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IT'S NICE TO HAVE A HOBBY: SOMETHING YOU'RE INTERESTED IN, SOMETHING LIGHT-HEARTED. EVERYONE "BUSY BUSY" SEEMS TO BE THE WAY OF MODERN CIVILISATION SINCE THE TURN OF THIS CENTUARY, HEY? BUT IS THAT HEALTHY FOR US OR OUR KIDS? NOT REALLY. NO. SOMEONE SAID TO ME A FEW YEARS AGO "SOME PEOPLE DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY LOVE, TO DO IT?" IT'S SO TRUE THAT SOME DON'T KNOW THEIR PASSION, TO PURSUE IT. THERE ARE BENEFITS WHEN YOU DISCOVER WHAT IT IS, LIKE MANY HAVE EXPERIENCED FOR MONTHS OR YEARS. WE HAVE A FRIEND WHO HAS JUST DISCOVERED HIS AND IT'S REALLY GREAT TO SEE. LIFE SHOULD NOT ALL BE WORK, CHORES AND TV OR SOCIAL MEDIA. TRY AND THINK YOUR WAY AROUND THAT. FEEL FREE TO LOOK FOR IDEAS AND EXPLORE. BE KIND TO YOURSELF, HEY?

6 Reasons To Get A Hobby

By Jaime Kurtz, Ph.D., PsychologyToday.Com

You're Really Not Too Busy.

Over a couple of generations, we have somehow misplaced their free time.

Various things contribute to this, but for many of us, being legitimately busy simply isn't one of them. Instead, we habitually waste time, creating the illusion of busyness.…

Gwendolyn Seidman Ph.D. PsychologyToday.Com

For good or bad, our partners influence us, and how we see ourselves.

When we are involved in serious romantic relationships, we find ourselves turning from a “me” to an “us”.1 This isn’t just a matter of semantics: The very nature of the self evolves through the relationship. We start to see our own self-concept as overlapping with that of our partner.2 That means that as we become increasingly committed, we find our self-concept actually changing—the “us” becomes “me.”3 But how does our self-concept change, and are these changes good or bad for us and our relationships?

According to Mattingly, Lewandowski, and McIntyre, our relationships can change our self-concepts in two ways:4

  • First, the size of your self-concept can change. It can expand, to include new traits or to make existing traits more prominent. For example, a man may discover a passion for gourmet cuisine after dates involving the preparation of elaborate meals. Alternatively, the size of your self-concept could shrink because the relationship has caused certain aspects of the self to be lost. This can happen because the relationship has caused you to neglect certain parts of yourself.

2

I FOUND SOME GOOD FAMILY RELATED MATERIAL ON THE VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT WEBSITE THAT'S REALLY GREAT. I'VE BEEN RESEARCHING NATURE A LOT - OUR NEED FOR REGULAR EXPOSURE TO IT SOME WAY/WAYS THROUGH THE WEEK.

Children Love To Learn How To Grow Plants - Why Not Let Them Try? You May Be Surprised!

IN MY PRETEENS, I WAS FASCINATED BY PEAS AND BEANS EMMERGING THROUGH THE SOIL, WHEN MY MUM WAS TENDING HER VEGGIE GARDEN AND WOULD HAVE LOVED TO HAVE A FEW PLANTS OF MY OWN TO GROW. MY FEELINGS ABOUT THIS WERE NOT VOICED UNTIL I MENTIONED IT TO HER LATER IN LIFE (MY 40'S OR 50'S).

IN RESPONSE, SHE SAID "Oh Janet, you never said anything about it. I would have been happy to share some with you - I didn't think you were interested." I WAS ACTUALLY INTRIGUED. IT'S A GREAT INTEREST FOR KIDS OF DIFFERENT AGES, FROM LITTLE TO TEENS and A GOOD CONTRAST TO THEIR TECH INTERESTS - HELPING TO PROVIDE A BALANCE FOR THEM, HEY? AND HEALTH BENEFITS TO BE GAINED TOO, A WIN WIN!

