Some messiness is a fact of life for most people. It might be piles of disorganised paper, a box of decades-old cheques, or dirty clothing strewn about a bedroom. Then there’s the […]
An interesting thing about remembering what you learned is that you’re more likely to remember something in the place where you learned it.
If you took your history exam in a lecture-style classroom with big windows, you may recall what you learned best in that same or a very similar classroom.
Obviously, you can’t stage your bedroom […]
When you coach yourself, the tone of your self-talk is as important as the words you use.
A harsh, critical tone, even with encouraging words, can increase your stress and hurt your performance.
To see how this works:
Dr. Michael A. Tompkins is a licensed psychologist and board-certified in Behavioral and Cognitive Psychology. He is co-director of the San Francisco Bay Area Center for Cognitive Therapy. He serves on the Advisory Board of Magination Press—the children’s press of the American Psychological Association—and the editorial board of the Journal of Cognitive and Behavioral Practice. […]
When you’re coaching yourself, the tone of your coaching self-talk is as important as the words you use.
Even with encouraging words, a harsh, critical tone can increase your stress and hurt your performance.
When you’re stressed, your mind tends to drift toward doom and gloom.
You can train your mind to tilt toward the positive – or at least toward the neutral – by looking for and spending time with the positive.
It’s not that you’re making a negative into a positive. That’s a bit like looking at the world […]
A simple way to keep your mind in the game is to write down all your off-the-field or non-test concerns before a practice, a game, or a test.
For example:
You don’t want to get paralyzed at the start of the school day by the range of things you could be working on: math quiz, history presentation, first draft of the social studies essay.
If you start your day by engaging with a critical task, you should end your day by preparing for that task.
Place on […]
Tracking your anxious predictions is an easy way to correct your mind’s tendency to overestimate the likelihood of bad things happening.
Here are a couple of fun ways to do it.
Sometimes, teens are told to start their homework with the most challenging and stressful task to get it out of the way.
This is known as “eating the frog.”
But starting your study period with the most difficult or stressful task can make you dread starting your homework in the first place.
In addition, depending on how stressed […]