I first learned about Conscious Discipline when my mom started working at a preschool, so I owe all of my knowledge about it to her.

Conscious Discipline is a social and emotional intelligence classroom management program designed to give teachers the discipline skills they need to address the emotional and social issues of children. From what I know and what my mom has told me about it, I think it's something that can be helpful to people of all ages, inside and outside of the classroom.

Essentially, it's about being kind and having positive intent of others, as well as identifying your feelings so you can cope with them better.

The method originally came from the book, Conscious Discipline, by Becky Bailey. You can also learn a lot about this from relatives (if they are preschool teachers) and even Pinterest. Simply type in "Conscious Discipline," and thousands of results will come up. There are 7 basic skills that go along with it, I will briefly cover a few, so that if you want to learn more, you can!

One of the main principles of Conscious Discipline is your mind being the most powerful thing in your body. When life gets hard to cope with and you feel you can't handle it, a simple exercise to try is to take a Lifesaver hard candy and some dental floss. Tie the candy onto it, and dangle it in front of you. Think with your mind what you want it to do and it will do what you want it to. You really need to focus, but it works!

Another thing Conscious Discipline teaches is to be assertive and kind. One thing my mom taught me was to use "I-statements" when things don't go your way and you need to feel better. You state what you feel and what you need. It's a completely non-confrontational way to solve problems.

Additionally, it teaches you to have empathy for others. The way to go about this is by having a better understanding of one another, and it brings people closer together. It teaches you how to truly listen to another person when they are speaking. Most of the time, we are so focused on what we are going to say in an argument. We don't listen to what the other person is saying. So, it's time we start paying attention to each other.

A final big idea in Conscious Discipline is having positive intent, which means seeing the best in others. I know as we get older, our faith in humanity goes down each year in adulthood. We can't put these negative views on humanity or individuals we haven't even met yet. We need to give people chances, and not shut them down immediately.

Although it's mainly used in a classroom setting, you can get some more information for free by making an account on consciousdiscipline.com.