Studies show allowing kids to move during the day can improve grades - up to 15 percent - and help kids burn up to 25 percent more calories. (cbc news 2015)

“We estimate that kids today are spending 85 to 90% of their waking hours sitting at school, doing homework, driving to and from school, and in front of screens—to the detriment of their bodies and minds,” (K. Starrett. 2015)

Mobility is about teaching movements, preventing injury; its pain free full range of motion in all joints in all directions simultaneously. It’s about reducing sedentary behaviour by creating more opportunities for movement during the day (Dr Travis Jewett Mobility Trainers Course Toronto 2015)

For decades, the educational and scientific communities seemed to believe that thinking and moving are totally separate activities. We’ve moved far beyond that thinking. Happily, we now know that the mind- body connection is real, that movement is essential, and that we will all be healthier and even smarter if we climb out of our chairs and stand up. (8 Reasons Why Kids should Stand at School- Juliett Starrett)

Today, the World Health Organization ranks physical inactivity -sitting to much- as the fourth biggest preventable killer globally, causing an estimated 3.2 million deaths annually. (Deskbound: Health Topics: Physical Activity, World Health Organization)

“The US Department of Health and Human Services Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend that children get at least 60 minutes of daily moderate to vigorous physical activity” (2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans Summary, US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and health promotion)

If you want to optimize performance and escape pain and injury, it imperative that you learn how to move correctly (Becoming a Supple Leopard, Dr. Kelly Starrett 2013)

Your body adapts to whatever positions and movements you put it in throughout the day. If you move with good form and allow your joints and tissues to assume stable positions, you will ingrain functional motor patterning and have fewer tissue and joint restrictions. (Becoming a Supple Leopard, Dr. Kelly Starrett 2013)

Research has shown that sports participation and physical activity support long-term health, achievement, and well-being (Women’s Sports Foundation, 2009).

Female high school athletes are 41% more likely to graduate from college within six years compared to female high school students who did not participate in sports (Women’s Sports Foundation, 2009).

Girls who participate in athletics report being more content with their lives than girls who do not participate in athletics. Much of the social, educational, and health benefits of sports participation become visible in elementary school years for girls and boys (Women’s Sports Foundation, 2009).

Half of all girls who participate in some kind of sport experience higher than average levels of self-esteem and less depression (Women’s Sports Foundation, 2009).

Research suggests that girls who participate in sports are more likely to experience academic success and graduate from high school than those who do not play sports (Women’s Sports Foundation, 2009).

Many of the social, educational and health benefits linked to sports participation begin during the elementary school years (Sabo & Feliz, 2008).

A study of first- and ffith grade boys and girls who participated in a school-based daily physical education program with at least 10 minutes of jumping or strength-training exercises of vigorous intensities found improvements in bone health for both genders, which were particularly notable for youth before puberty (Meyer et al., 2011). 

By age 14, girls drop out of sport at twice the rate of boys the same age (Sabo & Feliz, 2008)

The main reason both girls and boys drop out of sports is “not having fun” (Sabo & Feliz, 2008).

There are 1.3 million fewer opportunities for girls to participate in high school sports than boys (Sabo & Feliz, 2008).

94% of women who hold C-suite level positions are former athletes (Ernst & Young and espnW research)

1/3 of all girls fail to get at least 60 minutes of daily physical activity (Staurowsky et al., 2015).

Curriculum that incorporates well-being will ideally prevent depression, increase life satisfaction, encourage social responsibility, promote creativity, foster learning, and even enhance academic achievement” (Waters, 2014).

A meta-analysis conducted by Sin and Lyubomirksy (2009) with 4,266 participants found that positive psychology interventions do increase happiness and decrease depressive symptoms significantly.

Optimism is associated with persistence in the face of failure and resilience against disappointments (Seligman, 2011). 

Optimism has been shown to positively correlate with high levels of self-esteem, positive mood, happiness, life satisfaction, resilience to stressful or negative events, and recovery from illnesses, injuries, surgeries, and major life-events. (Meevissen, et al., 2011).

