On the Coast – Families Issue 94 I June/July 2018 | Page 18

Developing Dreams
Developing Wellbeing:
Developing Dreams
by Catherine Schasser
STEP 3 OF 5 Happiness!
“Fostering empowerment in children,
educators and families by learned
optimism, cultivating happiness, and
building resiliency”
Recently I opened a newspaper created
by the NSW Teachers Federation and
was immediately exposed to a six page,
lift-out advertisement promoting Mental
Health & Wellbeing Conferences for
primary and secondary educators. It asked,
‘what do we need to do in the next ten
years, next week, tomorrow, to ensure
we are genuinely, realistically, effectively
supporting self-determination and
wellbeing in every young person?’ (Positive
Schools)
Google Wellbeing and you will be
offered 46 000 000 results.
‘Active wear’ is everywhere! While
healthy eating and exercise are extremely
positive methods in promoting wellbeing,
in isolation they are not the answer.
I’m grateful the world is consciously
shifting to an awareness of the need
to foster wellbeing and am confident
the continued efforts of professionals,
educators, families and communities will
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KIDZ O N T H E C OA ST
support the positive negotiation of this
fast-paced, media-rich and instantaneous
world our children have been provided.
With increasing and younger rates of
anxiety, depression, behavioural concerns
and suicide being recorded in children
and young adults, it is certainly time we
changed our focus.
In my own efforts to promote wellbeing
in families, I have designed five areas
which foster the development of wellbeing
(a state of being comfortable, happy or
healthy) and present them here in simple
and easy to apply concept for mums.
Appreciating the time and energy that
goes hand-in-hand with parenting, I’m not
certain many mothers are prioritising time
to research the facts and figures of how to
raise happy, healthy and resilient children,
when just getting a meal on the table some
days can be a call for celebration! I know
you value your child’s wellbeing however,
so trust you will take these five concepts
and apply them to your life. These areas
are based on research with a strong link
to Martin Seligman’s work on Flourishing
and include Belonging, Happiness, Flow,
Emotion Coaching and Gratitude as the five
“Life doesn’t come with
a manual, it comes
with a mother” ~
Author Unknown
areas to creating wellbeing. Throughout
the five issues of this year’s bi-monthly
Kidz On The Coast production, I am
presenting each area one by one to assist
you to incorporate more wellbeing in your
life and the lives of your children. This
editions article focuses on ‘Flow’. Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi states ‘flow is an optimal
state of consciousness, a peak state where
we both feel and perform our best’.
Think of a river or stream which has a
steady or consistent flow. When applied to
positive psychology, flow refers to being
in the ‘zone’ or having an energised focus
where one can lose sense of space and
time. When in flow, a person is absorbed
in a period of full involvement and focus
which may serve no purpose but to be
enjoyed. If given an environment which