Instructions For First Meeting
Instructions For First Meeting
1. Names – have students create name tags by writing their names on folded sheets of
paper and placing the name tags on the table in front of them.
2. Icebreaker Activity – for a fun icebreaker activity, have students write down their
responses to questions about themselves on slips of paper. Put all of the slips of
paper into a container and read them one by one. When you read one of the papers,
the rest of the group will have to guess who wrote it. Here are some ideas for
questions to ask:
a. What is your favorite thing to do outside of school?
b. What is a talent that you have or something you are good at?
c. What is one fact about you that most people would be surprised to learn?
3. Good Things – begin by going around the room and having each student share
something good that happened this week.
4. Group Norms – give students a brief overview of what we will discuss and learn in the
group. Explain the concept of Confidentiality – what happens in the group stays in
the group. Students are free to talk about their own experiences in the group with
their friends and family, but they should not share any information about other
people in the group.
5. Create Social Contract – allow students to create their own norms and rules for the
group, such as kindness and respect. Write down these rules on a large sheet of paper
and have each member of the group sign it.
6. Positive Affirmations – lead group in CBT / Positive affirmations activity as
described in the handout for week one. Explain to the group that they will repeat this
activity each week.
You have the power to practice CBT and help yourself feel better! Here is a quick CBT
activity that you can use any time:
1. Write down the thought that has been causing the most anxiety for you this week. For
example, you could write down, “I am going to fail my exam” or “I will have a panic
attack during my presentation”. It can be any thought that has been making you feel
anxious, nervous, or stressed.
2. Once you have written down your anxious thought, cross it out or scribble through it
with your pen or pencil. Now, replace the anxious thought with a positive affirmation.
Some examples of positive affirmations are “I am smart and I will do well on my
exam” or “I will remain calm during my presentation because I am in control”. The
positive affirmation should be the opposite of the anxious thought, and it should
describe something good about yourself or something good that will happen in the
future.
3. Throughout this week, whenever you feel anxious or nervous, repeat the positive
affirmation to yourself. Even if you do not believe the positive affirmation, still try
to say it whenever you can. Scientists have proven that repeating positive
affirmations can help us feel better about ourselves.
We will practice this activity each time we meet, and you can practice it on your own
whenever you want.
Week Two: Deep Breathing
What can you do when you are experiencing such intense anxiety, stress, or panic that
you feel completely overwhelmed? This situation can be scary, but there are many tips and
tricks that you can use to help yourself calm down and relax.
One of the best ways to help yourself calm down is through Deep Breathing. Deep
Breathing activates something in the body called the parasympathetic nervous system, which
is the system that tells the body that it is time to calm down. By practicing Deep Breathing,
you are telling your body that it is time to relax, and your body will respond by feeling
less anxious.
You can practice Deep Breathing any time you feel stressed, nervous, or anxious. One
method to use is to breathe in through your nose for five seconds, hold your breath for six
seconds, and then breath our through your mouth for seven seconds. You can do this as
many times as you want to help yourself feel calm. There are also some helpful apps that
can guide you through Deep Breathing. Here are some free apps to help with your Deep
Breathing:
Grounding exercises can also help us by distracting our minds from anxious thoughts.
If your brain is using all of its energy to think about something else, it won’t be able to
think about any anxious thoughts! Here are some quick activities that can help distract
your mind from anxious thoughts:
The first relaxation exercise is called Progressive Muscle Relaxation. This activity
works by allowing you to relax all the muscles in your body, which tells your mind to relax
too. You can use Progressive Muscle Relaxation any time you feel like you need to relax or
reduce stress, and you can even use it to help you fall asleep! To practice Progressive
Muscle Relaxation, you can use the MindShift app:
Some relaxation exercises were created to help people who struggle with panic attacks.
Panic attacks are sudden, intense episodes of fear and anxiety as well as physical symptoms.
During a panic attack, people tend to experience sweating, shaking, chest pain, nausea,
dizziness, a sense of doom or danger, a fear of loss of control, and even a feeling of
unreality. If you have panic attacks, you know that they can feel very scary and
overwhelming. Fortunately, there are some apps that can help you calm down when you are
experiencing a panic attack, including Clear Fear:
You can also create your own mental safe place that you can visit any time that you
feel anxious or stressed. This can be a real place or an imaginary place, but it should be a
place that makes you feel calm and safe. Sometimes, it can be helpful and fun to journal
about your mental safe place or draw or paint a picture of it.
1. Choose a container to be your worry jar – your worry jar can be any small
container. It could be a jar, box, vase, bag, or anything you want.
2. Write down your worries – find some small slips of paper and write down all the
worries that you can think of. Write one worry on each piece of paper. Your worries
can be anything-situations you are dealing with, concerns about the future, and even
fears that might seem silly. You can write down any thoughts that are causing you to
feel worried, stressed, or anxious.
3. Put your worries in the jar – put the pieces of paper in the container.
4. Let the worry jar hold the worries – remind yourself that you don’t need to hold on
to your worries anymore. There is no need to hold the worries in your head because
your worry jar is going to hold them for you.
5. Review the worries later – if you feel like you need to, you can open the worry jar
and look at the worries a week or month later. (Try to wait at least a week!) If some
of the worries are not bothering you anymore, you can simply rip them up and throw
them away. You will probably find that most of your worries are not even bothering
you after a week or month has passed! If any of your worries are still bothering
you, you can simply put them back in the jar and return to them after some more
time has passed.
6. Keep using the worry jar – each time you have a worry, simply write it down and put
it in the worry jar to hold.
Week Seven: What Can I Control?
Sometimes we worry about things in our lives that we can control. Other times, we
worry about things that are completely out of our control. For example, we cannot control
other people’s thoughts, feelings, or actions-we are only in control of ourselves. In
these situations, it can be helpful to stop and think about what is in our control and what
is out of our control. One way to do this is with the following activity:
1. Trace your Hand – grab a piece of paper and trace the outline of your hand using a
marker, pen, or pencil.
2. Write what you can control – on the inside of the hand, write down everything that
you are worried about that is in your control. For example, you could write “getting
my homework done”, “doing well on the ACT”, or “my basketball game”. These are all
things that might worry you, but they are also problems that you can potentially
solve.
3. Write what you can’t control – on the outside of the hand, write down everything
that you are worried about that is out of your control. For example, you could write,
“my parents fighting”, “my sister failing her classes”, or even “the world ending”.
These are all things that might worry you, but these things are not in your control.
While you might be able to help some people with these issues, you cannot actually
control other people’s actions.
4. Think about what you wrote – look at what you wrote inside of the hand and think
about how you can work towards a solution to these worries. If these worries are in
your control, then this means that you can take action to solving these worries.
Next, look at what you wrote outside of the hand and remind yourself that these
things are out of your control Remind yourself that there is no need to worry about
these things that are out of your control-you cannot solve these problems, so they
are not your responsibility to worry about!
5. Repeat – repeat the activity whenever you feel overwhelmed with worries or anxiety.