What I've taken from this topic is that it is important to be persistent, skillful, and gritty in order to keep a steady flow of work/emotions. The 3 Good Things Exercise is probably my favorite because you can apply it to almost anything and recieve great feedback from it.
I like this exercise:
For teams or classrooms
At the end of a meeting or a class, ask the group to reflect on the three most positive things from the session. Discuss how and why they happened, honoring the diversity of the members, and how you can cultivate more positivity for everyone in the future.
Prior to signing up for this course I had been vaguely familiar with the term "positive psychology". I had been exposed to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's work on Flow but only viewed it as a stand alone concept, not as just a piece to a more comprehensive approach to maximizing a student's potential. My student population is a little unique - active duty military members. Being exposed to PERMA has given me some new tools in preparing my population for the challenges they face in transitioning back to civilian life. It may or may not be widely known that we have lost more service members and veterans of the post 9/11 wars to suicide than to combat operations over the same time period. We have a lot of work to do to change that trajectory...utilizing the PERMA model is a good start.
I learrned how important intrinsic motivation is. How grit helped me to persevere and accomplish my most difficult goals.
I think it is important to remember why you got into teacher, for me, to help others.
I agree with this lesson about positive feelings, self esteem, and having a sense of being needed. Those are great elements for learning.
Outstanding reflective exercises for Flow, Grattitude, & defining Meaningful Work - for individuals as well as in group or team settings.
I gained a greater appreciation for the value of "Fake it til you make it" by completing purposeful mind-focusing exercises like these in positive thinking.