The Government Says:

People of all ages can enjoy gardening, but children in particular will have lots of fun and gain special benefits. …

By Joshua Becker

A MEANINGFUL AND INTERESTING SET OF PRINCIPLES THAT ARE KEPT IN PRACTICE AND ENCOURAGED BY A DAD WHO RUNS A WEBSITE CALLED BecomingMinimalist.Com THAT IS WORTH CONSIDERING. HE HAS SOME SPECIAL INSIGHTS I FEEL. IN A WORLD THAT IS SO FOCUSED ON MONEY AND MATERIAL POSESSIONS ETC MAYBE WE NEED TO REMEMBER OR BECOME AWARE OF THESE THINGS. BESIDES, SOME PEOPLE FEEL LIKE THEY DON'T HAVE MUCH TO OFFER THEIR KIDS, AND MAYBE THEY COULD FEEL A LITTLE RICH IF THEY'RE LIVING WITH SOME OF THESE PRINCIPLES IN THEIR HOME OR THAT THEY CAN BE. THERE ARE SOME GOOD OLD-FASHIONED THINGS HERE IN THIS POST THAT WERE PRACTICED BY GRANDPARENTS AND GREAT GRANDPARENTS OF YESTERYEAR THAT MAKES FOR HAPPY CHILDREN AND MAKES A HOUSE A HOME AND MOST OF US COULD BENEFIT FROM SOME OF THEM.

Healthy Parental Blessings Money Cannot Buy - Consider These

“If you haven’t time to respond to a tug at your pants leg, your schedule is too crowded.” – Robert Brault

Whether you have money in your bank account or not, you have something they need:

  1. Love. More important than anything else, children need your love. 

A Christian Mother In NSW Says How She Explored What God's Word Has To Say About Happiness And How This Influences Her Aims In Parenting. I Believe She Has Found The Balance For Everyone With Valuable Principles She Discovered, If We Share Her Faith Or Not. I Hope You Can Avail Yourself The Opportunity Of Reading Them – They’re Really Great.

I Think Some Of Us Will See Why We Don’t Cope With Life As Well As Others Too – Maybe We Can Aim For Balance So We’re Not So Frustrated With “Happiness Issues” So Many Have, And Enjoy Our Happy Moments In A Wholesome Way. I Really Do Believe Children Need Happy Times More Than Some Parents Seem To Give Them, While Others Make A “Happy Happy” Environment For Them Most The Time Which Does Not Equip Them For Life’s Disappointments. Lets See What Harriet Has To Say, Aye?

Harriet's Encouragements:

A visitor to Modern Western Countries would have good reason to believe that the goal we are striving for in life is happiness. Our guiding principle seems to be: ‘Do whatever makes you happy; follow your heart’. We are on a constant quest to find our ‘happily ever after’ with the perfect partner, the perfect body, the perfect work position, and the perfect house.…

By Brandi Michel from FamilyFelicity.Com

“Happier Moms Raising Happier Families”

THIS MUM HAS SOME REAL INSIGHTS WITH KIDS, SHE LEARNED AS A PARENT. SHE MADE HER SHARE OF MISTAKES LIKE MOST PARENTS AND CAME UP WITH THESE PRECIOUS PRINCIPLES WHEN PRACTICED, CAN MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE - OUR KIDS ARE HAPPIER AND WELL ADJUSTED. CHILDREN DESERVE A BETTER START IN LIFE THAN THEY'RE GETTING OFTEN THESE DAYS. BRANDI'S ARTICLE SHOULD HELP MANY OF MY READERS TO BECOME WISER PARENTS WITH THANKFUL KIDS WHEN THEY GROW UP, REMEMBERING THEY BECAME SO MUCH HAPPIER WHEN THEIR UNSPOKEN NEEDS WERE MET. I WISH EVERYONE WELL.

There are some things our kids don’t always tell us. Things they should but don’t have the capacity to find the words. Or they just have no idea how to tell you. These are things they desperately need us to do for them, that often times go unmet.

These are the things that children wish their parents knew, so we could easily be equipped to meet their unsaid needs.

This is a sticky situation for both the kids who need them and the parents who unknowingly fail to deliver.…

PEOPLE OFTEN HAVE INSOMNIA HEY? IT'S SOMETIMES NOT WHAT WE EXPECT A CHILD COULD HAVE. THERE ARE SOME PRACTICAL IDEAS IN 2 ARTICLES HERE THAT COULD BE A CONSIDERABLE HELP FOR YOU AND YOUR CHILD - SOME GOOD OPTIONS TO MEDICAL. YOU DON'T WANT A YOUNG CHILD OR EVEN A TEENAGER ON OTC MEDS - THAT DOESN'T GIVE THEM A GOOD START IN LIFE. IT'S BEST TO TRY NATURAL OPTIONS WHERE POSSIBLE, TO PROVIDE A HEALTHY NIGHT'S SLEEP.

