATL Self-management skill indicators 

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CASEL - MYP ATL Self-management skill indicators 

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How Cognitive Distortions Can Fuel Your Stress

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How Cognitive Distortions Can Fuel Your Stress

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When you think about your life, it is quite possible that your mind is playing tricks on you that can distort your view. Cognitive distortions-where your mind puts a 'spin' on the events you see and attaches a not-so-objective interpretation to what you experience-happen all the time. We all have cognitive distortions, which are simply tendencies or patterns of thinking or believing, and they are especially common in people with depression and other mood disorders.

Psychologist Aaron T. Beck originally came up with the theory of cognitive distortions in the 1960s, and many therapists since then have helped clients live more positive lives by hunting down their cognitive distortions and correcting them. (It's one of the tenets of a very successful and fast-working mode of therapy called cognitive therapy.)

When you know what to be on the lookout for, it becomes rather easy to spot the cognitive distortions in others. It may be a little more challenging to spot your own, but it is possible. Doing so usually brings lasting positive change in the way you experience stressors in your life.

An interesting thing to note is that several cognitive distortions can actually work to your advantage. The key is to know when and how to do so.

Here are the 10 most common (and officially recognized) cognitive distortions, with examples of how they relate to stress. You might find yourself smiling as you recognize one or two as familiar "friends." If in the coming days, you look for them and gently correct them, you'll be well on your way to reducing your reactivity to the stress in your life.

Press Play for Advice On Dealing With Cognitive Distortions

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All-or-Nothing Thinking

This type of distortion is the culprit when people think in extremes, with no gray areas or middle ground. All-or-nothing thinkers often use words like "always" and "never" when describing things. "I always get stuck in traffic!" "My bosses never listen to me!" This type of thinking can magnify the stressors in your life, making them seem like bigger problems than they may, in reality, be.

Overgeneralization

Those prone to overgeneralization tend to take isolated events and assume that all future events will be the same. For example, an overgeneralizer who faces a rude sales clerk may start believing that all sales clerks are rude and that shopping will always be a stressful experience.

Mental Filter

Those who tend toward mental filtering may gloss over positive events and hold a magnifying glass to the negative. Ten things can go right, but a person operating under the influence of a mental filter may only notice the one thing that goes wrong. (Add a little overgeneralization and all-or-nothing thinking to the equation, and you have a recipe for stress.)

Disqualifying the Positive

Similar to mental filtering, those who disqualify the positive tend to treat positive events like flukes, thereby clinging to a more negative worldview and set of low expectations for the future. Have you ever tried to help a friend solve a problem, only to have every solution you pose shot down with a "Yeah but..." response? You've witnessed this cognitive distortion firsthand.

Jumping to Conclusions

People do this one all the time. Rather than letting the evidence bring them to a logical conclusion, they set their sights on a conclusion (often negative) and then look for evidence to back it up, ignoring evidence to the contrary. The kid who decides that everyone in his new class will hate him, and 'knows' that they're only acting nice to him in order to avoid punishment, is jumping to conclusions. Conclusion-jumpers can often fall prey to mind reading (where they believe that they know the true intentions of others without talking to them) and fortune-telling (predicting how things will turn out in the future and believing these predictions to be true). Can you think of examples of adults you know who do this? I bet you can.

Magnification and Minimization

Similar to mental filtering and disqualifying the positive, this cognitive distortion involves placing a stronger emphasis on negative events and downplaying the positive ones. The customer service representative who only notices the complaints of customers and fails to notice positive interactions is a victim of magnification and minimization. Another form of this distortion is known as catastrophizing, where one imagines and then expects the worst possible scenario. It can lead to a lot of stress.

Emotional Reasoning

This one is a close relative of jumping to conclusions in that it involves ignoring certain facts when drawing conclusions. Emotional reasoners will consider their emotions about a situation as evidence rather than objectively looking at the facts. "I'm feeling completely overwhelmed, therefore, my problems must be completely beyond my ability to solve them," or, "I'm angry with you; therefore, you must be in the wrong here," are both examples of faulty emotional reasoning.

