Work Your Mind Muscle: A Mindfulness-Based Stress Management Workshop
This experiential workshop is based on evidence that growing self awareness and enhancing and practicing self-care and coping strategies are key factors in building resiliency and capacity to effectively deal to challenges in life. Since its inception in 2009, this workshop has received unprecedented positive feedback from students, teachers, youth workers, and counsellors.
The learning outcomes of this workshop include:
- Recognizing that stress is a common experience;
- Noticing the difference between the impulse to react or thoughtfully respond to stressors;
- Identifying physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioural indicators of stress;
- Understanding stress as a physiological reaction to a perceived threat or danger (Fight, Flight, or Freeze response);
- Learning mindful awareness techniques that help “build our mind muscle” thereby allowing us to more effectively recognize and reduce stress;
- Exploring effective and ineffective coping strategies to alleviate stress;
- Considering implications of reduced stress on overall well being.
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What people say about the Work Your Mind Muscle Workshop
I thought the [Mindfulness-Based Stress Management] workshop and facilitators were excellent. This was a very thoughtful and important workshop, and students were highly engaged throughout. – Grade 8 Teacher, Sir Charles Tupper Secondary School.
I think the workshop was well-rounded. It touched on all the topics related to stress and stress-relief. I think it was important to learn that everyone gets stressed and everyone has to deal with stress, but there is no need to panic because there are always ways to overcome it. - Grade 10 student, Burnaby South
I think the breathing exercises were the most useful because now I can actually do them at like home or school when I’m stressed. - Grade 11 student, David Thompson Secondary
What surprised me was that the breathing activities we did was actually helpful and it decreased my stress level. – Grade 10, Templeton
The most useful is the breathing exercise and the body [scan] exercise and I will use this to relax my self. The most important thing I learned in the workshop today is the breathing exercise can relax yourself. And now I know the tools how to relax myself if I’m stressed out. - ESL 2 student, David Thompson