Mind Coach

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Mind Coach

• Thinking Positively and Feeling Good

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• EVERYTHING starts and ends in your mind.
• Your mind determines how happy you are, how good
  you feel about yourself, and how you interact
  with others.
• Your mind can encourage you to be great or to
  just be average or worse!
• You must learn how to focus and direct your mind.

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• She didnt play with me today she doesnt want
  to be my friend anymore.
• Its the teachers fault.
• These are thought that limit your ability to
  enjoy life. These are negative thoughts that
  cause your inside feelings to become problems for
  you and make you feel bad.
• Some negative thoughts come from what other
  people have told you about yourselves. Others
  come from experiences that made you frustrated a
  lot. You may have had thoughts such as Im
  stupid. I cant ever do anything right. It will
  never work out for me.

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Your Brian Works Like a Computer

• When you receive input about yourself you store
  it in your subconscious mind and you may express
  those messages in bad behavior or feelings.
• You have to learn to talk back to these bad
  messages or you will begin to believe them!
• Most of us (even grown-ups) never talk back to
  our thoughts we just believe what we think,
  even though the thoughts may not make sense.
• This leads to behavior that is based on false
  ideas or false assumptions.

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Positive Programming Vs. Negative Programming

• Parents, teachers, and others program our
  thoughts by how they talk to us.
• Bad thoughts affect our moods and sometimes could
  make us sick.

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Thinking Skills

• Your thoughts have weight and mass!
• They influence every cell in your body
• If your mind is filled with lots of bad thoughts
  it affects your ability to learn, to relate to
  others, and your physical health.
• Lets learn some positive thinking!

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Step 1

• Every time you have a thought your brain releases
  chemicals.
• You have a thought
• Your brain releases chemicals
• An electrical transmission goes across your brain
  and
• You become aware of what youre thinking.

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Step 2

• When you have a mad thought, an unkind thought, a
  sad thought, or a cranky thought your brain
  releases negative chemicals that make your body
  feel bad.

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• When you are upset, imagine that your brain
  releases bubbles with sad or angry faces, looking
  to cause problems.
• Think about the last time you were mad. What
  feelings did your body have?
• When most kids are mad, their muscles get tense,
  their heart beats faster, their hands start to
  sweat and they may even feel a little dizzy!
• Your body reacts to EVERY negative thought you
  have.

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Step 3

• Every time you have a good thought, a happy
  thought, a hopeful thought, or a kind thought
  your brain releases chemicals that make your body
  feel good.
• Imagine that when you are happy your brain
  releases bubbles with glad or smiling faces,
  making you feel good. ? ? ? ? ? ?
• When most kids are happy, their muscles relax,
  their heart beats slower, their hands become dry
  and they breathe slower.

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Step 4

• Your body reacts to every thought you have. Lie
  detector tests tell us this. During a lie
  detector test, you are hooked up to some fancy
  equipment that measures
• Hand temperature
• Heart rate
• Blood pressure
• Breathing rate
• Muscle tension
• How much the hands sweat

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• The tester asks you questions, like Did you do
  that thing? If you did the bad thing, your body
  is likely to have a stress response and it may
  react like this
• Hands will get colder
• Heart will beat faster
• Blood pressure will go up
• Breathing will get faster
• Muscles will get tight
• Hands will sweat more

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• You dont even have to SAY anything before your
  body begins to react. If you did NOT do the bad
  thing your body will have a relaxation response
  and this is likely to happen
• Hands will become warmer
• Heart rate will slow down
• Blood pressure will go down
• Breathing will become slower and deeper
• Muscles will become more relaxes
• Hands will become drier

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• Your body reacts to every thought you have,
  whether it is about school, friends, family or
  anything else.

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Step 5

• Thoughts are very powerful. They can make your
  mind and body feel good or they can make you feel
  bad.
• Every cell in your body is affected by every
  thought you have. When people get emotionally
  upset they develop physical symptoms, like
  headaches or stomach aches. Some people even
  think that people who have lots of negative
  thoughts are more likely to get cancer.

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Lincoln had periods of bad depression when he was
a child and later as a grown up. He had some
really, really bad days and sometimes he couldnt
even get out of bed. Lincoln learned to treat
his bad feelings using laughter. He became a
very good storyteller and loved to tell jokes.
He learned that when he laughed, he felt better.
Over a hundred years ago, people knew that
thoughts were very important.
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Step 6

• Unless you think about your thoughts they are
  automatic or they just happen. Since they just
  happen, they are not always correct. Your
  thoughts do not always tell you the truth.
  Sometimes people dont think they are smart
  because they dont do well on tests, but tests
  just show one little part of your brain. You
  DONT have to believe every little thought that
  goes through your head. Its important to think
  about your thoughts to see if they help you or
  hurt you. If you never challenge your thoughts,
  you just believe them and they may not always
  be true.