Should Statements

Those who rely on 'should statements' tend to have rigid rules, set by themselves or others, that always need to be followed - at least in their minds. They don't see flexibility in different circumstances, and they put themselves under considerable stress trying to live up to these self-imposed expectations. If your internal dialogue involves a large number of 'shoulds,' you may be under the influence of this cognitive distortion.

Labeling and Mislabeling

Those who label or mislabel will habitually place labels that are often inaccurate or negative on themselves and others. "He's a whiner." "She's a phony." "I'm just a useless worrier." These labels tend to define people and contribute to a one-dimensional view of them, paving the way for overgeneralizations to move in. Labeling cages people into roles that don't always apply and prevents us from seeing people (ourselves included) as we really are. It's also a big no-no in relationship conflicts.

Personalization

Those who personalize their stressors tend to blame themselves or others for things over which they have no control, creating stress where it need not be. Those prone to personalization tend to blame themselves for the actions of others or blame others for their own feelings.

If any of these feel a little too familiar, that's a good thing: recognizing a cognitive distortion is the first step of moving past it.

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How Cognitive Distortions Can Fuel Your Stress

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Cognitive distortions can contribute significantly to stress. Learn about common cognitive distortions so you can recognize and free yourself of them.

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I've failed at quite a few things in my life.

As a kid, I tried guitar, the cello, and piano - all with mediocre (at best) results. I quickly dumped instruments for sports. But I learned that even despite my height, I wasn't very good at basketball. Or soccer. Or tennis. (I was atrociously bad at tennis, to be fair.)

As an adult, failures continued. I didn't get that " dream job" I wanted. I was rejected from a graduate school program I really wanted to attend. I've pitched a chapbook to dozens of publishers with dozens matched in rejection letters. I had an idea for a new way of doing things at work - and it didn't work out. Even some relationships and friendships failed.

But along the way, I learned. I learned from my mistakes . I learned what my strengths were. I learned where I wanted to take my career. I learned that failures don't define me. I learned that in order to succeed, I needed to fail. And I learned that it's possible to get better at something - even after you've failed.

When you experience a failure, you can feel it in your gut. You may think to yourself, "I'm never coming back from this." Your confidence and self-esteem can take a hit. You might not want to try something new again.

It took Thomas Edison 10,000 attempts to perfect the light bulb . Arianna Huffington was rejected by 36 publishers . Bill Gates' first company was a complete disaster .

Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper job for lack of creativity. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team . Oprah Winfrey was fired from her first job , where she experienced sexual harassment in a hostile work environment.

The most successful people in the world have failed, often. How are you learning from failure? What lessons can failure teach you? Where can you find gratitude in failure?

What is failure?

We've all experienced failure. And honestly, our definition of failure might vary depending on our experiences. So, what is failure ?

But at its core, failure is defined as a lack of success. Failure is defined as the inability to meet an expectation. Here are some examples of failure:

A high school student needs to get an A on a math test to get a B in the class. They study and work with the teacher one-on-one. But when the test results come back, they received a B. This means they will get a C+ in the class.

A job seeker recently learned new skills through a workforce development program. They've graduated from the program but can't seem to find a job. They've applied to almost 50 jobs with no interviews.

An employee recently got promoted to become a people manager. However, in annual performance reviews, they learn their team is really struggling. The team isn't delivering on its goals. On top of it, the manager is receiving upward feedback that they need to work on their people management skills.

"We learn more from our failures than from our successes. Not only do we find out what doesn't work so that we can adjust our future attempts, we learn about ourselves in the process and gain a bit of empathy towards others that might be struggling as well."

Kealy Spring, Leadership Fellow Coach, BetterUp

People have studied failure. There's growing research and science around what it means to fail. In fact, failure has been a proven prerequisite for success . But here's the catch: failure only works to your advantage if you learn from your failures.

What do you learn from failure?

