Module 5 Overview: Making Positive Thinking Automatic

Module Essential Question:  ““How can I boost my energy and mood daily to make positive thinking easier?”

Imagine if we could change our emotional state in an instant rather than wait to become motivated?  What could we accomplish with that type of power over our emotional state?  The sky would be the limit.  We know the benefits of positive thinking, but why is it so difficult to do sometimes?  This module addresses this very question.  Positive thinking is a habit that must be developed through consistent and relentless practice but it can also be made easier when we strengthen our mood and energy, also known as our physiological state, through various methods.  No longer are we victims of our present mood and energy because we can change it instantly!  When we have the right strategy, use our body effectively, and use our verbal language and focus intentionally, we can enhance our state and produce what we call, “willpower fuel” that makes positive thinking easier.  Students will justify the phrase, “Mood follows action,” cementing their understanding that control of our emotional state is in our hands by taking certain scientifically proven actions.  “Charging our minds” by using the methods in this module can make us impervious to negative events, distractions, and impulses.  These strategies optimize our prefrontal cortex (our thinking brain, emotion regulation center, and impulse management) by giving it a boost of willpower fuel to keep us committed to our long-term goals while fending off temptations, urges, and regulating stressful emotions.  

Course Description

• L1: How can strategy help me achieve my goals?:  In Lesson 1, students will identify a meaningful short term goal and brainstorm 10 methods of how they’ll achieve it.  They’ll watch a video that explores just how important having a strategy is in every part of their life, including how to be resourceful and upgrading strategies when they’re no longer effective.  Students will conduct a strategy audit where they’ll assess their current strategies for various life areas such as studying, maintaining organized, maintaining relationships, managing emotions, and others.                                                                                
• L2: How can my body boost my mental state? Part 1:  In Lesson 2, students will explore various learning stations that demonstrate how exactly the body can influence the mind and change our physiological state.  Students will construct an explanation for the phenomena, “Mood follows action,” through hands-on experiments targeting the MO-ENERGY acronym.  This acronym summarizes the various ways they can instantly take action to change their mood: Move your body, Oxygen, Exercise, Nutrition, Enough Water, Rest, Get sunlight, and Your Mind.  Each station is individualized to help students understand how their mind can be altered by doing exercise, eating healthy foods, etc.  This lesson is conducted over two days so students can experience all eight stations.
• L3: How can my body boost my mental state? Part 2:  In Lesson 3, students continue exploring the MO-ENERGY stations to learn and immediately apply these methods to instantly create their desired mood and attention.  Students will complete the Mind-Body Stations Graphic Organizer and discuss their findings and how they justify the concept:  “Mood follows action.”
• L4: How can my focus boost my mental state?:  In Lesson 4, students will learn that being focused on goals, grades, etc. allows them to boost their mental state by intrinsically motivating them to never lose focus from what they set their mind to.  Students will go through a set of activities that will help them understand the Big 4: Focus on what you want, focus on what you can control, focus on the positive meaning of events, and focus on what you feed your mind.  Students will learn that focusing on what they want rather than on what they don’t want will help them boost their mental state by increasing positive emotions that optimize their mind’s creative and problem-solving capacity.  
• L5: How can my verbal language boost my mental state?:  In Lesson 5, students will analyze research cards on the Power of Language and Dr. Emoto’s famous experiments in order to construct an explanation for how our internal and external dialogue can impact our emotional and mental state and that of others.  Students will learn various types of empowering and disempowering categories of language and create a plan for increasing and decreasing those respectively.