P - Pleasant Emotions

E - Engagement, and Flow

R - Relationships

M - Meaning, or remembering or rediscovering Purpose in your life. Using your character strengths and talents to create a difference.

A - Accomplishments, or things that make you say "YESSSS! I/We did it!!"

H - Health, of the body, of the heart, of the mind. Remember, physical health and mental health are interconnected.

Mental Health IS Health!

For more information on activities in Positive Psychology, see https://hfh.fas.harvard.edu/files/pik/files/activitiesforflourishing_jppw.pdf

The amount of stress we experience, in combination with the supports we have available to help us cope, determine how that stress might affect our brains and bodies (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, 2014).

Positive Stress: characterized by a mild stress response, including brief increases in heart rate and mild elevations in stress hormone levels. This type of stress alerts and prepares us – it can benefit us in situations where we need to be focused and energized. This type of stress actually builds healthy response systems to cope with future stress.

Tolerable Stress: characterized by a more serious but temporary physical stress response, consistently buffered by supportive relationships. These experiences would have the potential to negatively affect development, but with support from trusting relationships, they do not have long-term impact on the brain and body.

Toxic Stress: characterized by an intense, frequent, or chronic activation of the stress response system, in the absence of protective relationships. It is this type of stress that can change the way a child’s brain and body develop.

For all children, positive relationships and environments buffer the effects of stress and promote healthy development.

excerpted from https://turnaroundusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Stress-and-the-Brain_Turnaround-for-Children-032420.pdf

Play Time When we allow ourselves to be spontaneous or creative, playfully enjoying novel experiences, we help make new connections in the brain.

Connecting Time When we connect with other people, ideally in person, and when we take

time to appreciate our connection to the natural world around us, we activate and reinforce the brain's relational circuitry.

Physical Time When we move our bodies, aerobically if medically possible, we strengthen the brain in many ways.

Time In When we quietly reflect internally, focusing on sensations, images, feelings and thoughts, we help to better integrate the brain.

Down Time When we are non-focused, without any specific goal, and let our mind wander or simply relax, we help the brain recharge

Sleep Time When we give the brain the rest it needs, we consolidate learning and

recover from the experiences of the day.

Setting healthy boundaries requires good communication skills that convey assertiveness and clarity. Examples of poor communication?

1. When we hope that others will read our mind, and then when they don't, we give them the silent treatment. (passive)

2. Asking someone to do something, but if they don't do it immediately, we do it. When they ask why, we say, "It's just easier for me to do everything around here" (passive-aggressive)

3. Losing control, shouting, using "You" statements. (aggressive)

Assertive communication is an empowering tool to craft. Assertiveness involves expressing your feelings openly and respectfully. It means respecting both yourself AND the other person. It does not entail making demands, but it requires people to listen to you. Setting healthy boundaries requires you to assert your needs and priorities as a form of self-care.

"Feeling overwhelmed literally makes parts of your brain shut down. You might experience cognitive fatigue, sensory overload, burnout, physical exhaustion, a flood of thoughts, confusion, or the stress response, you may feel anxious, sweaty, teary, or panicky alternating in quick succession with wanting to give up, shut down, curl up into a ball, procrastinate and avoid everything.

So here’s what to do instead. Slow it down. Take a deep breath, and grab a large piece of paper and a pen.

Now do a brain dump, take everything in your head and write it down on paper, it doesn’t need to make sense, it doesn't need good handwriting or grammar, just put it on paper, make a list or a diagram if you want, just take all the things in your head and put them onto the paper.

Usually people feel better after that, but now we’re going to do one better… Cross off everything that’s not in your control - news stories, your bosses’ attitude, the weather, your mother in law’s opinions, your child’s mood…cross off anything that’s not in your realm of influence. Now if, for example, there’s something you need to do about your child’s behavior- like enforce a boundary or something- cross off- Tommy’s tantrums, you can’t control his feelings, instead write down “I need to enforce a boundary, and it’s so hard”.

After you’ve crossed off everything that you can’t control, and replaced a few of them with things in your control, it’s a terrible idea to try to do them all at once, so just take a deep breath, slow yourself down, and circle one action you’re going to take. Then set the paper aside and get back to life, do that one thing, or do what you need to be doing in the present moment. "

1. The secret to long-term happiness is just to have more everyday moment of fun.

2. Ingredients of fun:

- playfulness: having a lighthearted attitude of doing things for the sake of doing them and not care too much about the outcome.

- connection: shared, interact people.

- flow: the state that we so engaged and focused that we even lose track of time.

3. the most effective things you can do to have more fun is focus on its ingredients and fill your life with every moment of its:

- reduce distraction - ex : don’t constantly on your phone.

- try to connect more with people.

- finding oppoturnities to rebel - get yourself permission to kick out of your life.

- prioritize fun - carve out time for the activity or people often generate playful connected flow for you in your schedule