Barry Smith - Learning about Learning

I am currently on paternity leave after the birth of our second son, Myles Richard, last Monday.  Thankfully everything went well, albeit 2 weeks late, and we are all now adjusting to life as four!  Sleep currently at a premium.

I happened to read an article about gratitude and how it has positive effects on mental health ie if you can positively identify things in your life you are grateful for then it follows, it would seem, that you are more likely to have a positive mental outlook.  I think this is probably quite an intuitive idea, but although I regard myself as someone with a ‘positive’ outlook I’m not sure I take the time on a regular basis to really think about all the things in my life I’m grateful for. 

So here is where my learning log comes in……

I have been posting less over the past few months which has been due to a combination of factors, work(ironically), family and african drumming commitments.  I have decided therefore to try and keep a sort of gratitude diary as well as continuing with my SQH postings when appropriate.

I’ll try and post every day if possible, detailing the thing I’ve been thinking about on that day.  I figure it is a win/win situation, put myself in a positive mental state and the return to posting regularly to my learning log will hopefully spark further posts as the race to the end of SQH hots up!

 So here goes:

The first one is going to be easy, seeing as I’ve been thinking a lot about it!  Top five currently…

I am grateful for:

The safe arrival of Myles

My family

My wife’s incredible control during her labour(otherwise I might have struggled!!)

Our home and sense of community in the local area

The support of my work colleagues while I’ve been on paternity leave(chocolate biscuits aplenty for everyone next week!)

Let’s see how it goes with the gratitude diary.