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Step 7

• You can train your thoughts to be positive and
  hopeful
• You can just allow thoughts to be negative and
  upset you
• You can choose to think good thoughts and feel
  good
• You can choose to think bad thoughts and feel
  lousy
• ITS UP TO YOU!!!!!

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• You must notice your thoughts and talk back to
  them when they are negative.
• If you can correct negative thoughts, you take
  away their power over you.
• When you dont correct negative thoughts, your
  mind believes what it is saying and your body
  reacts to it.

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Step 8

• Bad thoughts are called Automatic Negative
  Thoughts ANTS.
• These thoughts are like ants that bother people
  at a picnic. One negative thought (ant) is not a
  problem, but two or three are irritating and ten
  or twenty are a PROBLEM.

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• When you notice automatic negative thoughts you
  need to CRUSH them or theyll begin to ruin your
  whole day.
• One way write down the bad thought and talk
  back to it. Ex Everyone will laugh at me when
  I give my report.
• Write it down and then say something like,
  Everyone will LIKE my report and think it is so
  interesting.
• When you write down bad thoughts and talk back to
  them, you take away their power and help yourself
  feel better.

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• Some kids say they have trouble talking back to
  bad thought because they feel that they are lying
  to themselves.
• They believe the thoughts in their heads are
  true.
• Remember! Sometimes thoughts lie to you
• You must check thoughts out before you just
  believe them.

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ANTS Automatic Negative Thoughts

• There are NINE different kinds of ANTS.
• You need to identify the type of ANT so you can
  take away its power.
• Some ANTS are RED ANTS and they are especially
  harmful to you.
• Notice and crush ANTS every time you can

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ANT 1All or Nothing Thinking

• You make something out to be all good or all bad
  nothing in between.
• You see everything as black or white.
• Theres nothing to do. This thought makes you
  feel down and upset. You are bored and
  unmotivated to change the situation you just
  whine or complain.

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• Is Theres nothing to do a rational thought?
• NO its just a thought!
• Even on a rainy day theres lost of things you
  can do inside draw, make paper airplanes, write
  a story, read a story, do a puzzle, write a
  letter, play hide and seek, do your chores, etc.
• If you never challenge the thought though you
  just believe it and spend the day feeling crummy.
  
• Other all or nothing thoughts are like Im
  the worst ballplayer in the city. or If I dont
  get a 100 on the test, Im no good.

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ANT 2 Always Thinking

• This happens when you think something that
  happened will always repeat itself.
• If your mother is irritable and gets upset you
  might think, Shes always yelling at me. even
  when she really only yells once in a while.
• Just the thought Shes always yelling at me. is
  so negative that it makes you feel sad and upset.
• Whenever you think in words like always, never,
  no one, everyone, every time, and everything, you
  are always thinking and are usually wrong.
• They always get to do everything, and I dont get
  to do anything! No one ever plays with me.
  Everyone is always picking on me. You never take
  me with you. You always get her what she wants.
• This is a very common ANT Watch out for it!

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ANT 3 Focusing on the Negative

• This is when you only see the bad in a situation
  and ignore any of the good parts.
• If you have to move, you may be sad to leave your
  friends.. You dont think about how great it
  will be to go to new places and make new friends.
  
• If you want to keep your mind healthy, you must
  focus on the good parts of your life a lot more
  than the bad parts.

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• In the movie, Pollyanna the girl, Pollyanna,
  went to live with her aunt after her parents
  died.
• She had lost her parents, but she was able to
  help lots and lots of negative people with her
  great attitude.
• She introduced them to the Glad Game to look
  for things to be glad about in any situation.
• Once when she wanted a doll really badly she got
  a pair of crutches by mistake! She said to her
  dad, Whats there to be glad about crutches?

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• Well, the thing to be glad about was that she
  didnt have to use crutches!
• This game changed the attitudes and lives of many
  people.
• Pollyanna even taught the minister to be glad.
  She said there are 900 things in the Bible about
  being glad and so God must want us to think that
  way
• You will always feel better if you think positive.

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ANT 4 Fortune Telling

• You predict the worst possible outcome of a
  situation.
• Before you have to take a test you may say, Im
  going to do awful and everyone will think Im
  stupid.
• Just thinking like this will make you feel
  nervous and upset.
• THIS IS A RED ANT!!!!!!
• If you think you are going to do badly, you
  probably will!
• If you are going to predict, then predict the
  best thing that can happen. You will feel better
  and it will help your mind make it happen.

