One of our guidance counselors stopped me in the hall the other day to express concern for how many of our students were anxious and stressed out. This did not surprise me, as we are living through a pandemic and dealing with tough social justice issues in a politically divided country.
The question is, what tools can we provide our students to work through these issues?
My first thought was gratitude (more here). Gratitude is a great way to improve mental health and can be practiced by most students. On a personal level, I write down three good things each morning that happened to me the day before. It is my way of starting the day off on a positive note, and it allows me to refocus on the good things that have happened to me.
Recent research has shown that writing a gratitude letter and reading it to that person may be even more powerful. Now, expressing gratitude to others can sometimes be awkward, especially for high school students. You therefore should express it in the way that is easiest for you. This might mean texting, calling, or sending an email.
With all that is going on in this crazy world of ours, let us not wait until we are totally stressed out to try to change. The challenge for all of us (my goal is two a day) is to show our gratitude to each other every day.
No comments:
Post a Comment