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The power of a smile

Joe Van Deuren

I was so happy to see this TED talk on smiling.  While some may question the power of the smile, from personal experience I know that when we reach a frustration level where we may act or react in a way that we really do not want to act, SMILING has the affect of reducing the frustration.

As a parent or teacher this is a valuable tool.  Just when your child or student has pushed one of your buttons, take a deep breath, smile and then respond.  This is much like counting to ten, or 3 deep breaths – but the addition of the smile, eliminates the possibility of being mean.  It is impossible to be mean, frown or act in an unkind way – while smiling.

We can practice this on ourselves also.  When we see our own anger rising, we can look at it, recognize it for what it is, smile at it and allow it to be.  If we smile at our anger, we will see it subside.  The power of the smile!

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Kids and Creativity

I have included the word Art in our tag line, first because what we are teaching is an art, but only one art among so many.  I happen to believe that art is one of the most important things that we have as a society.  It does so much for us as humans and especially our children, that when I see it being short changed in the education system, I know that the harmful effects are more than we can imagine.  Here is a short talk that really nailed it on this subject.  
Finally there will be more about our first art show at the studio, that I know I said was off, but I am putting it back in again.  The story on that will be told soon.
 
I have put this under Peace Education.  I believe that before peace can happen in the world or in our lives, we must know how and be allowed to be creative in our approach to solving conflicts.