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ANT 5 Mind Reading

• You think you know what another person is
  thinking when they havent even told you!
• Many people do this and it gets them in trouble.
• Those kids are mad at me. You dont like me.
  They were talking about me.
• Dont read anyones mind you never know what
  they are thinking!

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ANT 6 Thinking With Your Feelings

• You believe your negative feelings without ever
  questioning them.
• Feelings are very complex and sometimes they lie
  to you.
• This usually begins with I feel - - - -
• I feel like you dont even love me. I feel
  stupid. I feel nobody will trust me.

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• Look for the evidence behind your feeling!
• Do you have any reason to feel the way you do?
• Are your feelings based on what happened in the
  past?

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ANT 7 Guilt Beatings

• Guilt is not a helpful emotion for anyone.
• Guilt often makes you do things that you dont
  want to do.
• Words like should, must, ought or have to are
  guild words.
• I must always be nice to everyone. I shouldnt
  think that way about Linda. I ought to help my
  sister.
• Because we are humans, whenever we think that we
  must do something, no matter what it is, we
  dont want to do it.

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• Remember Adam and Eve?
• The only thing God told them not to do was to
  stay away from the Tree of Knowledge.
• Almost immediately they started to wonder why
  they shouldnt do it.
• You know the rest!

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• Replace Guilt Beatings with phrases like I
  want to do this. . . It fits my goal to do that.
  . . . It would be helpful to do this. . .
• So, I want to be nice to my little brother. Its
  helpful for me not to lie because people will
  trust me. I want to call my grandmother. Its
  in my best interest to do my homework.

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ANT 8

• You attach a negative label to yourself or to
  someone else.
• Nerd Jerk Idiot Spoiled brat Clown
• Negative labels hurt because whatever you call
  yourself or someone else you lump that person in
  your mind with all of the other idiots or
  nerds that you have ever known and you cant
  deal with them in a good way.
• STAY AWAY FROM NEGATIVE LABELS.

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ANT 9 - Blame

• You can ruin your life if you blame others when
  things go wrong, if you dont take responsibility
  for your problems.
• When things go wrong, people who use blame think
  try to find someone to blame.
• They hardly ever admit their own problems.
• It wasnt my fault that. . . . .
• That wouldnt have happened if you had . . .
• How was I supposed to know . . . .
• Its your fault that . . . .

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• Blaming others starts early. Little kids may
  blame an imaginary friend or someone who wasnt
  even at home for something that they did.
• Whenever you blame someone else for the problems
  in our life you become powerless to change
  anything.
• Dont play the blame game it wont help you
  ever.
• Stay away from blaming thoughts and take personal
  responsibility to change the problem you have.

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Summary of ANTS

• 1. All or Nothing Thinking thoughts that are all
  good or all bad
• 2. Always Thinking thinking in words like
  always, never, no one, everyone, every time,
  everything
• 3. Focusing on the Negative only seeing the bad
  in a situation
• 4. Fortune Telling Predicting the worst possible
  outcome of a situation
• 5. Mind Reading believing that you know what
  another person is thinking

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• 6. Thinking With Your Feelings believing
  negative feelings without ever questioning them
• 7. Guilt Beatings thinking in words like
  should, must, ought or have to.
• 8. Labeling attaching a negative label to
  yourself or to someone else
• 9. Blame blaming someone else for the problems
  you have.

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Killing the ANTs(Talking Back to Negative
Thoughts)

• When an ANT enters your mind, get rid of it!
• You become an exterminator of bad thoughts.
• Write the bad thought (ANT) down
• Identify what kind of ANT it is.
• Kill the ANT by talking back to the irrational
  thought.
• You take away the power of the ANTs and begin to
  control the way you feel.

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• ANT Kind Kill the ANT
• Theres nothing to do. All or Nothing
  Thinking There are probably lots of things
  to do if I think about it for
  awhile
• __________________________________________________
  ______
• No one ever plays with Always Thinking Thats
  silly. I have
• me. Played with a lot of
• kids.
• __________________________________________________
  ______
• The teacher doesnt Mind Reading I dont know
  that. Maybe
• like me. shes just having a bad
• day.

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• ANT Kind Kill the ANT
• The whole class Fortune Telling I dont know
  that. Maybe
• will laugh at me. Theyll really like my
• speech.
• __________________________________________________
  _________
• Im stupid. Labeling Sometimes I do things
• that arent that smart, but
• Im not stupid!
• __________________________________________________
  ______
• Its the teachers Blame I need to look at my
  part
• Fault. of the problem and look
• for ways I can make the
• situation better.

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• Your thoughts matter!
• Train them to be positive and it will help your
  mind, your body, and your relationships with
  other people.