Alan White This week I have been asked to give a class on Developing Mental Well-being in young people, as part of the Cork Lifelong Learning Festival. Preparing for this, I had to look at the question of how to do this in a different way, as I will be talking to adults about how […]
Archive | Blog
Crossing the line – Fun vs distraction
BlogAlan White We all have an innate need for fun. Sometimes we can forget this, especially during busy times in life. Fun means something different to each of us and the things we do for fun can be as varied as reading to parachuting out of an aeroplane. However no matter what we do for […]
The Mindfulness experiment
BlogAlan White Although I am passionate about well-being and I believe that all young people need to learn key skills to take control and care for their own well-being, I have, in the past, been resistant to mindfulness. Why? Because I am the type of person that finds it difficult to sit still for any […]
Sometimes we just need to stop
BlogAlan White “Beware the bareness of a busy life – Socrates. Life is becoming more and more hectic for all of us. I’m finding it hard recently to remember when I last had nothing to do. Don’t get me wrong, I believe it is important for our well-being that we have goals and are motivated […]
Listening to understand
BlogAlan White “Loneliness doesn’t come from having no one around you, but from being unable to communicate the things that are important to you.” – Carl Jung How many times have you had a conversation, and after it finished, you struggled to remember what you spoke about? More importantly, how many times have you struggled […]
Self-Evaluating & Goal setting! Why over committing to our resolutions can be damaging to our well-being!
BlogAlan White It’s that time of year again when many of us have set out our new year’s resolutions and promise ourselves that this time things will be different. We are declaring aloud for all to hear, the monumental changes we intend to make in our lives. Whether it’s losing weight, quitting smoking, learning a […]
Looking Back!
BlogAlan White Last March when I wrote my first piece for Creaghcastle Publishing, I was very nervous to say the least. I have learned over the past year that, when writing anything, you are putting a piece of yourself out there. The thought of this frightened me if I’m honest, and looking back over my […]
Self-Talk – Why our worst enemy often lives between our own two ears!
BlogAlan White “I’ve had a lot of worries in my like, most of which never happened” – Mark Twain We often talk to ourselves in a way that we wouldn’t dream of talking to someone else. I’m stupid, I will never learn, I’m always making stupid mistakes. The list goes on and on. I have […]
Building resilience builds well-being
BlogAlan White “When you are going through hell, keep going!” – Winston Churchill. The above quote, for me, encapsulates the need we all have to build our resilience. Resilience is a mental toughness, it is the ability to bounce back from setbacks in our lives as well as the ability to cope with and overcome […]
The Pygmalion effect – how our young people live up (or down) to our expectations
BlogAlan White In 1964 Harvard psychologist Robert Rosenthal was given permission to administer a new IQ test to a group of Elementary school students. After administering the test, a group of children were highlighted to the teacher as having great potential to academically flourish over the next year. Sure enough over the following academic year […]