Smiles and Laughs!
Have you LOL’d today? Martin Seligman, often called the father of positive psychology, gave a TED talk over 10 years ago explaining...
Have you LOL’d today?
Martin Seligman, often called the father of positive psychology, gave a TED talk over 10 years ago explaining his research that defined different types of “happy lives.” (For the video of this talk, visit:http://www.ted.com/talks/martin_seligman_on_the_state_of_psychology) There are many commonalities between them, but there is one concept that subtly weaves its way into the fabric of how we help each student here at EHS grow into happy, capable, competent and principled young adults. Laughter.
Yes. We’ve all heard the saying, “Laughter is the best medicine.” While there is plenty of science that can explain the neurochemical benefits to a belly-busting laugh, for each of us for whom laughter is a natural disposition, there are equal numbers for whom it can prove challenging or even uncomfortable.
I firmly believe one of the reasons Family Weekends consistently prove to be so joyful is that it gives everyone, regardless of our nature, an opportunity to slip, if even for a brief couple of days, into a comfortable place with family and friends…and just laugh. The start of school through Thanksgiving break is a long stretch of time and it’s easy to get consumed by the daily rigors of academic life here. It’s easy to lose perspective. However, Family Weekend affords us time and space to take a step back. I certainly saw hundreds of smiling faces, heard choruses of laughter and believe that, above all else, last weekend was great medicine for us all.
(As an aside: another “habit” of happy people is that they let themselves lose track of time. While that concept might be applied differently among teenagers, I believe our kids surely have that one down pat!)
Thanks for being here and I hope you enjoyed the weekend as much as we faculty did.