My Wellbeing Journal – Year 8 by learning_curve

YEAR 8 MY WELLBEING JOURNAL DEVELOPING MY BEST SELF as a Young Person and as a Student.

Your choices shape your life. Choosing to develop your best self is a great first choice.

AS A YOUNG PERSON What do I expect from myself as a young person? ........................................................................................................................................................................ ........................................................................................................................................................................ ........................................................................................................................................................................ • show gratitude to do good to feel good and feel good to do good. • show empathy for others’ needs and feelings.

AS A STUDENT What do I expect from myself as a student? ........................................................................................................................................................................ ........................................................................................................................................................................ ........................................................................................................................................................................ • use grit to challenge myself to deliberately practise. • develop growth mindsets to stretch my brain’s abilities. Acknowledgement: Sonja Lyubomirsky & Tal Ben Shahar

CHARACTER STRENGTHS WEEKS

There are eight Character Strengths Week spread throughout this journal. They provide you and your class with opportunities to practise using your strengths to build your wellbeing. They are also fun to do at home with your family. There are Wellbeing Award Certificates for each of these weeks. The order of these weeks are: Gratitude, Curiosity, Teamwork, Love of Learning, Kindness, Perseverance, Leadership, Zest. From the website www.learningcurve.com.au , download the Strengths Weeks sheets from Individual Resources/Character Strengths Weeks and the Wellbeing Awards Certificates from Individual Resources/Wellbeing Awards.

KINDNESS WEEK There is a Japanese saying which says that one kind word can warm three winters. Share with students that being kind to others, and to themselves, are great ways to live a full and happy life and make a difference in the world. Kind acts don’t have to be big. Sometimes a smile or saying “hello” are kind acts which bring warmth to others. A good idea this week is to make a Kindness Wall in your classroom for your class to write down or draw kind things they did for others or kind things others did for them. Also, at home, make a Kindness Wall in their bedroom or on the fridge in the kitchen for your family to write down and draw kind things they did for others or others did for them this week. This Week’s Kind Gratitude: This week write down or draw times you were kind to others or others were kind to you, that you were grateful for.

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realise they were the big things.” Robert Brault

PERMAH+ Your Mental and Physical Wellbeing This Lesson: The PERMAH+ Learning Intention is for you to learn about the PERMAH+ model to describe your wellbeing. PERMAH+ Reflection: what elements make up your wellbeing? To develop your wellbeing, reflect on how and what you are doing to develop each of the PERMAH+ elements.

POSITIVE EMOTION + GRATITUDE – to create positive emotions, handle negative emotions and be grateful for your mental and physical wellbeing.

What do you do or could do to create positive emotions in yourself?

What are three special things that you are grateful for in life?

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2. ................................................................................

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3. ................................................................................

Set a goal to achieve for each semester for Positive Emotion + gratitude Semester 1: ......................................................................................................................................................... Semester 2: .........................................................................................................................................................

ENGAGEMENT + MINDFULNESS – to connect with yourself to live with curiosity, zest and to involve yourself fully in what you love doing.

What is something that you love involving yourself in?

What things happening around you do you take notice of?

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Set a goal to achieve for each semester for Engagement + mindfulness Semester 1: ......................................................................................................................................................... Semester 2: .........................................................................................................................................................

RELATIONSHIPS + EMPATHY – to grow caring and respectful relationships by showing empathy for other peoples’ needs and feelings.

What do you expect of yourself to have respectful relationships?

What do you do to show that other people matter?

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Set a goal to achieve for each semester for Relationships + empathy Semester 1: ......................................................................................................................................................... Semester 2: .........................................................................................................................................................

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” Henry David Thoreau

PERMAH+ Your Mental and Physical Wellbeing Your wellbeing is a combination of the six equally important PERMAH+ elements following below. A great choice is to choose to grow each of them by doing the weekly wellbeing activities in this planner. There is no single element which shows how healthy your state of wellbeing is; it is a combination of all of them.

MEANING + PURPOSE – to find meaning in something larger than yourself to start every day with a sense of purpose.

What is something that means a lot to you that you focus on?

What is your purpose for trying hard in things you do?

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Set a goal to achieve for each semester for Meaning + Purpose Semester 1: ......................................................................................................................................................... Semester 2: .........................................................................................................................................................

ACCOMPLISHMENT + OPTIMISM – to have optimism for the future by writing down goals and deliberately practising to accomplish them.

What are learning goals that you are determined to achieve?

What things make you feel positive about your future?

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Set a goal to achieve for each semester for Accomplishment + Optimism Semester 1: ......................................................................................................................................................... Semester 2: .........................................................................................................................................................

HEALTH + STRENGTHS – to be healthy by using your strengths to exercise daily, be positive, sleep well, drink water and eat healthy foods.

