This week was…well rough. I was feeling really good about how my mental heath was doing but this week seemed to take a bit of a halt. Although there is never one “thing” that causes this to happen, the stress and pressure of school in the last week have not helped. I have been pretty on top of most of my assignments so far, but the last few weeks have been a lot. I am sure many of you are familiar with the inevitable end of the semester stress that is becoming oh so present in our lives right about now. On top of this, in one of my classes this week we had a surprise “final” that non of us new was happening on that day. Although it was pretty low stakes, as someone who get pretty severe school anxiety, this was not fun.

On top of this, I was also dealing with some things both back home as well as here in Victoria. Often times when we are stressed in can create unnecessary issues that can cause a disconnect in relationships. Although things have seemed to go back to normal and I am beginning to check things off of my to-do list, I noticed especially this week, how determinantal negative mental health can be to your own self image.

I would not consider myself a super confident person, but I realized how hard I can be on myself when I am dealing with a lot. I often find myself telling myself that I am not good enough, that I can’t do something, or just cause myself to feel pretty small and insignificant. This type of thought process than causes a domino affect causing me to not be as successful as I could be, creating a negative pattern.

For this weeks post, I thought it would be fitting to try a positive self identity exercise that I found while looking for resources for my Link2Practice classroom. Even though this activity was catered towards an elementary class, I think we often overlook the importance that positive self reflection can have-even if it feels a little cheesy sometimes. In order to do this, I asked my roommates if they were willingly to participate in this practice. Luckily, I have pretty awesome roommates and friends who all were willing to participate.

How this activity works:

  1. Write each persons name of a sticky note (or a poster board if done in a class setting)
  2. Have each person go around the room and write either an positive adjustive that they like about that person or an encouraging short note
  3. Keep going until every person has had a turn writing on each persons note
  4. Once it is done have each person collect their note or paper and look at what everyone wrote. Each person is welcome to keep their note as a reminder of something positive about themselves.

Our Sticky Notes:

Overall experience:

At first this activity felt kind of strange for a group of university students to do. It felt a little uncomfortable and cliché, but as we continued writing on each others notes it felt a little easier and not as strange. It felt good to let each other know what things we appreciated and admired about each person, while also having our own note to see what things people valued about us, that sometimes we couldn’t see ourselves.

End of Inquiry Thoughts:

Although this is my last mental health strategy, these past several weeks exploring different methods has been a really amazing experience. Through choosing this inquiry question, I have forced myself to actively focus on my mental health and explore which ways benefit my health the most. While there are still plenty of methods I have yet to try, I will say that every one I done so far I had a positive experience with. I hope that one of these strategies may have helped you, or may be something you could try down the road. If these strategies are not something that you are interested in, they could also be something that could be incorporated into a future classroom setting to help students who may benefit from some extra support.

Thanks for tagging along in this journey!

-Kari

Source:

Ontario, School Mental Health. “Stress Management and Coping.” Everyday Mental Health Classroom Resource – A Daily Mental Health Resource, https://smho-smso.ca/emhc/stress-management-and-coping/