Failure hurts. It doesn't make us feel good. It can put our perfectionism to the test. It can be difficult to pick ourselves up to try again.

So, what do you learn from failure? Short answer: a lot more than you think.

Resilience

From failure, we learn resiliency. It's hard to not learn how to build resilience after a failure, especially if you're determined to overcome failure.

Resilience is an important life skill to build. And when you build (and learn) resilience, it helps you in other ways, too. Resilience can help you build a growth mindset. It can help you adopt the right behaviors to overcome change. And it can help you build grit, tenacity, and motivation.

Humility

Our egos are sensitive. They can grow and evolve into beasts of their own. And most of the time, a healthy dose of failure is good for our ego. It keeps us humble. Failure can teach us how to embody important characteristics, like humility in leadership .

Flexibility

Even the best-laid plans are disrupted. And that goes for failures, too. You might've set a goal that you've realized you've overestimated the scope. You've learned from your first failure that you need to adjust your goal. Or maybe, you can still achieve your goal. You just need to adjust your approach.

That's where flexibility comes in. I often think of the phrase: You can't do the same thing over and over and expect different results. Failures teach us flexibility, adaptability, and how to overcome obstacles. It teaches us to use change to our advantage. It keeps us nimble and helps us adopt that growth mindset.

Innovation and creativity

Much like flexibility, innovation and creativity can present themselves as lessons of failure.

I studied creative writing. One of my favorite professors used to congratulate us for completing a crappy first draft. He'd say, "Be okay with the crappy first draft. It'll get better and better your third, fourth, fifth draft."

Edison didn't land the lightbulb on the first, second, or even thousandth try. It took 10,000 tries to perfect the lightbulb. Innovation and creativity take time, iterations, and failures along the way. Practice some patience and Inner Work® to keep the creative juices flowing, even amid failure.

Motivation

I'm one of those people who when someone tells me I can't do something, it makes me that much more determined to prove them wrong.

Motivation is a valuable and important lesson from failure. Oftentimes, our failures are motivators. For example, let's say you're practicing your presentation skills. You've done multiple presentations and public speaking opportunities. And you make mistakes along the way. But by your tenth presentation, you finally nail it flawlessly.

Seeing progress along the way is a big motivator. Failure can help fuel our motivation and help us reach our goals.

Why is it important to learn from failure?

We're human beings. That means we enter this world with a lot of opportunities for growth and personal development. Together, we're on this collective journey to better ourselves (and the world around us). But in order to do so, we need to fail.

It's important to learn from failure because it brings us one step closer to reaching success. It's been cited that one in four entrepreneurs fail at their business before succeeding.

Duke University professor Sim Sitkin dubbed the term "intelligent failures." Intelligent failures are good for us because it brings us knowledge, value, and insight. What's important to remember is that we need to pause and reflect. We need to pay close attention to our failures to be able to learn from them.

How does failure lead to learning?

There are plenty of learning opportunities hidden in our failures . But how does failure lead to learning? Here are three ways failure leads to learning.

Failure puts us back to square one

By definition, failure means that we didn't achieve success. It forces us back to square one, more often than not.

But after failing, we know that we can't approach the same task or goal in the same way. We wouldn't achieve the same result. So, the act of failure inevitably leads to thinking of new ways to overcome obstacles.

Failure forces us to examine what went wrong

Reflection is an important part of failure. Without reflection, we wouldn't learn. It's important that after we fail, we take a moment to sit with it.

What about the failure went well? What didn't go well? Where can we pinpoint what went wrong? It helps us to figure out how to course correct and do it better the next time.

Failure allows us to innovate

As the phrase goes, we can't keep doing the same thing and expect the same results. Innovation is critical to learning. But in order to innovate, we need to know what went wrong.

Failure leads to learning because we're able to identify where we went off track. From there, we can implement new ideas, new approaches, and new strategies. All of this results in increased innovation and creativity, which aids us in our learning journey.

5 tips for learning from failure

We've all failed. But we can learn to fail gracefully to help expedite the learning process. Here are five tips for learning from failure.

