It may be difficult to fathom but most people fear public speaking over death. Public speaking means speaking in front of large or small audiences and sometimes even a few people. Public speaking includes giving a formal presentation to your boss or even proposing a toast at a relatives wedding. Many people have this fear which in actual fact is anticipatory fear, which is usually overcome as soon as they stand at the podium. Most of the time, it is not the speaking that causes the fear but the anticipation of the speech that is causing the anxiety. In order to understand how to overcome these fears, we need to first understand what the fears are about.  The 3 major causes for fear a... [ Read full post... ]

How to Prevent or Stop Bullying Other than the most commonly discussed issues of drinking alcohol and consuming drugs, one of the biggest safety issues in schools today is bullying. In some schools this has resulted in the concern for the students safety with police officers being placed on to enhance safety. Bullying can occur in many shapes and forms at school with all ages. Whether we are the parent, the educator, a concerned friend or someone who cares, it is important to address the various steps to stop and prevent bullying. I am going to list a few here and I would like to encourage my students to comment on the blog and share their views and experience on bullying and how this c... [ Read full post... ]

Self-esteem means how much a person values themselves. This is easy to understand when we are adults, but how does a child understand the meaning of self-esteem? It begins at home with the parents and family. Developing self-esteem is like building a house from its basic foundation. The parents need to lay each brick piece by piece securing it with strong cement to ensure the house stands tall and strong against all weather conditions. Building a child’s self-esteem is best done by building and developing their strengths and making a child realize how special they are regardless of any weaknesses they may have. After all if you think about it, why do we even refer to anything as ... [ Read full post... ]

As parents we need to spend time on building the self esteem of our children and not assume that it will come naturally. Self esteem can be a strange and often elusive quality. Children get derailed very easily especially in today’s fast paced competitive world where they need to keep up with others around them, technology and many times very successful high achiever “type” parents. If your child has a low self-esteem or confidence, it is not about what we can say to make them feel better, but more about how we can make the situation better. Building self esteem does not happen overnight and needs to be a conscious, organized and consistent daily exercise to achieve resu... [ Read full post... ]