My Friends That Are Not- manage negative self-talk
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As an elementary age kid, my mom would often tell me I was "such a perfectionist". I believed it was a compliment and wore it as a badge of honor. It wasn't until much later that I was mature enough to realize that should have been received as a warning about an unhealthy way of approaching life.
Seeing the same tendencies in my daughter Eisley, I began feeling guilty that I had modeled it for her. And wanting to help her redirect her own path early, to be able to enjoy life more, I began studying about anxiety and negative self-talk. When explaining what I was reading in these textbooks, I felt inspired to personify the 4 sub-personalities of anxiety and began to talk with her about Walter the Worrier, Pricilla the Perfectionist, Christina the Critic and Valerie the Victim. And that's when it happened. One night, while tucking her in to bed, this line just came out; "There's Walter the Worrier, most Wednesday's he's the worst. He talks of all that could go wrong until I want to burst!" We looked at each other and laughed.
Night after night, and then during any free time we had, we expanded on those initial lines to introduce all four of the characters that so often lead to anxiety. Once that was complete, we looked at the recommendations from research on what to do when you begin to recognize the familiar negative self-talk that has become a pattern of response to life and its situations. That became section two of the book and deals with how to appropriately challenge those thoughts. And last, section 3 is about how to replace those thoughts with counter-statements.
This book is meant to be read and discussed between adult and child, giving them both a framework for talking about the habits of mental wellness. Our objective is to help families apply principles of Positive Psychology. We included a glossary to help make it accessible to lower elementary-age students (with help) and believe the concepts are important for learners up to any age.
We have done an initial print run of 1400 books that have been gifted to educators across 7 states. If we reach our goal, your donation would be used to help improve the book layout, do another print run, and build our website (thinkingup.org) where we intend to provide downloadable resources to go along with the book.
For a donation of any amount, you will receive our gratitude!
(please message us with your shipping by clicking on the envelope next to my name)
For a $15 donation we will send you a soft cover copy of the book.
For a $25 donation we will send you an autographed copy of the book.
For a $35 donation we will send you an autographed copy of the book, bonus parent resources that didn't make it into the book, and 4 wearable reminder bracelets to ThinkUp.
For a $50 donation we will send you the preceding gifts as well as four, 8x10 posters of the characters and a positive counter-statement.
For a $100 donation, we will send you the preceding gifts, plus Eisley and I will read the book with you via Facetime. (this category is for you Grandma and Grandpa;)
We anticipate being able to ship books and bonuses by late March.
(If we do not reach our funding goal, we will send you the current version of the book with the tiered bonuses.)
Seeing the same tendencies in my daughter Eisley, I began feeling guilty that I had modeled it for her. And wanting to help her redirect her own path early, to be able to enjoy life more, I began studying about anxiety and negative self-talk. When explaining what I was reading in these textbooks, I felt inspired to personify the 4 sub-personalities of anxiety and began to talk with her about Walter the Worrier, Pricilla the Perfectionist, Christina the Critic and Valerie the Victim. And that's when it happened. One night, while tucking her in to bed, this line just came out; "There's Walter the Worrier, most Wednesday's he's the worst. He talks of all that could go wrong until I want to burst!" We looked at each other and laughed.
Night after night, and then during any free time we had, we expanded on those initial lines to introduce all four of the characters that so often lead to anxiety. Once that was complete, we looked at the recommendations from research on what to do when you begin to recognize the familiar negative self-talk that has become a pattern of response to life and its situations. That became section two of the book and deals with how to appropriately challenge those thoughts. And last, section 3 is about how to replace those thoughts with counter-statements.
This book is meant to be read and discussed between adult and child, giving them both a framework for talking about the habits of mental wellness. Our objective is to help families apply principles of Positive Psychology. We included a glossary to help make it accessible to lower elementary-age students (with help) and believe the concepts are important for learners up to any age.
We have done an initial print run of 1400 books that have been gifted to educators across 7 states. If we reach our goal, your donation would be used to help improve the book layout, do another print run, and build our website (thinkingup.org) where we intend to provide downloadable resources to go along with the book.
For a donation of any amount, you will receive our gratitude!
(please message us with your shipping by clicking on the envelope next to my name)
For a $15 donation we will send you a soft cover copy of the book.
For a $25 donation we will send you an autographed copy of the book.
For a $35 donation we will send you an autographed copy of the book, bonus parent resources that didn't make it into the book, and 4 wearable reminder bracelets to ThinkUp.
For a $50 donation we will send you the preceding gifts as well as four, 8x10 posters of the characters and a positive counter-statement.
For a $100 donation, we will send you the preceding gifts, plus Eisley and I will read the book with you via Facetime. (this category is for you Grandma and Grandpa;)
We anticipate being able to ship books and bonuses by late March.
(If we do not reach our funding goal, we will send you the current version of the book with the tiered bonuses.)
Organizer
Dan Brandt
Organizer
Murrieta, CA