5 tips for learning from failure

1. Don't give up

2. Adopt a growth mindset

3. Practice Inner Work®

4. Be courageous

5. Build mental fitness

1. Don't give up

We've all been there. A failure particularly stings and we want to just throw in the towel.

Here's your sign that you shouldn't. Be persistent in pursuit of your dreams. It might take some reframing of perspectives. For example, can you break your big goal into little wins?

I have a lifelong goal of publishing a book. I've tried writing various novels over the years. But the idea of writing a full book sounds so daunting and intimidating. I've abandoned my ideas over and over again.

But now, I'm in a couple of creative writing classes. I'm setting smaller goals for myself. Instead of having a full book as my goal, I'm trying to focus on writing 2,000 words a week. It keeps me motivated and prevents me from giving up.

"If you recently failed at something, give yourself a moment to process it, feel the emotions whatever they may be, and then work to reframe the perceived failure as an opportunity for growth. Ask yourself, 'what did I learn from that?' It is ultimately about cultivating a growth mindset and celebrating the effort rather than the result."

Kealy Spring, Leadership Fellow Coach, BetterUp

2. Adopt a growth mindset

You have to want to learn to actually learn from failure. To do this well, you need to adopt a growth mindset. A growth mindset embraces challenges. It perseveres even in failures. People can learn, change, and adapt. It wants to learn and grow. It accepts and embraces constructive feedback and constructive criticism.

And it's not easy. But a fixed mindset doesn't set up anyone for success. Think of ways you can change your perspective around your day-to-day interactions as a start.

3. Practice Inner Work®

The science behind Inner Work® shows incredible mental fitness benefits. Inner Work® looks different for everyone. For example, a 30-minute walk in the morning can be your daily Inner Work®. Or a week away from work while you take advantage of your unlimited PTO. Or just a three-minute journaling session or mindful moment.

Whatever your Inner Work® looks like, practice it. Embed Inner Work® into your daily habits. You'll find better clarity, more productivity, increased creativity and innovation, and more.

4. Be courageous

During the most recent winter Olympics, a video of a four-year-old going snowboarding went viral . The father of the little girl hooked her up to a microphone to record her positive self-talk while she cruises down the mountain. In the video, you can hear her say, "I won't fall. Maybe I will. That's OK 'cause we all fall."

To fail takes courage. But to try again after failure takes even more. It's OK if you fail (and then fail again). But have the courage to get up and try and try again.

5. Build mental fitness

Hand-in-hand with a growth mindset comes mental fitness. Look at failure as a learning journey. What skills can you pick up along the way? What tools can you add to your toolbox? What new things can you take away from your failures?

Start building your mental fitness plan with failures as part of your journey. With increased mental fitness, you'll find yourself better equipped to weather the ups and downs of life. BetterUp can help you on your mental fitness journey.

10 quotes about learning from failure

Wise words have been said about failure. We've compiled ten of our favorite quotes about learning from failure . Here are some words of wisdom to add to your desk or fridge.

1. "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." ― Winston S. Churchill

2. "Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it." ― Salvador Dali

3. "You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it." ― Maya Angelou

4. "It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed." ― Theodore Roosevelt

5. "Success, after all, loves a witness, but failure can't exist without one." ― Junot Díaz

6. "I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others." ― Amelia Earhart

7. "Children have a lesson adults should learn, to not be ashamed of failing, but to get up and try again. Most of us adults are so afraid, so cautious, so 'safe,' and therefore so shrinking and rigid and afraid that it is why so many humans fail. Most middle-aged adults have resigned themselves to failure." ― Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X

8. "You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space." ― Johnny Cash

9. "It's only when you risk failure that you discover things. When you play it safe, you're not expressing the utmost of your human experience." ― Lupita Nyong'o

10. "It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure." ― Bill Gates

What do you notice about all of these quotes? What reframing can you bring to your perspective?

