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Emotions and Learning

Emotions and Learning

We've all been there. Or our child has. Needing to learn something but struggling to 'get it into our head' or 'figure it out.' Why is it sometimes so hard to learn, and other times it seems we aren't even trying? Is it the topic? Is it that we have the ability to...

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Dignity
Dignity

Dignity

Recently this email arrived from a former student and coach: "Thanks so much for your email. I cried when I read it but, this time, the crying was good – felt nourishing. The emotion of 'dignity' feels very right. I was trying to get to “hope” because I thought...

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Growing Awareness
Growing Awareness

Growing Awareness

I’ve always thought about awareness as something a bit mystical and difficult to pin down. It seemed like a good idea but I had put it into the “either you have it or you don’t” column. I’d come to think that either people “were" or "were not” aware. Very black and...

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Navigating Emotions
Navigating Emotions

Navigating Emotions

Looking back over the past 60 years of my life I can see that I have had several distinct relationships with my emotions and various strategies for how to co-exist with them. If it sounds like I am referring to them as something separate from “me” that is because...

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Emotions About Our Emotions
Emotions About Our Emotions

Emotions About Our Emotions

We all know that emotions are not always easy to pin down. Somehow they seem a little slippery and, darn them, always changing. It is a big enough challenge sometimes just to name the emotion we are feeling precise. To make things even more interesting we not only...

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Assessing Emotions
Good Emotion? Bad Emotion?

Good Emotion? Bad Emotion?

Last week I wrote that we have emotions about our emotions. This week is a bit similar but in a different direction. We humans are “assessment machines”. It seems we cannot stop interpreting, developing opinions or creating beliefs about ourselves and the world...

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Emotional Resilience

Emotional Resilience

Think for a moment what has pushed you off balance recently. A television news story? Reading about the ongoing impact of climate change? A difficulty your child is facing at his school? From one perspective, these stories about these events are simply facts, but...

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Emotional Agility

Emotional Agility

In a world that doesn't seem to every stop challenging us, emotional agility is increasingly talked about as an essential quality for leaders. It sounds nice, but what exactly is agility, where does it come from, and how does one develop it? Emotional agility is...

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