Celebration in A Bag: 10 Infallible Fixes for Days When Your Brain is Drained" Dr. Linda Karges-Bone

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1 Celebration in A Bag: 10 Infallible Fixes for Days When Your Brain is Drained" Dr. Linda Karges-Bone Affective forecasting (also known as hedonic forecasting, or the hedonic forecasting mechanism) is predicting how you will feel in the future. As it turns out, we're terrible at it. We're not good judges of what will make us happy, and we have trouble seeing through the filter of the now. Our feelings in the present blind us to how we'll make decisions in the future, when we might be feeling very ly What do hedonic forecasting and Celebration in a Bag have in common? It s all about your mind ( mindset) that is. And for the busy, often stressed AD, maintaining a positive, upbeat, and yet calm disposition is essential to the work at hand. Let s do a bit of professional development first, and then jump into the Celebration in a Bag model. The word Hedonic is derived from the Greek hēdonikós meaning.pleasurable. Here s the back story. Our brains seem to be programmed to default to a Negative disposition or viewpoint. Negative feelings easily become hard-wired and are difficult to shake off. This may be a protective feature of cognition, but it can make metacognition ( thinking about thinking) tough to maintain. That makes the work of the AD more difficult. The brain as like "Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones." While some individuals may be inherently more optimistic than others, it s generally true that in order for positive experiences to stick in our brains as well as negative ones do, these positive experiences need to be held in our consciousness for a longer period of time. says Dr. Rick Hanson, an expert in the field of Neuroscience and Maintaining Happiness.

2 He goes on to say "Negative stimuli produce more neural activity than do equally intense (e.g., loud, bright) positive ones, Hanson writes on his website. They are also perceived more easily and quickly. For example, people in studies can identify angry faces faster than happy ones; even if they are shown these images so quickly (just a tenth of a second or so) that they cannot have any conscious recognition of them, the ancient fight-or-flight limbic system of the brain will still get activated by the angry faces. In a nutshell, it is easy to become negative or disenchanted in one s work persona and difficult to shift out of that mindset. It can take a deliberate set of decisions to snap out of it once negativity has taken over. On a day to day basis, an AD may actually feed a cycle of negative forecasting and an INTERVENTION, such as Celebration in a Bag may be required.

3 What is Celebration in a Bag? I attribute the term to a long-time professorial colleague, Dr. Patty Hambrick, who not only trains teachers, but is a pastor s wife and co-director of a mobile literacy and ministry called Super Bus that serves poor, rural communities. She always keeps some version of Celebration close at hand, ready to turn an ordinary day or lesson into something special. The idea is to pull together items that can instantly and/or easily add color, movement, excitement, and an air of celebration to any gathering. There are actually companies and consultants who provide expensive, customized versions of this, but a savvy AD can pull a few together in an afternoon, using the handy chart that I ve developed. It is like creating a cerebral salad, selecting one item from each column to produce a personalized Celebration in a Bag. I recommend 2-3 versions for use indoors, outdoors, and a mobile version for the bus or field trip. Here we go! Choose ONE from each column to create an original Celebration in a Bag Container Decor Snack Sounds Activity Recycled cardboard box covered with wrapping paper Strings of white or colored lights Trail mix of varieties Whistles Sparklers Candles for making an ordinary cake more fun A wicker or plastic laundry basket A picnic basket with a lid Small flags or banners Crowns, tiaras, visors with glitter or Pretzels of seasonal shapes Bags of popcorn and shakers of seasonings M &M s or chocolate kisses A few sets of party maracas Harmonicas Sidewalk Chalk Ink pads for thumb print art Face Painting materials

4 other celebratory head gear A large canvas tote bag with your initials or party symbols A medium size plastic trash receptacle decorated with stickers A cloth duffel or laundry bag A sturdy plastic tote with a lid, such as the kind used for storing holiday decorations Crepe paper streamers Balloons and streamers A beach umbrella Hawaiian luau leis A Few colored plastic table cloths Seasonal cookies Hot cocoa packets and mini marshmallows Ingredients for S Mores Variety of granola or cereal bars Loaded ipod of party tunes or patriotic music A few tambourines A CD of fireworks sounds Holiday bells on a string, or jingle bell ornaments Beads and string for simple beading Cans of shaving cream and waxed paper to paint in the snow Stickers and stars and craft paper/ a roll of freezer paper Glitter pens and plain socks, head bands, or paper for decorating Once you have crafted a few versions, here are some protocols for use: *At an ordinary events such as Uno or Bingo, make a surprise announcement that this is a Party Down Bingo Thursday and pull out the Celebration Bag to add oomph to the event. *Surprise a resident with an honorary party, but not a birthday party. That s too boring and then everyone will expect one. Instead, pull out the Celebration Bag to recognize former teachers or mail carriers.

5 *Bring out the Celebration Bag for the Equinox! That even rhymes. Have fun with it. *Pull out the Celebration Bag for a Super Saturday. Turn a movie night into a Celebration Bag night. Make one Thursday a month Celebration Bag afternoon. Remember, the idea is to keep not only the residents, but YOUR OWN BRAIN in a cycle of positive forecasting. When you smile and feel energized, it is contagious. Plus, there is actually research suggesting that simply anticipating a reward stimulates the same areas of the brain as actually receiving the reward, but amazingly, in greater amounts. So, just thinking about creating a Celebration in a Bag should get your dopamine levels firing. As they say in the vintage movie Wayne s World. Party On!