As we come to the end of another calendar year, Stuart Shanker, Susan Hopkins, and The MEHRIT Centre team have been reflecting with gratitude on our ongoing Self-Reg journey and the many lovely lessons learned along the way from our Self-Reg community. As we shared in our latest issue of the TMC Voices newsletter, we have continued to grow faster than we could have imagined as we spread the message and science of Shanker Self-Reg — literally — around the world. We’ve had the chance to spend time with our Self-Reggers in Winnipeg, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, and our home base of Peterborough for last summer’s Self-Reg Summer Symposium. Hundreds of new learners have started their Self-Reg learning in our Foundations program, and many more are working through our Level 2 Facilitator’s Program. It has been both humbling and inspiring to learn from this community as well as to help guide their individual and collective journeys in Self-Reg.
Along the way, we’ve been lucky enough to publish articles and videos that show us how others are putting the science of Self-Reg into practice in their everyday lives, and which help us understand new ways to reframe, recognize & reduce stressors, and restore energy. Here are our top 10 from 2017, plus a few honourable mentions!
- The Self-Reg Myths by Stuart Shanker & Susan Hopkins: In this 12-part video series, Stuart and Susan do some myth-busting of the biggest misunderstandings and misconceptions of Shanker Self-Reg.
- The Self-Reg View of Calm Begets Calm by Stuart Shanker: Learn why our limbic systems are wired to read other limbic systems and how we can “pour oil over troubled waters” when dysregulation happens in ourselves or our children.
- Reframing THAT Child by Aviva Dunsiger: This post shows the true power of reframing by reminding us that every child can be (and has been) “that” child, and how much of an impact it can have to shift our language and remove the labels.
- A Skinned Knee and a Room Full of Frantic Adults by Susan Hopkins: A great one for parents, in this vlog Susan shares a story of her daughter getting injured and how it was the adults – not the child! – who most needed to self-regulate.
- Willpower is Not the Secret of Success by Stuart Shanker: One of the most pervasive ideas in our culture is that willpower is the key to having success in almost every facet of life. Learn why this is not the case in this post from Dr. Shanker.
- Barrier Breakdown: The Magical De-Stressing Effect of SRSS by John Hoffman: So many of our Self-Reggers experience a huge decrease in their stress levels at our Summer Symposium simply because they are surrounded by others who “get” Self-Reg at a deeper level.
- My Cubby Room Conundrum: Is It Time to Reframe Hiding? by Aviva Dunsiger: Hiding is not necessarily the “misbehaviour” it seems to be, and is more likely to be one of the only Self-Reg strategies a child knows how to access in the moment.
- Why Does My Child Hate Math? by Stuart Shanker: As Dr. Shanker explains in this three-part series for Psychology Today, as well as an accompanying video, hating math is usually a learned limbic reaction after being pushed too hard.
- Reframing Explosive Behaviour by John Hoffman: Here at TMC, we don’t believe in the idea of “explosive behaviour” because there are always signs that show us that an “explosion” is imminent.
- Crisis Averted, Trajectory Changed by Cathern Lethbridge:
Honourable Mentions:
- What If We Provided All Teachers With Self-Reg Days Off Every Year? by Susan Hopkins
- From Fictional Characters to Peers: Considering Self-Reg for Adults by Aviva Dunsiger
- What If? Chew On This by Susan Hopkins & Stuart Shanker
- The Self-Reg View of Overcoming Barriers by Stuart Shanker
- The Day I Knew I Found a Self-Reg Haven by Aviva Dunsiger
You can see all of our Self-Reg blog posts here. If you’d like to be notified when new articles are published, be sure to subscribe to the blog using the signup form in the sidebar of this page. You can also see our top 10 blog posts of 2016 here. Thanks for reading
Happy 2018!
