Grounding & mindfulness
Lead the group facilitator in a mindful eating exercise.
For a mindful eating exercise, the participant will help the group facilitator mindfully eat something. The participant will help the facilitator eat slowly and focus on what is being eaten, noticing the patterns, feelings, and texture of the food.
Give an example of an anxious situation. Then give an example of one thought and one action that can work to help someone lower their anxiety fire alarm during a stressful situation.
There are many different possible examples.
True or false: If you are angry while playing Fortnite, you should take a break at the next available opportunity.
True
Mariana was trying to use Snapchat to keep in touch with her friends in LA, since she just had to move to Hollister. Her phone was old and not very fast. The Snapchat pictures kept not loading. She threw her phone on the ground, and the screen shattered into tons of pieces. Her mom saw and told her she wouldn’t get another phone again until she was old enough to pay for it all herself. Mariana ran to her room. What Mariana do to calm herself down quickly?
There are many examples that could be okay, but they should all have safe coping. They should all be things that can work quickly, right where she is, and lower her fire alarm so she can think.
Describe to us something that's coming up in your life that will probably cause you anger, sadness, or anxiety. Then tell us a plan of some helpful thoughts and actions you can do to stay safe during them.
There are many right answers, but they all must involve safe coping
Do an "I Spy" mental grounding out loud.
For an "I Spy" mental grounding, the participant will notice a variety of things around the room in a judgement-free way. For example, "There is a bookshelf in the corner, the board has red writing on it, the ground is dirty," etc.
Share something that would give a healthy and safe person a 10 on their anxiety fire alarm, a 5 on their anxiety fire alarm, and a 1 on their anxiety fire alarm.
There are lots of examples, but they should all be examples of things that a healthy fire alarm would do. They should not be about a person trying to be tough and pretend they have no fire alarm.
What are the brains three fear responses?
Fight, flight (running away), and freeze.
José found out he didn’t make the soccer team. He started kicking lockers in the locker room. A kid was staring at him. He got in the kid’s face and said “who you looking at?" The other kid pushed him. José realized he was about to get suspended again and backed away, slammed a locker shut, and went to the bathroom. In the bathroom he took some deep breaths and splashed water on his face. Then he tried to think what emotions he had hiding behind his anger. What do you think they could be, using the Emotions Behind Anger chart?
Shame, frustration, disappointment, and embarrassment
When you have low mood or depression, it makes you want to exercise less. What happens when you end up moving less? How do you stop this from happening?
When you stop exercising because of depression or low mood, your body makes even less of the chemicals that make you feel good. You end up even sadder, which makes you want to exercise even less. Sometimes doing more physical activity stops this from happening.
Stand up and demonstrate a physical grounding exercise.
With a physical grounding, the person will notice their whole body. The person will start at their toes and notice their body up to their head. They might also notice the world around them, and how things feel around them, like how they feel in their chair. They might also notice things they sense (hear, smell, feel).
What are some physical signs our body has when our anxiety fire alarm is going off?
Some possible examples: tightness in shoulders, a funny feeling in our stomachs like we are hungry, breathing quicker, throat swelling up, have to go to the bathroom, palms get sweaty, body gets sweaty, leg gets jittery, our heart pounds, our muscles get tight, we get shaky.
What is an example of a thought affecting your feelings in an unhelpful way?
There are lots of possible examples.
The girl that Catalina thought was her best friend started hanging out with people who had said really nasty things about Catalina. Cat went up to the girl during lunch and started insulting her. The girl pushed Cat, and Cat wanted to push back. But she realized she could get expelled. She said "whatever" and walked to the bathroom. In the bathroom she went into a stall and started to cry. She then stopped herself, took deep breaths, and started paying attention to her toes and then noticed her body all the way up to her head. She took a second and noticed that she had been angry because she was feeling hurt, sadness, disappointment, and jealousy. Then she had to figure out what to do about the situation that would help those feelings. What should she do?
There are many right answers, but to get the points all the answers must be 100% safe coping skills and helpful to the emotions Cat is feeling.
"Everyone in here hates me and thinks I'm weak"
What is this type of thinking an example of?
Can you change the sentence and make it more helpful?
This is an example of using "mind reading."
An example of a more helpful sentence: "I feel very anxious and weak. I have no idea what everyone in this room is thinking, but they probably don't all hate me."
When you are in quicksand, what's the best way to get out?
You should stay calm and try to float to the top. Then you will try to roll off. Do not panic, or you will get stuck more in the quicksand.
True or false: If your anxiety fire alarm doesn't go off when you are in danger, it means you are tough.
False! It means your fire alarm isn't working to keep you safe.
When our anxiety fire alarm is going off at a 10, what happens to the parts of our brain that make long term plans?
When an anxiety fire alarm is going off at a 10, the brain doesn't have access to the long-term thinking parts. It just focuses on getting us ready to fight, run away, or freeze.
True or false: When you are angry, it helps to let off steam by yelling angrily.
Why?
False!
He failed the test because he is stupid"
What is this type of thinking an example of?
Can you change the sentence and make it more helpful?
This is an example of using "unhelpful labels."
An example of a more helpful sentence: "He is a complicated person, like all other people. I have no idea why he failed the test, but it's not useful to just call him stupid. Maybe he was highly anxious or maybe he procrastinated studying."
True or false: Whenever you are sad, you should do everything you can to stop being sad as fast as possible.
Why?
False! When you are sad, it's okay to let yourself feel sad. Sometimes panicking hard to get out of the situation makes you feel even sadder in the long run.
What are some physical signs of a low mood?
Examples: crying, feeling angry in your body, feeling super heavy, feeling uncoordinated, having trouble sleeping, feeling super sleepy, feeling an empty feeling in your stomach, muscle aches in body, it's harder to do things
Related to how the brain works: why does stopping to rethink thoughts that aren't helpful actually make us feel better even if the situation doesn’t change in the real world?
When you think a thought that is untrue or unhelpful, your brain doesn't know the difference between that thought and reality. When you change your thought, your brain will start responding to the new thought as if it is reality. You actually have the ability to change how you feel by changing your thoughts, just like how thinking of sour patch kids makes you feel sourness in your mouth.
Which of the 3 fear responses causes angry feelings?
Fight
(The other two are flight and freeze)
Give a serious example of a time you were genuinely sad and doing a healthy action helped.
Many examples are right.