Simplifying School

Even though many students are still under the legal working age, it is important that we learn about financial wellness from a young age. Many parents and guardians and even some of the older students who are already working, might be facing financial difficulties especially now during the huge economic impact the pandemia had on countries, businesses and individuals worldwide. Let’s have a look at how we can improve our financial wellness The most important thing is to live within our financial means. We should also plan for future financial health Do financial planning. Look at where you are now. Look at where you want to be realistically. Look at the steps you need to take to get where you want to be. Break them up into achievable goals and set dates you want to achieve them by. Keep record of your current expenses to see where your money is going to and how you can cut on your expenses Draw up, and even more importantly, stick to your budget Learn to be a good consumer These are a ...

 Today I would like to write a bit about intellectual wellness. When one thinks about intellectual wellness, one assumes that school, the way we know it, should be helping us quite a lot in this regard. Every day we are exposed to new information and can learn new skills, but is there more to intellectual wellness? If I am asked this question I would say, yes. Intellectual wellness means that we never stop learning. The concept of lifelong learning has become more and more prominent over the past decade. There are constantly new discoveries made in every field and the work environment requires one to keep up with the new ways of doing things and also to know the latest information. Intellectual wellness also means that we want to expand our current skill set by mastering new skills whenever we can. This doesn’t have to be in the field we chose to work or study, it can even be a craft or hobby related skill. Another aspect of intellectual wellness is sharing our knowledge and experi...

Today I would like to look at ways one can improve one’s environmental health while at school or studying. First, let’s look at what environmental wellness means. Environmental wellness means taking care of one's environment globally and in your personal surroundings. I have recently seen a quote by Maryan Hasnaa, “Your home is an extension of your energy field. This is why practices like cleaning your home, rearranging furniture, organizing your closet, and getting rid of objects that are cluttering your space can have a profound impact on your mind, body, and spirit” Let’s look at what we can do to improve our environmental wellness. We can declutter our study spaces and homes. Decluttering our study spaces and homes will not only cause less distractions, it will also help us find our study work and notes more easily. Many times I have met with a student and then only they start looking for their notes or stationery. This often takes up a lot of precious study time. We can clean ...

I think a topic we all should be thinking about is coping skills and coping mechanisms. This is important not only because one gets obvious good and bad coping mechanisms, but also because an initial good coping skill can turn into a bad coping mechanism if it becomes an addiction or interferes with one’s daily lives. Let’s look at generally accepted good coping skills: brainstorm solutions be positive be assertive breathe deep and slowly cry clean or organize your environment drawing dancing do physical exercises  eat healthy encourage others enjoy nature evaluate pros and cons of a situation get enough sleep go for a drive go on a vacation gardening keep inspirational quotes around you  laugh learn a new skill make a gratitude list or keep a gratitude journal painting photography playing a game playing an instrument reach out to people in need singing schedule time for yourself spend time on hobbies socialize writing reading reward yourself for successes taking a walk take c...

Managing our feelings well is a very important skill to have. Today we will investigate this skill and see how we can develop how we can manage our feelings well. Once again, like most of the topics we have looked at so far, self-reflection, and self-knowledge is rather important in managing out feelings. ● Look at how your emotions impact you and your daily life. ● Identify what you are feeling. ● Keep track of your moods and emotions by keeping a journal. ● When in a situation, do not react immediately. Pause.Take a deep breath, count backwards in 7’s from 100. (This could be any number and from any number, but it must be something that can actually needs you to focus on the counting in order to distract you from the intense emotional trigger in that moment, giving you time to reflect before reacting) ● Accept your emotions and acknowledge how you feel. ● Give yourself some space to think. Think about the trigger, your reaction and how you can regulate the emotional reaction. ● Know ...

Today we are looking at how we can improve our self-acceptance. There are once again many things we can do to help us accept ourselves more. ● Accept your imperfections. ● Accept that you have done what you could, to the best that you could have at the time. ● Acknowledge and celebrate your strengths ● Be kind to yourself ● Change unrealistic expectations of yourself ● Create a support system and surround yourself with loving people ● Daily affirmations of positive characteristics ● Don’t be over critical of yourself ● Don’t worry - worry never changes anything to a situation ● Don’t worry about what others think about what you choose ● Engage in positive self-talk ● Establish boundaries and be assertive ● Focus on your positive qualities ● Form positive thinking patterns consciously and consciously reject negative thinking patterns ● Grieve the loss of unrealized dreams ● Learn that you are worthy of being treated well and of compassion ● Make a list of your accomplishments ● Perform ...

