Please keep Mr Stuart Munro, and his family, in your prayers as they try to come to terms with the loss of Stuart’s older brother, Jason, who passed away suddenly on Friday evening.
We will offer Wednesday’s whole school mass for Jason and all those who love and miss him.
At times like these, we are grateful for our faith and for the love, care and support given to us by others.
When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. Psalm 56:3
Thank you to Liam, Lachlan, Clayton, Jenna, Phoebe, Alison and Alana, who represented St Emilie’s beautifully at the recent LifeLink Launch at Newman College. Thank you also to all St Emilie’s children who contributed one of the 45 000 hearts displayed on the day. These hearts represent the love and compassion we extend to all those in need. We will be raising funds for LifeLink, and developing a greater awareness of the agencies that benefit from our donations, in the coming weeks.
![Scholastic-Book-Close-Date-Issue[4]](https://stemiliescps.wa.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Scholastic-Book-Close-Date-Issue4.jpg)
As we begin NAPLAN week, please assist your child by ensuring they are well rested, calm, have their Crunch ‘n’ Sip and know that all you require them to do – is their best.
NAPLAN can be an opportunity to further develop your child’s resilience and the skills they need to face life’s challenges. They can learn that the nervousness, many of us feel when we’re facing a challenge, can actually assist us to achieve more positive outcomes.
It is most important that NAPLAN is not portrayed to our children as being the be all and end all of their Primary Education. In reality, it is only one aspect of the assessment and reporting process at St Emilie’s providing simply a snapshot of learning, under test conditions, at a point in time. NAPLAN measures literacy and numeracy skills but it doesn’t measure creativity, innovation or a child’s social-emotional capacity.
Andrew Fuller, a clinical psychologist who has worked with school communities around Australia, and specialises in the wellbeing of young people and their families, has written the attached guide to Preparing for NAPLAN – with much of the information being relevant for our Primary context.
The more grateful people are, the greater their overall well-being and life satisfaction. They’ll also have stronger immune systems, lower blood pressure, better sleeps (and better waking). They’ll be more alert and more generous, compassionate, and happier. Grateful people also have a greater capacity for joy and positive emotions.
Gratitude is an acknowledgement that something meaningful has been done for us. It’s an open-hearted, deliberate recognition of the generosity of the giver. Of course, we can also be grateful for broader things that haven’t necessarily been ‘given’ to us by someone, such as our health, a safe place to sleep, or friendships. As with material things though, showing gratitude for the less tangible things in our lives stops us from being seen as ‘entitled’, or a ‘freeloader’, neither of which generally add shine to social relationships.
There are two types of people. Those who wave thanks to people who let them in in traffic, and those who don’t. Each invite their own response from the world. Gratitude shows that we’re good to be in a relationship with, and that we appreciate certain things, without expecting them.
Gratitude reinforces generosity from the giver and from the receiver. When there is an open display of gratitude in our relationships, both people are more likely to repeat the giving, and the open-hearted receiving. The effect of this is not only from person to person, but can ripple into the world.
‘Gratitude rewards generosity and maintains the cycle of healthy social behaviour’ – Antonia Damasia, Director of the BCI and Dornsife Neuroimaging Institute at Unversity of Southern California and professor of psychology and neurology.
Gratitude helps us notice the good that comes from outside of ourselves. We see the good in the world and in the people around us, increasing our feelings of security and connectedness.
Positive emotions tend to be like Teflon – they slide off us way too quickly. Gratitude lets us hang on to the positive for longer, and celebrate the good in our lives that we might otherwise move on too quickly from.
It’s impossible to feel grateful and negative at the same time. The more space gratitude is allowed to take up, the more it will expand itself and make way for other positive emotions – connection, happiness, appreciation, joy. More good feelings means less room for the toxic ones.
Research has found that gratitude can help with depression and increase positive feelings. Enough said.
Research has found that we tend to feel more grateful for experiences than for things we have. There doesn’t seem to be any clear reason for this, but one of the theories is that experiences are less likely to trigger social comparisons. While ‘things’ can seduce us into comparing what we have to what other people have, experiences are more likely to shift our focus to our own personal circumstances, and expand feelings of appreciation, happiness and contentment.
When the brain feels gratitude, the parts of the brain that are activated include the ventral and dorsal medial pre-frontal cortex. These areas are involved in feelings of reward (the reward when stress is removed), morality, interpersonal bonding and positive social interactions, and the ability to understand what other people are thinking or feeling.
Gratitude also has the capacity to increase important neurochemicals. When thinking shifts from negative to positive, there is a surging of feel-good chemicals such as dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin. These all contribute to the feelings of closeness, connection and happiness that come with gratitude.
Gratitude builds on itself. We know the brain changes with experience, so the more that gratitude is practised, the more the brain learns to tune in to the positive things in the world. This isn’t something that tends to come naturally. We humans have a negativity bias, which means that we’re wired to notice threats in the environment. This is a good thing – it’s kept us alive since the beginning of us – but as well as being alive we also want to be happy. When there is too much of a focus on the negative, gratitude can be a way to nurture a more positive focus, and teach the brain to spend more time on the feel-goods and less time hanging on to the things that scrape.
With the brain primed to notice the negatives, we need to not only teach it to tune into the positive, but also to hold those positives for long enough to have an effect. Our default position is to let the good slide off us fairly quickly, so we need to be deliberate about holding on to it for long enough to change the brain. Rick Hanson has done plenty of work in this area and has found that holding (focusing on) an experience for 20 seconds is long enough to create positive structural changes in the brain. Gratitude gives space for the positive experience to expand, or for us to ‘re-experience’ it, rather than having us move quickly move on from it.
