Session 4: Stress / Coping / Self-care

Session 4:  Stress / Coping / Self-care

Objective

1.  Review what has been discussed so far on the topic of stress and how emotional awareness can help us navigate through stress.

2.  Engage students in discussing any recent experiences with stress. 

3.  Provide examples of healthy versus unhealthy ways of coping with stress. Engage students in discussing their experience with these and how they had come to see how something is healthy or unhealthy. 

4.  Emphasize how unhealthy* coping can add to stress and can be destabilizing. Healthy coping usually involves cognition/mindfulness as a means to slow us down to find balance and anchor ourselves to the present moment and truth. REACT as a mindfulness exercise is a helpful response to stress as it engages us in dialogue and cognition thereby slowing us down, gain perspective, connect more deeply with our humanity, and help us find our footing. 

*Unhealthy coping is about escape and seeking new feelings - seeking comfort in a 'good feeling' to replace a 'bad one' but this usually just creates unnecessary craving and the agitation that comes with it. If seeking escape becomes habitual, it can turn into addiction.

5.  Explain the importance of self-care and describe what it means to be proactive and intentional about self-care. Emphasize how self-care is self-respect and that it takes courage to acknowledge our limitations. Engage students in defining what self-care activities they find to be helpful. 

6.  Guide students in coming up with a list of self-care activities that would be helpful for them to do on a regular basis. A self-care activity could be as simple as closing your eyes, taking a deep breath and slowly exhaling.

7.  Discuss how sleep is one of the most important self-care activities.

Approach

1.  Engaging students in discussion and helping them develop greater emotional awareness. Using their responses to move the discussion forward. Focusing on what they say about their feelings and encouraging them to reflect on their feelings.

2.  Before ending session, engage students in describing what they found helpful about discussing stress and self-care.

3.  check-in/check-out

Possible Discussion Questions

What do you tend to do when you feel stressed? Is it helpful? Why or why not?

Do you feel you are getting enough sleep at night? Why or why not?

Does stress impact how well you sleep?

Does getting restful sleep help with your ability to navigate through a stressful situation?

What can you do get better sleep?

Does your appetite change when you are feeling stressed? Do you sometimes try to eat junk food as a way to cope with stress? Dose this help with the root of the problem or does it just make you crave more junk food?

Do you seek help from anyone when you feel overwhelmed with stress? Why or why not?

What environments or situations are most stressful for you? What are the least stressful environments or situations?

Activities

1.  Students work together on designing a sign/poster with list of activities as reminder to themselves and others of the importance of being proactive about self-care.

Supplies Needed

1.  Poster board

2.  Felt-tipped marker

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