“We are going to line up our calendars invite the most impactful, relevant entities from the community to help us solve these problems,” he said. The second app is for employees, like an internal 9-1-1 system. Unified is for parents and students to report non-emergency issues. In fact one of the startling discoveries of exploring this important period of life is that the ESSENCE of adolescence is also the key way to keep our brains vital and growing well throughout the lifespan! That’s something we call can embrace, no matter where we are along this spectrum of life.California Graffiti, vaping, sextortion, drugs: A new school app can report school safety issues But if it is true that our conscious minds can learn to embrace the here-and-now, lifting us out of the pain of life’s challenges, perhaps we can acknowledge and cultivate the essence of a vital life for all of us. Their grandpa would have smiled to be here, and I smile now filling my mind with his memory. Life is a passing of these moments, I know, ones we cannot hold onto. I look at my son and daughter, my nieces and nephews, listen to the music they are singing right here in the next room, see them painting over there on the porch, soak in the laughter of another pair outside. Our century or so of life here in these bodies is an opportunity to conceive of and then construct a healthier world. The water laps on this spring-fed lake, as it has for thousands of years. In fact, most of the innovations of science and technology, art and music, come from adolescent minds! Adults tend to call this “adolescent rebellion” and miss the opportunity to create systems in schools and society that support this drive toward creating a new world. Creative Exploration: Having the creativity to innovate and conceive of how the world could be, not just perceiving how it is.Developing an “inner compass” can provide the foundations to minimize such dangers during this time of life. Yes, risk-taking is real in adolescence, not just because of impulsivity in early adolescence, but a drive by dopamine shifts of the reward system of the brain and a kind of cognition called by researchers “hyper-rational thinking”, each of which make dangerous behaviors a real aspect of this time period. Novelty-seeking: The courage to move beyond the status quo and try out something new.SE: Social Engagement-a time of great importance of the connections to others, a deep relationality that is beyond the vulnerability to peer pressure making adolescents-or any of us-be at risk of giving up morals for membership to a larger group.ES: Emotional Spark-a time of great vitality and passion that can be cultivated well, instead of being seen as only moodiness and irritability.When I have received emails about the acronym of the essence of adolescence, a deep warmth fills my body: ESSENCE is the essence of this period. ![]() ![]() I filled the book with exercises that help promote optimal brain growth and explain how to use these practices in the busy, everyday lives for adolescents. In this last year and a half since the hardcover was released, it has been one of the most rewarding experiences for me as therapist, educator, author, and dad, to hear from not only adults, but especially from the adolescents themselves how empowering it is to realize that adolescents 1) can shape their own developmental course 2) are not powerless in the face of false notions of “raging hormones” (after all, what could you do with that-give those molecules anger management training?) 3) can have a selective set of adults in their lives to support their journeys and 4) don’t have to rush through this period and “hope to just get through it alive”, but rather can relish this time and optimize their developmental outcome. ![]() ![]() And what we think as adults about these individuals will shape what they believe about themselves. When we realize that in fact recent research reveals that the remodeling of the adolescent brain is a necessary pruning and myelination that increase integration in the adolescent well into the mid to late twenties, we realize that what we think and how we use our minds during this period of life can actually shape the outcome of brain development.
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