Gratitude has the added power of initiating a social loop that has the potential to expand the good for everyone involved. The more gratitude we feel, the more we’ll act in a prosocial way towards others, which will encourage their feelings of gratitude which will make them more prosocial … and so goes a beautiful cycle of gratitude.
There are plenty of ways to practice gratitude, but however it’s done, it’s important that it’s done with consistency and novelty. Our brains like novelty. They love it actually. They quickly adapt to anything that stays constant. This is why the joy we feel for things that have us swooning in the beginning, soon lose their shimmer. Our brains adapt and when they do, they go looking for the next special thing. Gratitude can change this. With gratitude, we’re constantly giving our brains something new and positive to focus on (provided we practice gratitude for different things, not the same thing). Being grateful for the same things every day, even if they are important and worthy of enormous gratitude, won’t have the same effect on the brain as finding something positive and new each time.
As for consistency, it sounds easy enough to practice gratitude consistently, but if negative feelings tend to cosy up to you to quickly, it might be more difficult than you expect. To work around this, start small. Things that take more effort will always seem further away and more difficult – that makes sense. The more difficult they are, the less likely you’ll be to see it through. Here are some other ways to practice.
For 21 days, write down three things that had happened in the previous 24 hours that you’re grateful for. They can be things in the world or things that have happened in yours, and they can be as big or as small as you want – the breeze on your skin when you walked, a warm bed to sleep in, coffee when you woke up. According to Harvard happiness researcher Shawn Achor, doing this for 21 days will train your brain to look at the world in a different way. It will start to scan the world for positives instead of for threats. It’s important that the things you find in the world to be grateful for are new and specific. So rather than, ‘I’m grateful for my friends’, try, ‘I’m grateful for Sally because of the way she made me laugh today.’
Whether it’s a text you received, or catching up with someone you like, find a positive experience and spend two minutes writing down every detail about it. Write them in list form and do it for 21 days. According to Achor, as you remember positive experiences, your brain labels it as meaningful and the imprint in your brain deepens. The brain can’t tell the difference between an actual experience and a visualisation so calling on a positive experience after it’s happened doubles the feel-good in your brain. The idea is that after 21 days it will become a habit and it will change the way your brain looks at and receives the world.
Spend 20 minutes a week writing a letter to someone you’re thankful for. Whether or not you send it is up to you. The effect of this stays for months after the initial exercise. Researchers described the changes in the brain as ‘profound’ and ‘long-lasting’. One of the changes were a greater sensitivity to gratitude. What this means is that noticing the good now makes it easier to notice the good later. The more good you notice, the happier you’ll be.It’s just the way it works, and practising gratitude is a simple way to work it.
Gratitude rewires our brain so we become more likely to focus on the positives in the world than the negatives. We’re not going to become ignorant of danger if we appreciate the positives for a little while but we will become more open to the good. Our brains will always seek the things that keep us safe, but we also need the things that nurture our happiness and emotional well-being.
The above content has been taken from: http://www.heysigmund.com/the-science-of-gratitude/
Our Catholic faith is rich with traditions and symbols. Liturgical seasons offer us the opportunities to learn more about what our traditions mean and how we can incorporate them into our daily lives. Lenten activities are versatile – including all aspects of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving – and can be adapted according to your child’s development. Since children learn best by repetition and ‘doing’, it’s possible they will remember and appreciate the old or new traditions your family may choose to celebrate every Lenten season.
Set aside one evening a week to prepare a meal together. Assign a different dish or task to each family member. Before starting, discuss how each family member is giving to the others—giving time, effort, and care to prepare one aspect of the meal.
Write random acts of kindness, on slips of paper, such as give a compliment, say hi to a friend, carry someone’s heavy load. Present each family member with a slip of paper as they leave in the morning. Invite them to perform the kindness without seeking recognition. At the end of the day, talk together about what happened.
Ask each family member to find three to five good-quality, useful items that would be appreciated by those who are less fortunate. Donate the items to a favourite charity like St Vincent de Paul.
Project Compassion
Watch one of the videos from Project Compassion then discuss how your family will fill your Project Compassion Box.
http://www.caritas.org.au/projectcompassion/videos
Palm Sunday – March 25 – all children are invite to participate in the Entrance Procession.
Wednesday, March 28
2nd Rite of Reconciliation at 7pm
Tuesday, April 11
Chrism Mass – 7pm at the Cathedral
Holy Thursday – April 13
Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper at 7pm – Please wear white
All-night Adoration at the Altar of Repose will be available IF there are 2 people rostered at all times.
Good Friday – April 14
Stations of the Cross at 10.00am in the Church grounds
Liturgy of the Passion of Our Lord at 3.00pm – Please wear red – There will be one collection for the Holy Places.
Saturday – April 15
Celebration of the Lord’s Resurrection at 8.00pm – Please wear white or gold
Easter Sunday – April 16
Masses at 7.15am and 9.00am – Please wear white or gold
Please note there will be NO 5.00pm Mass on Easter Sunday
Thank you to all families and, of course, staff who supported our first community social event for 2017 – the St Emilie’s Family Fun Night.
Although the 39 degree weather may have put some people off, those that came along enjoyed a very pleasant night filled with great fun, good conversation, some great dance moves, friendly (?) competition and delicious food.
A huge thank you to Alison, Bec and their fantastic support team for all your preparation and hard work both prior to and on the night – the Sausage Sizzle, drinks and ice-creams were very much appreciated.
Thank you to Mr Cogger and his Year Six helpers for setting up the barbecues, tents and shades.
Thank you also to the special people who stayed behind and assisted with packing away at the end of the evening – your generosity was greatly appreciated.
We noted some very tired little cherubs heading home after a great time together – staff included!
