Thanksgiving and The Powerful Benefits of Gratitude

By LCS faculty member Libby Dalrymple, from her Chapel Address, October 7, 2020 I’d like to take a moment this morning to think about two words. The first word is Thanksgiving. It’s a two-part, compound word that implies action: Giving …..Thanks. That is what our upcoming holiday is all about - taking time in our lives to GIVE THANKS. It’s wonderful that we have a special holiday devoted to this concept but, as we all know, it’s important to give thanks more than once a year. Ideally, we try to do so daily. This brings me to the second word: Gratitude. In the field of Positive Psychology, there are psychologists who research many aspects of Gratitude, including a man named Bob Emmons. Even though it’s only one word, he talks about gratitude as being conceptually made up of two parts: “it’s an affirmation of goodness. We affirm that there are…

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Attention is a Muscle…and We All Should Be Doing Reps

By Carrie Gilfillan, Learning Strategist  In my work with students at Lakefield College School, I often approach the topic of mindfulness through the lens of attention. I was grateful to have had the opportunity to share this different way of thinking about mindfulness with our students during this week’s Mindful Moment, a weekly mindfulness practice in our Chapel programming. Now, because I know the power of a good hook to grab attention I started out jokingly dedicating this week’s Mindful Moment to a student who, just the other week, in an overwhelmed moment, told me that they may punch something if another adult asks them if they practice mindfulness. While starting out this way was definitely a strategy on my part to gain the attention of a group of teenagers, it was this interaction that reminded me of how our kids need to understand that mindfulness is more than something…

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