Social relationships are integral to happiness and flourishing. (Norrish, Robinson, & Williams, 2011)  

There is an abundance of evidence that suggests social support is integral to wellbeing and mental health. Social relationships have also been found to be important predictors of subjective wellbeing (Myers, 2000) and meaning in life (Hicks & King, 2009; Lambert et al., 2010) (Norrish, Robinson, & Williams, 2011) 

Uchino, Cacioppo, and Kiecolt-Glaser (1996) conducted a meta-analytic review of 81 studies and found that social support was consistently linked with cardiovascular, endocrine, and immune functioning. (Norrish, Robinson, & Williams, 2011) 

Lyubomirsky, King, and Diener (2005) conducted a meta-analysis of 293 cross- sectional, longitudinal, and experimental studies (resulting in a sample of over 275,000 participants) and found that positive emotions had a causal influence on social outcomes (e.g., social interactions and relationships); work outcomes (e.g., productivity and absenteeism); physical health outcomes (e.g., immune functioning and vitality); personal outcomes (e.g., creativity and energy); and psychological outcomes (e.g., resilience, self-confidence, and self regulation).

There has been substantial correlational research that has found gratitude to be associated with good mental and physical health (Wood et al., 2010).

A 2016 brain-imaging study demonstrated that months after a simple, short gratitude writing task, people’s brains were still wired to feel extra thankful. (Kini et al., 2016)

Neuroscientists at the National Institutes of Health have shown that the “pleasure centers” in the brain—i.e., the parts of the brain that are active when we experience pleasure (like dessert)—are equally active when we observe someone giving money to charity as when we receive money ourselves. (Moll et al., 2006) 

In his book Flourish, psychologist Martin Seligman writes that “doing a kindness produces the single most reliable momentary increase in well-being of any exercise we have tested.” (Seligman, 2011)

Confidence is a result of how you think and what you focus on. Studies have shown that the attainment of successful performance is not based on the skills one has, but what the individual believes they can achieve with their skills (Bandura, 1986).

A particularly important form of confidence is self-efficacy, the belief or expectation that you will succeed at a particular task or challenge. Studies have found that the higher the self-efficacy, the greater the persistence and effort, as measured by motor performance (Weinberg et. al., 1979) and muscular endurance (Gould et. al., 1981, George et.al., 1992).

Self-talk is one of the most common and reliable ways to increase confidence (Hardy et al., 2015; Weinberg & Gould, 2018).

One of the most consistent findings in the research literature is that greater self-compassion is linked to less anxiety and depression. Self-compassion is associated with emotional intelligence, wisdom, life satisfaction, and feelings of social connectedness—important elements of a meaningful life (Neff, 2003a; Neff et al., 2008). People high in trait self-compassion or who are induced to be in a self-compassionate frame of mind also tend to experience more happiness, optimism, curiosity, creativity, and positive emotions such as enthusiasm, inspiration, and excitement than those who are self-critical (Ferrari et al., 2019)  

Reducing the fear of failure enables people to take on new challenges and decreases rumination, perfectionism, and anxiety (Neff, 2013).

Lower levels of self-criticism and less concern over mistakes leads to increased resilience and progress toward goals (Mosewich et al., 2013).

COMING SOON

The single most dogged source of distraction is your own wandering mind.  In fact, mind wandering accounts for about half of your waking life and is also associated with lower levels of happiness (Fabritius, 2017).

Mindfulness trains your mind to put your attention where you want it and be present.  It teaches tolerance of whatever thoughts and emotions (even negative ones!) arise. (https://www.helpguide.org/harvard/benefits-of-mindfulness.htm)

The positive effects of mindfulness practice are vast: it can help us feel less stress and sadness, better deal with change, improve sleep, increase feelings of connectivity with others, express gratitude, be more confident, be more resilient, have more compassion, perform better in school and/or sports, concentrate and focus better, feel content and happy, feel less anxious, and learn to pause and respond to situations rather than react (Ackerman, 2017).

Mindfulness is believed to have a positive impact on the physical body, in particular a calming of the stress response and improvement of immune functioning (Hassed, 2008). In addition, mindfulness creates a state of relaxed attention that enables the individual to achieve more flexibility in their psychological and physical responses to various situations (Greenberg & Harris, 2011). Regularly practicing mindfulness is believed to lead to deeper self-awareness and increased capacity to manage emotional responses respectively (Norrish et al., 2011).