Teaching children emotional inteligence

This link is from a New York Times article. Good people are coming up with good ideas to help our young people. Lets keep going.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/magazine/can-emotional-intelligence-be-taught.html?_r=0

 Today was a good day. I received my books and the inside looks great but the cover needs work. Lucky to the first persons to see them as they will get a significant discount for the first printing!

 What a long journey. I started wiriting this book over thiry years ago. I didn't know how to write such personal things about my family. I can tell all about me, but knowing my other family members would be upset about telling the family secrets that they don't even know, would be more than difficult. But tell, I do. I tell my story because I know there are others out there who have had experiences like mine and I want to meet them.

 I have asked around for twenty years for anyone who had a Schizophrenic mother. I met only one who said his mother was so quite, he didn't know she had it. He also seemed boringly normal. My mother was so hysterical, one could not deny it. But it doesn't stop there because every one else in the family developed poorly as a result of this genetic dysfunction.
  
 Born last, I never knew the family that sat at the table and ate dinner together, never mind in the same room, the boys did. I never knew the family whose parents retired to the bedroom together,the boys did. I also didn't know the parents that argued violently as my mother deteriorated. I saw that once when I was 4 and have a clue as to what some children grow up with every day. It went something like this:
 Mom and Dad are yelling, mother flies into a rage and gets a knife from the kitchen and points it toward my father with me clutching his leg, crying hysterically, screaming "stop!" Gratefully, my parents had enough respect for me to stop, stop the arguing, gain composure and then agree to never argue in front of me again. I was given the gift of empowerment in that moment because my presence had an effect on them and their ability to deescalate themselves showed me how to do it as well.

 However, I know there are children who experience this kind of violence every day and their parents do not have the self-respect to instill in their progeny self-control by example. They too are embattling their illnesses and dependencies.

 I am grateful that my parents were able to show me how to control myself as they controlled their anger at each other at least when "the children" were around. Even though they bickered at future visits (they did not live together at this time) they never let it escalate, though my mother tried to get him more angry. I will use a Philism to sum this up.
                                                   "Do you want to be right? 
                                                               Or do you want to be happy? 
 How does a delusional person get a another to see his or her point of view? The ill person lives inside a world we don't understand, but I believe it is possible.

I am within a day of telling a story by the way of a book and the reality of that is sinking in. It is daunting to think that people will read about my young life and ask questions that I may not be ready to answer, but answer, I will. There will be others around to help me with the hard questions for I have built a steady stream of support from my fellow writers and mentor at the Fairfield Writers Group-let me give them a shout our right now. Woo Hoo! Thank-you so much for your cogent thoughts and memorable stories told and written. There couldn't have been greater help to me as I start on this journey of the story-tellers-life.
               remember     " When the student is ready, the teacher will come."

    My book is within a month of being made public. It is a little daunting to talk about this part of my life but is a story worthy of being told. There are so many stories out there just waiting for someone (if it is someone else telling the the tale) to write about, horrific stories, inspirational and revealing stories.

    My book took years and was a necessary distraction. I felt it had to be written and I hope I get positive feedback, but I'm ready for the negative as well. Really, I had to get this job done, to get mature and handle my fears. I'm glad I did. It is a relief to be at this point.

Music I listened to in the 1970's

    I compiled a list of music for each year that I write about in Material Things. Rock and Roll music was at it's peak in the 60's and 70's and I feel fortunate to have enjoyed the whole Rock Culture. While I loved the 60's music, it was not the music well known in my high school, but my brothers were all listening to it when I was a kid so loved it through out my teen years and it was always played on WPLR, the most popular rock station in New Haven.
  After buying Davids reciever and a new set of good speakers, I listened to that radio station all night long. The sound was so good. I remember waking up to Pavanne of the Sleeping Beauty one night, by Joe Walsh and was compelled to call the DJ at one oclock in the morning. To my surprize, he answered right away. I asked him what that beautiful song was.
  I told him I had just woken up and he said "Than you must be the sleeping beauty."
  I thought it was so cool that I was talking directly to the man on the radio, especially when he told me to hang on to speak through the radio. He came back to me and we continued our conversation.
  That was one episode that encouraged my love of music and radio, especially WPLR. I was happy and surprised to hear it again when I returned to Connecticut and its program relatively unchanged. I could still hear music I had not heard since I left over twenty years before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=N3uW5xd__Qw

Study: 5 mental disorders share genetic links | Minnesota Public Radio News

My husband, such a dear, sent me this article coming out of Minnesota. I love learning about what is now in the forefront of research on the causes of uncommon maladies.
Study: 5 mental disorders share genetic links | Minnesota Public Radio News

February Blahhhhs

          Could the winter feel any longer? Wind blows sheets of cold rain across the reservoir outside my windows. While living here in the North Eastern United States makes me one of the luckiest people in the world because I have heat, food, health, love from humans and animals, too many cars, and a potential to make my life bigger. Yet, anxiety still haunts me. Why? My fire burning inside can't melt the ice outside. There's too much! 

  Really now, I get the feeling it is because I am not doing what I am supposed to do in my life, failing in my missions. Restless and bored, I want to melt the ice outside so I can get out and stay out doing, going, meeting people, affecting lives in a positive way. I feel insecure that I have fallen short even though I really believe we are all right on time. 

  Changing negative internal dialogue is the first challenge in order to feel decent about ourselves, and for me, these days, its the hardest work I have. The world will beat you up, so get in the habit of speaking positively in the face of opposition, depression, and a perception of defeat.   In the words of  Robert A. Schuller, 

                "Tough times never last but tough people do."