As an Author, How can you overcome excessive thinking?

Creating awareness:

It is natural that excessive thinking makes a person distracted and makes them unaware that they are preoccupied with thinking. Creating awareness involves recognizing negative thinking circles when they occur, and to have deliberate awareness of excessive thinking. You will be able to control and stop thinking excessively when you monitor your thoughts and actions. Make sure you do not judge your thoughts or worry about excessive thinking. Mindset is everything.

Replace negative thoughts:
Another tip to eliminate negative thinking is to replace your negative thinking with positive thinking after interrupting your over-thinking style. Repeat your positive thinking many times aloud or with a voice in your mind. If your thinking is persistent, you should repeat this process as many times as you need. Over time, you will overcome the habit of negative thinking.

Talk to a trusted person:
There is also another solution to eliminate excessive thinking, which is to share your negative thoughts with someone you trust. This person can be a coach, mentor, counselor or friend. Such people can help you determine if you are overstated or not thinking clearly and they can also help you free yourself from negative thoughts. Your problem may not be as bad as you think and all you need is someone who assures you that you are fine.

Self-employment:
Keeping your mind busy keeps you from negative thoughts. Anything that requires attention may help you. This concern may vary between arranging your bookshelf alphabetically, drawing or calculating your annual expenses. This way you will gradually control your thoughts until you reach your desired level of control.

Exercise:
In addition to increasing self-confidence, exercise increases the secretion of the hormone Androfen and Sertonin, which reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. When you concentrate on exercising, it distracts your mind from negative thoughts. When you have a busy mind, do some exercise, bike or walk for half an hour.

Make decisions:
Sometimes excessive thinking comes from inability to make an important decision. The most appropriate solution is to set a time, whether it is half an hour or two, to think about everything about a topic and when the time is close to completion, the decision was to be made without any hesitation.

Blogging:
During excessive thinking, you can not communicate with the present. One way to get rid of excessive thinking is to train your mind on intentional attention. Get to know your negative thoughts and then get rid of them immediately, or blog about it...It makes for great content!

Just do it:
The trick here is to start the project you want to do instead of thinking about it. Focus on your goal and schedule what you want to do so you can solve every problem on time. A step-by-step move will make you spend less time thinking about it.

Stop trying to reach perfection or control everything:
People think about things in exaggerated contexts until they achieve perfect results. You take into account all possibilities to avoid starting...and the possibility of failure. It is important to keep in mind that all people who have accomplished great things have failed at some point. It is impossible to control everything and avoid any kind of error. You are good enough right now, so begin!

Putting the 'home' into home reading

With lockdowns and restrictions continuing across the country, it can feel as if we’ve had enough 'family time'. But are we actually spending quality time with our children or just going through the motions of home learning? When we sit to share a book, we’re creating a space to be together, to be available for our child and not distracted by anything else that's going on around us. The agreement to share a book allows us to tune in to what really catches their attention, their emotions, their sense of humour, even what they don't particularly respond to. We can, through the book sharing experience, get to know our children better. Taking only five minutes a day to share a book with your child can go a long way towards facilitating and nurturing your relationship and improving their mental health, as well as your own.

Reading Picture Books to Improve Children's Mental Health

Studies show that when we read, the brain does not make a real distinction between reading about an experience and actually living it. Whether reading or experiencing it, the same neurological regions are stimulated. Children can show a significant increase in mental health from reading picture books as evidence suggests that the comprehension process stimulated by predicting, relating and questioning that occurs with young readers provides guidelines about how to talk about issues they feel strongly about and an opportunity to share their own views about what is happening in the world around them. It is not just the words or pictures we are sharing; it's a lifeline for their mental health. 

Why Reading to Our Littlest Babies Matters

Reading to your baby, especially when you aren’t able to touch them, not only lets them know you are there, it forms a bond that helps to fight the postnatal depression and PTSD experienced by parents of premature babies and babies in intensive and special care. I know. I was in that position, three times. I read to each of the boys when I wasn’t allowed to cuddle them and it made a huge difference.

That’s why I’m so blown away at being asked to the the Ambassador of the very first Life's Little Treasures Foundation Little Readers Readathon, as a Mum and an author. Best of all, Tommy gets to help, too!

Why reading matters…
Even the tiniest babies need frequent exposure to spoken language to ensure optimal early brain development.

During a baby’s time in the Neonatal Unit critical brain development is occurring, including the development of the pathways in the brain that control language skills. By reading to their babies, parents are not only bonding with them and reducing some of the stress associated with being in the NICU, they are also supporting their baby’s brain development.

Babies need frequent exposure to meaningful auditory experiences to ensure optimal early brain development. Research has identified a number of benefits of reading from early infancy, with a lasting effect on language, literacy and early reading skills with a boost in vocabulary at four years of age.

Little Readers read-a-thon

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  Even the tiniest babies need frequent exposure to spoken language to ensure optimal early brain development.

Who can participate?

This year NIDCAP in partnership with The Life’s Little Treasures Foundation is promoting participation in the Little Readers Read-a-thon. Any neonatal unit (NICU/SCN) in Australia can participate in the Little Readers Read-a-thon. Units need to register to officially participate in the Read-a-thon in order to be eligible for prizes and to provide access to resources.

