Stress Awareness Week 1

Greetings WRSD!

This message is coming to you from the Supportive Services Department:

Each week during the month of April we will send out an email related to stress awareness and ways to reduce stress. We hope you will read these emails, discuss them among yourselves and share the info with your students. During group counseling we will also be discussing and completing activities about this topic.

So this week's focus is: IDENTIFYING UNHEALTHY COPING MECHANISMS

What does that mean? We all have stress in our lives. And we all deal with our own personal stress in different ways. Sometimes we do healthy, beneficial things and sometimes we do things that may feel good in the moment, but may actually be doing us harm in the long term.

How do you know if your coping mechanisms are unhealthy?

Are you withdrawing from your social circle of friends and family? 

Are you oversleeping (sleeping too many hours of the day)?

Are you overeating?

Do you spend too much time watching TV, playing video games, or on social media? (too much could be 2 hours, 4 hours, 12+ hours, etc.)

Are you smoking, drinking, doing drugs?

Taking your anger out on other people and/or animals?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, then you may need some help finding more positive ways to deal with the stress in your life. The Supportive Services Department is available to meet with students to discuss any of these issues. If you'd like to chat with one of us please seek us out. 

Next week and the following weeks in April we will be discussing ways to improve your coping mechanisms to find more healthy ways to deal with stress. Please feel free to share your ideas and insights with us either in this email or in person. We'd love your feedback!

With Kindness,

Jenro, Lori, and Karen

“How do we change the world? One random act of kindness at a time” – Morgan Freeman

Stress Awareness Week 2 - Stress Relievers

Hello Everyone!

We hope you had a great weekend. And we hope you all had a chance to read and think about last week's email: Identifying Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms. We hope you keep in mind we all have our own unique ways to deal with our stress, including our students. Now let's discuss how we can incorporate some healthy stress reducers into our day.

This week the focus is: BE PHYSICALLY ACTIVE

(Easier said than done, we know!)

From the Mayo Clinic:  Exercise increases your overall health and your sense of well-being, which puts more pep in your step every day. But exercise also has some direct stress-busting benefits. It pumps up your endorphins. Physical activity helps bump up the production of your brain's feel-good neurotransmitters, called endorphins.

It doesn't take much time either - 30 minutes a day will help you to feel calmer and more focused.

Need some ideas to incorporate more movement into your day?

• Dance to your favorite song
• Walk to the store instead of driving
• Walk your dog (or borrow a friend's)
• Take the stairs
• Find an exercise buddy
• Take a walk around the block during your lunch break or after school
• Do some gentle stretching at your desk, when you wake up in the morning, or before you go to bed

There are a million more ways to get moving. What's yours? What are your students favorite exercises?

With Kindness,

Lori, Karen, and Jenro

“How do we change the world? One random act of kindness at a time” – Morgan Freeman