Learn to embrace your failures

Everyone experiences failure. And oftentimes, it's the fear of failure that stands in the way of our success. Failure has inherently come with the idea that it's a bad thing. But in reality, the best failures are the best learners. From business leaders to celebrities, successful people are built on failure.

With the right mindset and permission to fail, you can learn valuable lessons. Our past failures are a part of the learning experience. And sometimes, it's the major failures that teach us the most.

How can you shift your thought process around failure? Can you tackle your fear of failure head-on? Reaching our full human potential means that we're inevitably bound to fail. But instead of wallowing, try courage. Instead of pity, try grit. Instead of defeat, try persistence.

Learning to fail can help build your mental fitness, one step at a time. And with strong mental fitness, you can unlock your full potential and achieve your dreams. BetterUp can help. Get started with a coach today.

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Why Learning From Failure is Your Key to Success

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Failure is inevitable. It's how we respond that matters. Here are 5 strategies for learning from failure - and how it may be your key to success.

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Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work | TED Talk

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Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work | TED Talk

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We believe we should work hard in order to be happy, but could we be thinking about things backwards? In this fast-moving and very funny talk, psychologist Shawn Achor argues that, actually, happiness inspires us to be more productive.

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Considering your own experience as listeners

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Considering your own experience as listeners

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Considering your own experience as listeners

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Programme standards and practices (from 2020+)

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Programme standards and practices - from 2020+

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Alison Yang - Approaches to Learning resource

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This diagram was inspired by the blog post, The agile learner in a VUCA world, written by @alohalavina. VUCA is an acronym used to describe volatility , uncertainty , complexity , and . Put simply, we live in a fast-changing world and in such unfamiliar environment, we face unpredictable changes, often are required to make decisions in complex systems, and to take uncertain actions that are outside of our expertise. We need to rethink education and build students' capacity for the VUCA world.

Developing becomes more important than ever through the schooling process. Learners must equipped with skills and strategies that allow them to be thinkers, communicators, risk-takers, inquirers, reflective, caring, open-minded, balanced, principled and knowledgable. If we can truly follow the framework of the IB curriculums and develop a continuum, I am hopeful that we can develop students who strive for understanding, nurture passion in self and others, as well as take actions ethically. ​

Having this big picture in mind, we help students to develop these skills and stretch their learnability. One way to do this is to align the objective (learning target), skill indicator, and strategy. Most importantly, we also need to take an evidence-based approach to monitor their progress and provide cognitive coaching conversation. The process of practicing and developing skills must be deliberate in order for students reach mastery. The use of the strategy must be practiced several times as repetition of learning is the key to mastery. We can relate this teaching approach to the concept of apprenticeship. When teaching approaches to learning skills, think about Mr. Miyagi in the the movie, Karate Kid!

Here are some strategies that can help to build the skills. The skill indicators are merely suggestions by the IB. These skills are not the definitive or exhaustive list of ATL skills. Schools are not required to cover them all. Instead, I think the important point is for schools to consider their own contexts, reflect on their school missions and develop own continuum of approaches to learning skills that can prepare students for the future.

Strategies must be used intentionally and practice deliberately. When choosing the strategy to explicitly teach specific skills, we need to consider our subject specific objectives, the complexity of of summative assessment, desired learning outcomes, and the age appropriateness. This document is named "ATL Smörgåsbord". Just like you are going to a buffet, there is a wide variety of food, and you will take only what you need.

ATL Toolkit by Excited Educator Lenny Dutton: Lenny has created many amazing resources to help teachers teach ATL skills. She inspired me to create the ATL Smörgåsbord and collect explicit teaching strategies. Check out her website for more ideas.

The Art of Learning by Lance King: Lance emphasized the importance of helping students develop approaches to learning skills way before the IB made it a required component. He has shared and collected many amazing resources to support teachers in explicitly teaching ATL skills.

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This diagram was inspired by the blog post, The agile learner in a VUCA world , written by @alohalavina. VUCA is an acronym used to describe volatility , uncertainty , complexity...