How to register

It’s easy, just fill in the online form below and we’ll do the rest

What do you get when you register for the read-a-thon?

Once registered for the Little Readers Read-a-thon units will receive a great toolkit which includes everything you’ll need, electronic resources (factsheets, promotion posters, participation certificates, log sheets, survey tools) printed resources (bookmarks, reading booklets).

Prizes

Registrants will also have the opportunity to win some great prizes for highest total number of books read and highest total numbers of reading minutes! …so let’s get reading!

What can you do to prepare for the Little Readers Read-a-thon?

Consider how you can promote the event to parents and staff and what resources you have available to you. If you do not have an existing reading library in your unit consider how you could start one – can you ask for donations from local businesses or supporters?

Can your school library or local council library provide you with decommissioned books?

Downloadable Resources

• Letter to Parents
• When to Read to Baby Factsheet
• Infection Control Factsheet

Our Read-a-thon Ambassador

Michelle & Tom Worthington

Michelle Worthington is an internationally published award-winning author of empowering picture books for children of all ages.

“My goal is to inspire all children to believe in themselves and encourage reluctant readers to fall in love with books.” 

Michelle is also an international guest speaker on the importance of storytelling. Her books have been nominated for the CBCA Picture Book of the Year Award and Speech Pathology Awards. She was awarded a highly commended in the prestigious 2018 Hilarie Lindsay Children’s Book Awards. Two-time winner of the International Book Award and finalist in the USA Best Book Awards, Michelle also received a Gellett Burgess Award and a Silver Moonbeam Award for her contribution to celebrating diversity in children’s literature.

She’s also a real-life book fairy. Her magic powers include turning coffee into award-winning books. As Founder of Share Your Story Australia, she waves her wand to coach aspiring authors and illustrators all over the world achieve their dreams of publication. Whether she’s a fairy, a mermaid, a pirate or an elf, Michelle celebrates empowering readers and storytellers to dream big.

Register Now

https://lifeslittletreasures.org.au/little-readers-read-a-thon

Kids can write and publish their own books, with some help!

Is your child an Anne 'with an E'

Kids Can Create Books Workshops 

This workshop is for school aged children who have an idea for a story that they would like to publish.

Whether it is a picture book or longer story, kids can bring their ideas to life, giving style and colour to a story solely created by them.

Award winning international author of empowering picture books for children of all abilities, Michelle Worthington, will give aspiring authors and illustrators the information they need to decide what genre they would like to focus on, how they can create engaging stories and the process involved in publication.

You can find out more about Michelle at www.michelleworthington.com

Julieann Wallace, director of Lilly Pilly Publishing, will give real life examples of the children she has worked with to help them share their stories with the world. Visit www.lillypillypublishing.com for more information.

To get the most out of this workshop, children are required to have a project in mind they would like to work on so they get relevant and constructive feedback and can have their specific questions answered.

Bookings essential as places are limited. Parents are welcome to stay during the event, or take some time to read in the library while the workshop takes place, but we require all parents to stay on site.

For any further information, contact Michelle at mworthington.author@gmail.com

Date and Time

Sat. 11 August 2018

12:30 pm – 3:30 pm AEST

Location

Wynnum Library

145 Florence Street

Wynnum, QLD 4178

Book now: Kids Can Create Books Workshop Booking Link

3 Reasons Why Picture Books Are More Than Just Words and Pictures

Picture Books depart magic and wisdom to children all over the world every day, but they are so much more than a literacy tool. They are a gift to all of us; those who read them as well as those who write them.

1. When you read a picture book, you are seen.

Reading a book is sharing a story with a stranger. You might be in the arms of someone you love, but from another town or even another country, a storyteller is opening up your eyes and in turn, looking to you for your response. It happens without fanfare. It sees past the face you put on over your real one. There might me hints at secrets that you hide but understand. There might be a look in the characters eyes that mirrors your own. It could be something as simple as a truth you had always considered but never been brave enough to say out loud.

This storyteller sees you. There is somebody out there who gets it—it being you.

2. When you read a picture book, you learn.

The degree to which readers feel comfortable expressing their views is never more evident than when reading a picture book. Children are able not only to put their ideas out for public inspection on the cognitive worktable, but they also respond to and challenge their peers ideas. These interactions with one another suggest a high level of cognitive engagement in that children are listening to and responding to not only the story, but to another and making thoughtful contributions. Additionally, the evidence suggests that the comprehension process stimulated by predicting, relating and questioning that occurs provides guidelines about how to talk about issues children feel strongly about and what to say in order to participate and share their own views.

3.When you read a picture book, you are loved.

As a picture book author, this innate love seems to be a given for me, but it is overlooked by so many readers. It is no just the words or pictures we are sharing, it is the hours of creative angst, self doubt, compromise and negotiation. It is the tears between the pages, the laughter trapped between the blank spaces and the overwhelming need to share and share again with perfect strangers those parts of us that sometimes we don't let even those you know us best see.  A picture book is love in one of it's more basic forms. It is a gift we give freely and with the hopes that the reader will feel the love we poured into it just for them.

If you would like to share what gift picture books have given you and your family, please feel free to comment or contact me, I would love to hear your stories.

www.michelleworthington.com