Which of the Big Five do you do well, and which need more work?

What could you do to use your strengths to be healthier?

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Set a goal to achieve for each semester for Health + Strengths Semester 1: ......................................................................................................................................................... Semester 2: ......................................................................................................................................................... Acknowledgement: P – Lyubomirsky, King & Diener, E – Hunter & Csikszentmihalyi, R – Norrish, Robinson & Williams, M – Cotton, Bronk & Damon, A – Hendren, Sheldon, H – Norrish, Robinson & Williams

“We know what we are but know not what we may be.” Shakespeare

Trusted Champions: your best self as a young person This Lesson: The PERMAH+ Learning Intention is for you to identify four trusted adults who you can ask for help about anything. PERMAH+ Reflection: why did you choose each of your trusted champions? It will benefit your wellbeing to have a number of adults who you really trust to share things with when you have problems that are too big for you to handle on your own, when you feel unsafe or when you are uncertain and would like someone to bounce ideas off. These people are your trusted champions. They believe in you and will never give up on you. Draw a picture of, or stick a photo in, of each of your champions.

Champion One Use your strengths to realise when you need support to seek help from your champions immediately.

The three words of trust: DARE, CARE, SHARE Choose to be strong.

Champion Four

Picture of you or draw yourself

Champion Two

Champion Three Use self-talk to practise saying what you will say to share with your champions.

Nothing will shock your champions, because they care for you. They will always listen.

Acknowledgement: Seligman & Fredrickson

“Trust yourself, you will start to trust others.” Santosh Kalwar

Mindset: your best self as a young person and as a student This Lesson: The PERMAH+ Learning Intention is for you to understand what your mindset is, and how it can vary from fixed to growth. PERMAH+ Reflection: what can you do to shift your mindset towards growth orientated ones? Your mindset is your belief about how much or how little you think you can grow your abilities through making the effort to deliberately learn and practise new, more difficult and intelligent things. The two mindset extremes are fixed, your abilities can’t change, and through growth, you can develop your abilities. People with fixed mindsets tend to set performance goals, aiming for results, to prove their abilities. Whereas, people with growth mindsets tend to set process goals, growing step by step to improve their abilities. FIXED AND PERMANENT ................> Mark where your mindset is now? ...............> GROWTH ORIENTATED

Fixed Mindsets – about proving

Growth Mindsets – about improving

• you believe that learning and practising new things won’t change your brain’s abilities; you avoid challenges.

• you believe that learning and practising new things will grow your brain’s abilities; you welcome challenges.

• brittle thinking by making the choice to not try things.

• resilient thinking by choosing to stretch yourself.

• your focus is on your performance to prove yourself. • you think, hard work + effort = lack of ability.

• you think, hard work + effort = personal and academic growth.

What is one thing you could start doing to move yourself towards growth mindsets?

What is one thing you could start doing to adopt even more growth orientated mindsets?

Performance Goals

Process Goals

• For example, my goal is to do questions which I know I can do.

• For example, my goal is to stretch myself by tackling harder questions.

• Avoid setting performance goals at the beginning of each term.

• Set three process learning goals at the beginning of each term.

• your focus is the process to improve yourself.

Set a process goal for each of the following areas in your life: EXERCISE and HEALTHY EATING To improve I will ................................................................................................................................................. .......................................................................................................................................................................... LEARNING and THINKING To improve I will ................................................................................................................................................. .......................................................................................................................................................................... WELLBEING and HAPPINESS To improve I will ................................................................................................................................................. .......................................................................................................................................................................... FAMILY and FRIENDS To improve I will ................................................................................................................................................. .......................................................................................................................................................................... Acknowledgement: Carol Dweck

“Whether you think you can or you can’t, you are right.” Henry Ford

Fabulous First 5 Minutes: Looking Forward:

when is a time at school you have been in a great team?

what things are you keen to achieve and experience this week?

Relationships + empathy MEETING YOU WHY: By knowing how you want other people to think of you when they meet you, you will be able to practise body language which sends the messages that you want to send.

Strengths Week This week enjoy making a positive difference to other peoples’ lives, by creating activities using the character strength GRATITUDE, to grow relationships with your family, friends and school community.

HOW: You only get one chance to make a good first impression on others, so it makes good sense, to get it right. You can have fun practising with family and friends or using a mirror. Think about what you will say to greet others. Acknowledgement: Diener & Biswas-Diener

DO: What do you want other people to experience when they meet you? .................................................................................

