The Art of Happiness

Among the greatest blessings is to have a calm, stable, and happy heart. For in Happiness the mind is clear, enabling one to be a productive person. It has been said that happiness is an art that need to be learned. The basic principle of achieving happiness is having the ability of enduring and coping with any situation. Therefore we should not be governed by difficulties and we should train ourselves to be patient and forbearing. Being a self-centred person, keeps away from flavouring the sweetness of happiness, while thinking of one's self as a part of the whole universe makes life more coherent and

prosperous.

“Every person is capable of performing his daily tasks, no matter how difficult they are, and every person is capable of living happily during his day until the sun sets and this is the meaning of life.” Robert Louis Stevenson

    

Do not mimic the personality of others

Every person has his own set of talents, abilities, skills, and preferences. And that is what makes a unique and special personality. Trying to benefit from experiences or knowledge of others is a required issue, but trying to imitate them is a disastrous behaviour. Moreover, to melt into the personality of another, for whatever reason, is akin to suicide. It is eventually the problem of some people that they do not strive to achieve progress, rather they would choose the easy way of being pretentious. That kind of people lacks the will and the competency to overcome laziness and low self-esteem. As educators, we should be aware of developing and improving our own abilities, talents, and skills in order to be constructive and reflective. This process of development must accompany an establishment of an independent, creative, and unique methodology. As a matter of fact, we should be aware of delivering this conception to our children at home or school.  It is the active way of living that we should encounter.

Webinar Post

I was looking forward to attending a webinar about "Creating a Culture of Responsibility", the issue is really interesting to know about and realising the required techniques is considerably concerning. Unfortunately, the Internet connection was very slow to attend the webinar, I wasn't lucky. Today, I have received few posts about recent webinars, it's my pleasure to share one of them with my dear bloggers.

What does it mean to thrive, flourish, and be happy?

Guiding Principles:

• Appropriate behaviour
• Respect for all
• Shared resources and materials
• Cooperative and collaborative procedures
• Careful listening
• Celebration of positivity
• Focusing on the process, not the out come

Happiest People:

• Devote a great amount of time to family and friends
• Are comfortable and expressing gratitude
• Are often the first to lend a helping hand
• Savior life's pleasures and try to live in the present moment
• Physical exercise is a weekly or daily exercise
• Deeply involved in lifelong goals and ambitions
• Practise optimism
• Have the coping mechanisms to deal with challenges

Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky

Despite pain, difficulties, and life challenges, people seek methods and procedures for a better survival. Actually, happiness should be a social demand and striving to approach it is a natural human behaviour. Happiness leads to a  constructive and productive life as methods applied are very important and relieving.

Storytelling as an Instuctional Method

Stories are a natural mode of thinking; they have powerful and effective impact on people. Storytelling is a traditional instructional method that has been recognised for centuries and until today. It is an art or craft of organising and transmitting information, teaching morals and implementing life lessons.

 Mastering the skills of retelling stories is a gift; those skills are manifest through usage of :

• Facial expressions
• Gestures
• Tone and voice
• Dialogue
• Repetition
• Exaggeration

Characteristics of a good story or elements of a well structured story are:

• A single theme
• Vivid word pictures
• A well developed plot
• Pleasing sounds
• Dramatic appeal
• Memorable characters

Classroom Implementations:
Storytelling is a tool adopted, developed and recommended by teachers and educators in order to manage classrooms, engage students and grasp their attention. The strengths of such tool make it :

• Applicable to all ages and subjects
• Provide a structure for remembering course material
• Grasping and engaging students' attention
• Create interest in subject-matter
• Familiar and accessible form of sharing information

Tolerance, Acceptance and Positive attitude

Dealing with students in classroom seems to be a hard mission unless teachers are deeply and fully aware of their role as educators. Teaching students certain academic subjects should not be separated from the sense of duty toward forming and developing their character. Establishing a bridge of interchangeable trust between teachers and students is a main factor for overcoming teaching difficulties. Here are a few tips, I have experienced with my children, and I believe they could be applied in classroom as well.

• Tolerate your students' mistakes and misbehaving, be firm but do not be cruel, control your reactions, don't punish them while you are angry, and show them a merciful attitude in all situations.  
• Accept and respect your students and really do love them. Respect their minds and thoughts, encourage them to express their feelings, never critisize the 'person' but the behavior, and let them feel that you accept them for who they are regardless of their academic performance and social rank.
•  Be positive, fair, encouraging, motivating, optimistic, constructive, understanding, modest, and enlightening in order to lead a fruitful role.

Personally, I find them really effective and approaching. It is important for students to feel secure of extreme consequences, direct criticism, and neglection. As educators you are supposedly reflecting  wisdom and through your actions and reactions, you are eventually guiding your students to make better choices. 

It is never too late...

It's never too late to... start all over again...

... forgive those who caused you pain...

... forget your hardships...

... recollect your potentials...

... recover your failure...

... proceed your fears...

... redeem your conscience...

... liberate your good deeds...

... reconsider your thoughts...

... think of your actions...

... evaluate your reactions...

... enlighten your minds...

... refreshen your senses...

... search for happiness...

...  own your decisions...

It's never too late to... go ahead...