Welcome to our new series, "STUFF I WISH I LEARNT IN SCHOOL." It was prompted by a great article about what to do in electrical storms. I figured that I wasn't the only one who didn't know this stuff so thought it would be fun to look at useful information that isn't necessarily taught in school but is helpful to know.

I've just finished reading Mastering Your Mean Girl by self-help guru, Melissa Ambrosini. Let's face it, we've all got a mean girl, that nasty voice in your head that tells you you're not good enough, not pretty enough, not worthy enough... In her book, Melissa explains how you can defeat your inner mean girl. She says that at any moment you can choose love or fear. For example, 
LOVE - I exercise because I love my body; or
FEAR - I exercise because I hate the size of my bum and thighs.
Throughout the book there are opportunities for you to write down actions you can take to change the way you think.  It is not specifically written for teen girls but it would be really useful to know this stuff while you're in your teens. I wish I'd known this stuff in high school. You can visit her website here.

I'm a big fan of author Andrew Matthews' book, Being a Happy Teen.  He recently posted an article on his website about how telling yourself NOT to do something doesn't work.  This is because our brain works in pictures, so when you say to yourself, "don't have an accident," your brain pictures you having an accident.  Instead, we should tell ourselves what to do.  For example, "drive safely." Another example of this principle is to try telling yourself "do not think about kangaroos." Of course, you are thinking about kangaroos! You can read the full article here.  I certainly wasn't taught this at school but I'm going to put it into practice this week and see what happens.

I finally got around to watching the Embrace documentary on body acceptance by Taryn Brumfitt. It's rated M so you probably want to watch it with your Mum if you're under 15.  Watch it with your sister or get some friends together - but just watch it. I wish I had watched it when I was a teenager. It is a bit confronting in places and nothing is out of bounds, but her message is liberating and so important in a society where we are body shamed if we don't fit the perfect body shape (and seriously, who does?). The DVD is available at JB Hi-Fi, Sanity, Big W and online at iTunes. My local library has a copy for loan as well.