(Gratitude for Strengths Week worksheet and Gratitude Wellbeing Award are in Individual Resources of www.learningcurve.com.au)

................................................................................. ................................................................................. What are three positive personal descriptors that you would like people to think of when they meet you? ................................................................................. ................................................................................. ................................................................................. What type of body language shows these descriptors? ................................................................................. ................................................................................. ................................................................................. Resilience Skill – how could self-belief help you with Meeting You? (see pages 6-7) ................................................................................. ................................................................................. ................................................................................. “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing themselves.” Leo Tolstoy

MAZE

Enjoy the challenge of making it through!

Being Aware:

knowing what you need to do to move towards developing the person who you want to become.

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SAT / SUN

Big Five Check In: Feel positive

Exercise daily

Sleep well

Eat healthy

Drink water

Mindful Colouring

Colour in how well you went.

Gratitude:

what went well that you were grateful for?

What did I enjoy? 19

Fabulous First 5 Minutes: Looking Forward:

where is a place where you feel a sense of belonging and acceptance?

what things are you keen to achieve and experience this week?

Positive Emotions + gratitude RESILIENCE, OPTIMISM AND OBSTACLES WHY: By accepting that being optimistic assists you to grow the skills of resilience (pages 6&7) to overcome obstacles, you will have the self-belief to stretch your efforts to develop your best self. HOW: Believe that obstacles, setbacks and failures provide you with opportunities to think flexibly to learn you better approaches. Seek feedback and help to build your self-belief. Beware that addictions, such as social media and gaming, can very quickly rob you of optimistic outlooks on life. Acknowledgement: Rievich & Shatte

DO: What areas of your life do you believe that you can influence your future? .................................................................................

Respectful Relationships From Feelings and Emotions (see page 120), choose two sets of three emotions, which rise in intensity from weak to strong. For example, calm, worried, frantic. Role play what body language you would show for each set? Set one ................................................................................ Body language ................................................................................ Set two ................................................................................ Body language ................................................................................ Acknowledgement: RRRR, Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne

Mind Games Blaming: when you are having self-doubts about your abilities to cope and choose to blame other students and teachers for how you feel. When are two times you have thought this way?

................................................................................. When is a time that you were proud of yourself for bouncing back and which of these skills did you use?

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................................................................................. Character Strength – how could self-control help you with Resilience, Optimism and Obstacles (see page 8) .................................................................................

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................................................................................. “Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth times.” James Michener

................................................................................ Acknowledgement: De Bono

Being Aware:

knowing what you need to do to move towards developing the person who you want to become.

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SAT / SUN

Big Five Check In: Feel positive

Exercise daily

Sleep well

Eat healthy

Drink water

Mindful Colouring

Colour in how well you went.

Gratitude:

what went well that you were grateful for?

Who did I say “thank you” to? 51

Fabulous First 5 Minutes:

when is a time that you have understood why someone thought in

a certain way?

Looking Forward:

what things are you keen to achieve and experience this week?

Accomplishment + optimism ASSIGNMENTS WHY: By accepting that using a smarter process to complete assignments will result in higher quality outcomes, you will be prepared to try the following: HOW: Define – write topic in your words, break it into smaller pieces and create time targets. Locate – ask library teachers and use the internet to find information. Select – check accuracy of collected data. Organise – write a draft using main points and parent/teacher feedback. Present – finish project with bibliography. Acknowledgement: Anderson & Ericsson

DO: What do you think could be the benefits of using this process? .................................................................................

What Are Your Thoughts? What are two sensible reasons for developing lifelong attitudes and habits towards healthy exercise and eating to avoid obesity and the possibility of contracting diabetes? Reasons

1. 2.

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What are two things you are doing to develop these attitudes and habits?

1. 2.

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Acknowledgement: ACARA 7&8 HPE

................................................................................. ................................................................................. When are times that you have completed high quality assignments that you were proud of? ................................................................................. ................................................................................. ................................................................................. Which of the above steps do you do well and others you need to improve on? ................................................................................. ................................................................................. Habit of Mind – how could gathering data through all senses help you with Assignments? (see pages 116-118) ................................................................................. ................................................................................. “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” Jon Kabat-Zinn

Have fun drawing yourself!... Either finishing an assignment or feeling positive while exercising.

Being Aware:

knowing what you need to do to move towards developing the person who you want to become.

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SAT / SUN

Big Five Check In: Feel positive

Exercise daily

Sleep well

Eat healthy

Drink water

Mindful Colouring

Colour in how well you went.

Gratitude:

what went well that you were grateful for?

What did I improve? 83

Wellbeing Self-Reflection This Lesson: The PERMAH+ Learning Intention is for you to reflect on how well you are developing each element of your wellbeing. PERMAH+ Reflection: what could you do for each element and who can help you? Regular reflection about how your wellbeing is developing, is a powerful growth mindset and habit to have. Use your strengths to build your relationship with yourself. Reflect on each of the following elments of your wellbeing. Rate yourself using: Usually

Sometimes

Not Yet

What are you currently doing and could do in the future?