In my previous blog I explained why emotional wellness is important for students. We also looked at the different aspects of emotional wellness. In this blog I will explain how one can improve one's self-awareness. Self-awareness means we are in-tune with our own feelings, strengths and weaknesses. We need this in order to manage our feelings so that they do not disrupt life or cause us to develop harmful coping mechanisms. To improve our self-awareness we can: ● Know our emotional triggers ● Keep an open mind ● Know our strengths and weaknesses ● Keep a journal ● Ask for feedback and listen to feedback ● Motivate ourselves ● Discover our physical limits ● Learn a new skill ● Clarify our values ● Practice mindfulness ● Do self-reflection daily ● Look at ourselves objectively ● Set boundaries ● Meditate on your mind ● Ask people close too you to describe you ● Take personality tests ● Take psychometric tests ● Identify what bothers you about other people ● Be self-disciplined ● Draw...

Today we are starting a new topic in our series on holistic wellness and how we can improve our holistic wellness even when we are still at school. For the next couple of blogs we will focus on emotional wellness. The emotional wellness topics we will cover are: ● Self awareness ● Accepting yourself ● Having a positive outlook ● Managing feelings well ● Having good coping skills Emotional wellness, or the lack thereof, is tied to disciplinary issues, development of skills, academic outcomes, inner strength, stress or stress reduction, self-care, better health, growth, decision making and more. Join me in my next couple of blogs to find out just how we can improve our emotional wellness to help us excel at school. Till next time, Stay safe

In the previous blog, we looked at how we can make good use in order to improve our occupational wellness. This time we will look at how we can have a satisfying work and being a volunteer. While students at school haven't chosen their occupation as a student, even people who are too young to be legally working, can have a satisfying work. To have a satisfying work we can: ● make a list of positive things about school or our jobs if we are working. ● switch up your tasks, but keep doing the most important task first. ● build new relationships: seek out a mentor or be a mentor to another student or employee. ● create a new goal that will force you to improve as a person and develop your skills. We can also be a volunteer. This could mean taking part in your school's reaching out or cleaning up programme. It could mean helping out in your school library or to do some behind the scenes work at school events. You could also do a first aid course and volunteer at sport events. You c...

Many of our students are still at school and are younger than the legal working age. It might raise eyebrows when I write about how people of all ages can improve their occupational wellness as we associate the word, occupational, with a job, an occupation. The 5 main aspects to look at in occupational wellness are: ● Making good use of time ● Having satisfying work ● Being a volunteer ● Being creative ● Engaging in rewarding activities I will start with the first point in this blog and discuss all the points over the next couple of blogs. How can we make good use of time? ● Use short and long term schedules: Use yearly, monthly,weekly and daily planners  Make use of a to-do list ● Set priorities and focus on the most important items. ● Do not schedule more than you can handle during any time segment. ● Study when you are most alert and do low-priority tasks during times when you are least alert. ● Keep your study area uncluttered so that you do not waste time looking for things an...

While our website, at the moment, focuses mainly on the academic side of things, it is always important to keep a balance. People are complex beings. There are so many different areas in our lives that all interact with one another. They all work together and affect one another. If one area is problematic, causing us trouble or stress, it can easily overflow and affect other areas of our lives as well. Having studied and practiced various fields in holistic wellness, I will share a bit more about how we can incorporate holistic wellness and keeping a balance in our lives while at school or during our tertiary studies. There are 8 pillars to holistic wellness: ● Emotional wellness ● Environmental wellness ● Financial wellness ● Intellectual wellness ● Occupational wellness ● Physical wellness ● Social wellness ● Spiritual wellness Over the next couple of blogs, I will delve into some of these deeper, looking at ways we can improve our wellness in all of these areas, and therefore our ov...