Life Skills and Leadership Manual - Peace Corps

Life Skills & Leadership: Unit 1, Session 6: Stress and Emotions | Page 72 of 93

14. When everyone has had a turn, remind them of the activity in which they acted out some stressful
    situations and identified some unmet needs. Point out that this is just one way to reduce stress: by
    identifying some causes of the stress, slowing down, listening to our feelings, and trying to identify our
    unmet needs so we can find a better, more positive way to move forward. Ask participants to think in
    silence for a few moments about the other things they do to calm down or reduce stress when they are
    angry or upset. Then, ask them to share their strategies and list them on Flip chart 2: Reducing Stress. If
    the group needs more ideas, make some suggestions from this list:

Vigorous exercise

Walking in nature

Laughter

Leaving the scene

Talking to a friend

Deep breathing

Listening to or playing music

Playing a game

Caring for a pet

Reading a book

Helping someone

Meditating or praying

Listing things that make you happy

Note: It is important to solicit stress reducing ideas from participants first. Offer your ideas later. Participants don’t need to

know all the strategies on this list – just enough so they have more choices than before the activity.

Note: Steps 2 - 4 of “Tied Up in Knots” serve as an assessment of Learning Objective 2.

15. Summarize the discussion by saying:

“When we don’t clear the pet peeves out of our ‘house,’ they can become strung together in a knotted

mess. Soon it becomes impossible to know why we are angry or upset because our feelings are so

tangled. Whenever we can reduce our stress, it’s like cleaning our ‘house’ and starting again with a

clear space.”

B. Relax and Chill!
Participants experience the value of centering and focusing on the present moment as a way to reduce
stress.

7. Introduce the concept that relaxation is a way to reduce stress and deal with the emotions
   experienced by adolescents. Say:

“We’ve just made a great list of ways to calm down when we are feeling too much stress. I’d like

you to experience what it’s like to use one of these ways to calm yourself. If we are worried about

what’s going on in our lives, it can feel like our mind is running out of control. We become anxious

and feel even more stressed. It’s important to calm down, relax, and ‘chill’ for a few minutes. That

way we are better able to move forward positively.