Positive Emotions –

I create positive emotions in myself often?

Usually

Sometimes

Not Yet

Gratitude –

I am grateful for the little things in my life?

Usually

Sometimes

Not Yet

Engagement –

I can focus myself on my interests for periods of time?

Usually

Sometimes

Not Yet

Mindfulness –

I can connect with myself to take notice of things?

Usually

Sometimes

Not Yet

Relationships –

I feel connected, protected and respected?

Usually

Sometimes

Not Yet

Empathy –

I show others matter by caring for their needs and feelings?

Usually

Sometimes

Not Yet

“You’ve always had the power my dear, you just had to learn it for yourself.” Glinda, Wizard of Oz

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Wellbeing Self-Reflection As Aristotle so wisely once said, the most important relationship you have is the relationship you have with yourself. So, to continually develop this relationship and thus your wellbeing, the cycle of self-reflection followed by setting self-expectations followed by self-reflection ... will ensure that you do this well. Reflect on each of the following elments of your wellbeing. Rate yourself using: Usually

Sometimes

Not Yet

What are you currently doing and could do in the future?

Meaning –

I have something larger than myself that matters to me?

Usually

Sometimes

Not Yet

Purpose –

I have something I put passion and effort into?

Usually

Sometimes

Not Yet

Accomplishment –

I can write down and plan my goals?

Usually

Sometimes

Not Yet

Optimism –

I believe that I can affect my future through my efforts?

Usually

Sometimes

Not Yet

Health –

I am aware of my health through the weekly Big Five Check In?

Usually

Sometimes

Not Yet

Strengths –

I know my top strengths and practise using them?

Usually

Sometimes

Not Yet Acknowledgement: Seligman & Peterson

“The further that you can look back on, the further that you can look forward.” MW

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Respectful Relationships: your best self as a young person This Lesson: The PERMAH+ Learning Intention is for you to understand what you need to do to feel connected, protected and respected in your relationships. PERMAH+ Reflection: what do you do now to create and maintain respectful relationships? You are hard wired to be at your best when working cooperatively in person with others. The group feel good brain chemicals, serotonin and oxytocin, are released when you feel that others value you, think that you matter and that they can trust you. The three factors which underpin respectful and resilient relationships are: Connected – sharing and communicating equally, cooperatively and openly with others. Protected – feeling emotionally and physically safe. Respected – feeling others value all of you as a person who matters. Reflect on the following and journal your thoughts:

Respectful Relationships Perspectives Your thoughts In what ways do you feel connected when with others?

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In what ways do you feel protected when with others?

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In what ways do you feel respected when with others?

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Think of a great time you enjoyed with others. What emotions did you feel?

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What are five relationships you have where you feel valued?

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What are three relationships you have where you feel trusted?

............................................................................................. ............................................................................................. ............................................................................................. Acknowledgement: RRRR, Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne

“Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.” Voltaire

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Meaningful Screen Time: your best self as a young person This Lesson: The PERMAH+ Learning Intention is for you to use some of your screen time meaningfully to be kind. PERMAH+ Reflection: which of these activities have you or could you use to be kind? Most of your generation have grown up surrounded by screens, and communicating via devices comes easily to you. You can also use screens to create meaningful ways to generate positive emotions by being kind to family, friends and yourself. Try the following activities to do this.

Meaningful Screen Time Activity Your reflections did their faces look like and how did you feel when listening Tell Me More – video call a Grandparent What to them?

or a friend and ask them to tell you about a good thing that is happening in their life. Just listen, don’t interrupt. When they start to run out of words, ask them to “Tell Me More” three times to help them to share more.

Photo 7 – this is a week long activity

What did you enjoy most about doing this with your family? Highlights?

Self-Belief Mantras – using the

Why did you choose each of your mantras?

Word Search Share – ask two friends

Was it enjoyable creating and then doing your friends’ word searches?

Caring People – use the online program

What feelings did you have making your photo book? Were your caring people happy?

for your whole family. Each day each of your family is to take a picture or shoot a short video on their device of something they appreciate or are grateful for. Then share these each day at the dinner table together.

program Canva, create ten screensavers, which are self-belief mantras to help you become more resilient. For example, “I am in charge of how I feel and today I choose to be happy” or “I can and I will control my feelings.” Every few days, change your screensaver.

to create their own word search using the free online program Puzzle Maker. Words could be about family and friends’ names, sports, foods, music artists or interests. Then the three of you email your word searches to each other, and have fun doing them.

Canva to make a photo book of the people in your life who are always there for you. Make sure you include those people who you may sometimes take for granted. Then share this caring photo book with each of these people.

Acknowledgement: Fredrickson, Diener & Walsh

“People may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” Carl W. Buehner

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