High School REACT

Module orange had a lot to do about self-empathy, and now our next module (green) will involve empathy for others. Session 6: Self-concept in relation to peer and family dynamics   Session 7: Family Dynamics Session 8: Peer Dynamics / Communication Session 9: Social Media Session 10: Anger / Forgiveness / Reconciliation Empathy for others is such a critical area for one's mental health and an area that so many "grownups" mess up unfortunately. Kind of like how forgiveness is so misunderstood by "grownups"...and world leaders...and approached in an unhelpful way.  It just so happens that we are going to be talking about empathy and forgiveness in same module. Here's the trajectory: awareness of how relationships impact self-concept . "how many of you have doubted yourselves because of what you thought someone else (a teacher, a parent, a peer) thought of you?" "have you noticed how easily these thoughts improve after talking to someone...

Nuestras emociones son como las olas del océano. El objetivo es conocer las olas. Nosotros no debemos ignorar las olas. Debemos conocer las olas para poder navegarlas y llegar a donde necesitamos estar.   Debemos: 1.    Pausar para reconocer nuestro sentimiento 2.    Reconocer cómo nos afecta 3.    Reconocer cómo las olas de nuestras emociones pueden impulsarnos a actuar. 4.    Pensar que es importante, pensar que es saludable 5.    Tener el poder de tomar la decisión correcta Cuando te enfrentas a un desafío, pregúntate: Respeto - ¿Estoy respetando mi potencial y dignidad? ¿Estoy respetando la dignidad de otras personas? Todos somos iguales en dignidad. Nuestra dignidad viene de Dios. Nunca perdemos nuestra dignidad. Empatía - ¿Estoy buscando entenderme a mí mismo? ¿Estoy buscando entender a otras personas? Aceptación - ¿Acepto que soy humano? ¿Acepto que otras personas son humanas y limitadas? Coraje – ¿Tengo el coraje de hacer lo correcto? Tener fe ...

The experience of stress is an opportunity to form good habits and be better at navigating through stress. And persevering through stress helps build connections in our brains to increase our ability to handle complexity. However, we can't always just bite the bullet and brute force our way through stress. There is more to persevering than that. The feeling of stress is a signal our mind or body is telling us about our needs, and we need to acknowledge it and honor it. We can think of stress like hunger, we can only ignore our hunger for so long before we lose our strength. Or, just as training for long-distance running or building strength through weight-lifting involves giving your body a rest to recover and build up muscle, sometimes the appropriate response to stress if to give our minds a break, recover our mental strength (and prevent burnout), and consider what we need in the moment.     1. When you're feeling stressed, check-in with yourself. Take a moment to name...

There is a quote I have heard somewhere (probably from Catholic or Protestant radio) that courage is trust in action . Courage comes from having trust . It reminds me of football. My friends who played football in high school would compare their helmets and protective gear to having body armor and shields going into battle. They would charge more forcefully and hit harder knowing that they had armor trusting that it could withstand the impact. (perhaps some of this confidence is misplaced as it could lead to far too many concussions than one should have). They also had trust in their coaches telling them what to do and assessing whether they were still OK to play despite injuries. Well-known for his prayerfulness, Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow (#15 pictured below) played with a lot of trust in God. Where does your trust come from?  

I changed the title of "learning from the saints" section to " quotables " to include more resources and ways to reinforce the letters of REACT acronym. Here's the URL to the quotables page: https://highschoolreact.blogspot.com/2023/07/quotables.html The quotes so far:   St. Thomas More:  "You must not abandon the ship in a storm [just] because you cannot control the winds."    [ Acceptance , Courage . Accepting the limits of our humanity/humanness part. Having courage in the face of strong headwinds.] From George Weigel's book on St PJP2:  "Against the temptation to regard utility as the sole criterion for measuring anyone's worth, [St. Pope John Paul II] has insisted that every human being possesses an inherent and inalienable dignity and value."  [ Respect . Respecting that you have dignity, respecting the dignity of other people despite whatever our shortcomings and failings might be. Respecting that we don't lose th...

 As group facilitators, let us really exemplify the Empathy piece to REACT for our 8th graders by allowing them the space to express themselves and help us understand what they feel. Let's seek to understand what it is like to be in their shoes. This is from a recent article in TIME magazine about American teenagers and their mental health challenges: "Adults try to make your problems almost disappear. [They say things like,] 'You'll get through this. This is a small time in your life. You'll forget about this in like two years.' But in that moment, I'm just sitting here thinking that my whole world just caved in on me. They're not letting me feel how I want to feel."  

Self-concept is at the core of our experience of mental health. We engage in self-concept every day and it impacts how we process day-to-day experiences. Overly harsh judgments of ourselves or others, egotism, self-isolation,  perfectionism, all come from false understandings of ourselves and others, and this is often the source of challenging emotions.  Where does our self-concept come from? Ask someone this question, and they will likely describe identity and personal attributes formed through relationship through family, role in society, culture, qualities relative to other people, tall or short). All this comes down to relationship. Relationship, and how we engage in relationship, is a key part of how we view ourselves. Relationship is at the foundation of our humanness/humanity. How do we define humanness/humanity? Being human means we are body and soul. We have intellect and will, we have the ability to reason, and we have the power to make choices. Being human mean...