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On overload?

On overload?  Like many, maybe you are spending too much time and energy thinking about everything you need to do, rather than making a real plan about how to get tasks done.

“Vision is not enough; it must be combined with venture.  It is not enough to stare up the steps; we must step up the stairs.”  Vaclav Havel



Thoughts on Winning


 
As a school counselor I work to keep up on research, trends and best practices.  Sometimes, though, I simply reflect on my personal experiences.  To date, that’s 26 years as an educator and 23 years as a parent.  Granted, in both areas I have made my fair share of mistakes.  So this blog is about my thoughts related to those experiences, and not based on anyone’s theories or research.


Recently, I was talking with a friend about “winning”, and the notion that all parents want their children to “win”.  On the surface, that seems like a great hope to have.  We were wondering, though, what that meant for future generations.  I fear that we may already have a society where a lot of people are neither good losers nor good winners.


To me, a child’s spirit is critical.  There is a difference between treating a child with respect and caring and wanting him/her to believe that he/she will never “lose” at anything.  Many adults with whom our children come into contact are not always thinking about the tenderness of children’s spirits.  But there is a difference between nurturing a child’s spirit and wanting to shield that child from ever experiencing disappointment.


It may seem like an oversimplification, but I have a steadfast personal and educational philosophy about taking a “loss”.  I always ask what was learned, and even what good may come of the loss.  And then I remind myself (or my child, or my student) that our society thrives on competition, and sometimes that’s good, and sometimes it isn’t.  Sometimes competition involves a judgement of one person (or group) on another.  Sometimes someone else had a better day.  And sometimes, you’re just not ready to meet a certain challenge.


Finally, I must mention that the notion of winners and losers creates a world in which it is easy not to care about other human beings.  Winning at all costs can totally overshadow our concern for others.  There is nothing more beautiful than a caring child.  I will conclude with a favorite quote from Will Rogers, one I used both in my high school yearbook and as the preface to my educational philosophy –  “We can’t all be heroes – someone has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by”.


Executive Functioning and Anxiety


 
Depression, anxiety and executive functioning




Executive functioning is made up of a broad range of capabilities including the ability to pay attention, the ability to transfer one’s attention from one thing to another, the ability to hold information in one’s working memory, and planning. People who suffer from anxiety and depression often have problems with their ability to concentrate and inhibit their impulses making some scientists think that they have problems with their executive functioning. However, it is not known whether these problems with executive functioning come before or after the onset of anxiety or depression i.e. whether they are a cause or a symptom of mental-health problems. Researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital studied 147 children. Some of their parents had depression, others had anxiety and the rest formed an unaffected control group. The idea was that any genetic tendency towards poorer executive functioning in people at risk from depression and anxiety would be reflected in children whose parents suffered from these conditions. The study found that children whose parents suffered from anxiety, or depression did not have poorer executive functioning. However, those children who did have depression or anxiety themselves did show worse executive functioning. Children with depression had poorer performance on several executive functioning and processing speed measures. Children with anxiety had a poorer verbal memory and children with social phobia made more mistakes on a continuous performance task. The results of the study tend to support the idea that poorer executive functioning is a symptom of depression and anxiety rather than a cause.




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