Insomnia In Children: Causes, Treatment, And Natural Remedies

By Sagari Gongala (BSc)

Insomnia complaints in children are usually associated with lack of restorative sleep (deep sleep and REM sleep). A child is said to have insomnia if they (1):

  • Have difficulty falling asleep at night
  • Have trouble staying asleep at night
  • Wakes up very early, at around three in the morning and have difficulty going back to sleep.

This can lead to a significant impairment in the child’s body functions during the day. Insomnia can be long-term, wherein the child has trouble sleeping for at least three weeks or more, or short-term, lasting for just a few days. MomJunction will tell you everything you need to know about insomnia, what causes it, and how to help your child deal with it.…

Author Florence Williams talks trees, cities, and creativity in her new book "The Nature Fix."

You Spend 5 Percent Of Your Day Outside. Try Making It More. At a time when more than half of all people live in cities, the influence of the natural world is at a low ebb, while our understanding of it keeps growing.

Try Spending Some Time Outdoors - It Lifts Your Mood Level

For two decades, Florence Williams could sit on her porch at night and watch the alpenglow on the Rocky Mountains. Then she moved from remote Colorado to Washington, DC, and started noticing the changes.

“I felt disoriented, overwhelmed, depressed,” she writes in her recent book, The Nature Fix. “My mind had trouble focusing. I couldn’t finish thoughts … and I wasn’t keen to get out of bed.”

Williams was suffering, she says, from nature withdrawal. She spent the next three years digging into the science of how nature works on our brain. In short, it makes us more relaxed, more creative, and more socially connected. She traveled to Japan and Finland, the deserts of Utah and the urban forests of Singapore, to study just how much we stand to gain by bring nature back into our lives.…

That lifestyle is what drew us here. We wanted to provide a different type of upbringing for our three young girls: one that focused on adventurous time spent in nature. So for the past two years we’ve been committed to finding fun and imaginative ways to spend as much time as possible out in nature. Over time we’ve grown from a family that considered a trip to a local park an adventure, to one that hikes and camps, fishes and skis.

We’ve grown closer as a family as we’ve grown to embrace our new lifestyle. And our difficult daughter? Well, we still have our moments, but almost never outside.

At first we didn’t know exactly why we wanted to raise outdoor loving kids – it just instinctively seemed like a good idea. If we did have a specific motivation, it was the hope that by starting them early our girls would grow up physically strong and healthy, and with a lifelong love for outdoor activity. Over time we’ve come to learn that the emotional benefits of more time in nature probably outweigh the physical ones.

BENEFITS OF SPENDING MORE TIME IN NATURE AS A FAMILY

It builds confidence.

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY WAS INTRODUCED EARLY THIS CENTUARY (2000 and 2005) AND SOME OF IT'S PRINCIPLES CAN BE PRACTICED PERSONALLY - YOU WOULD NOT NEED A PSYCHOLOGIST. IN SOME RESPECTS, THIS KIND OF PRACTICE IS HEALTHIER THAN OTHERS, IF YOU DON'T OVER-DO IT (like most things). IT CERTAINLY HAS IT'S MERITS, YOU WILL SEE IN THIS POST. THESE DAYS, YOU CAN EVEN PRACTICE SOME BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATION TECHNIQUES WITHOUT THE NEED FOR A THERAPIST. SOME PSYCHOLOGISTS WRITE BOOKS AND VIDEOS SHOWING YOU HOW TO APPLY THE TECHNIQUES FOR YOURSELVES. THEY'RE GOOD FOR MAKING AND BREAKING HABITS. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY IS INTERESTING TOO. FOR NOW, LET'S SEE WHAT POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY HAS TO OFFER, HEY?

WHAT IS POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Traditionally in psychology, the focus has been on identifying and treating mental health problems such as depression. This is critically important for those facing mental illness however, it provides an incomplete picture of mental health. Positive psychology is a relatively new branch of psychology that shifts the focus from what is clinically wrong, to the promotion of wellbeing and the creation of a satisfying life filled with meaning, pleasure, engagement, positive relationships and accomplishment.

Positive psychology is not about putting on a happy face all the time.…