Stepping Stones March 2014 Newsletter

MARCH 2014
STEPPING STONES
Relaxation
Madeline McCracken, George
McDougall High School
Ryan Haasen,
Chestermere
High School
Cassandra Zucht, Bert
Church High School
tepping Stones’ theme this
month is “Relaxation”. In this
fast paced world, we often have
a full schedule and forget to
leave time for ourselves. It is
important to take time everyday (even if it
is just 5-10 minutes) to give our mind and
body time to relax!
S
Stepping Stones Art Contest
Thank-you to everyone who participated in
the Stepping Stones Art Contest! Above
you will see the top artworks. The
winning piece was chosen on creativity,
originality, and how well the piece
represented a student’s way of destressing.
Congratulations to our winner Taylor Kluck
from Chestermere High School who will
receive a $100 Gift Card to CrossIron
Mills. Taylor composed an original piece of
music that represents her relaxation place
as her composition is a peaceful and
wistful sounding song.
Honorable mentions are:
Ryan Haasen from Chestermere High
School who uses woodworking to ease his
daily stress. Ryan spent 500 hours of work
creating the 1/8 scale Bell 429 model.
Cassandra Zucht from Bert Church High
School who used water color to express
how nothing relieves stress for her like a
good book, the sun shining, and the salt
water breeze of the beach.
Madeline McCracken from George
McDougall High School who relaxes by
Stepping
Stones
Team
Project
Coordinator
Jodi Neetz
dar!
Winner: Taylor Kluck,
Chestermere High
going to new places and capturing the
moment forever through photography.
Madeline has captured her moment of
Stephen Avenue in downtown Calgary.
Cultural Diversity Week
Chestermere High School is having a
‘Celebration of Cultural Diversity’ week
from March 24-28th, 2014. The theme is
“We Are One Voice: We Are Many Voices”.
This event is facilitated by CCIS in
partnership with Stepping Stones to
Mental Health and Chestermere High
School.
The aim of this event is to celebrate a
sense of belonging in the school
community, to be proactive in developing
mental health through fostering and
encouraging a positive self-esteem, and a
positive sense of self identity among all
individuals.
As psychologist Jelani Mandara stated,
when “feelings of ethnic pride go up,
mental health tends to increase as well”.
Students will have an opportunity to
engage in a class project and then have it
displayed at lunch throughout the week.
If you have any questions or would like to
participate in cultural diversity week,
please contact Ric Morales at
403-290-5130 or diversity2@cciscalgary.ab.ca
“Some important elements of good mental wellness
include positive self-esteem, strong cultural identity and
connectedness in the presence of a harmonious physical,
emotional, mental and spiritual framework.” (Canadian
Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health)
Addictions
Counsellor
Sharon
Cirankewitch
Success Coach
Gina Pereira
George McDougall
High School
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Telehealth - Move Your Mood
March 14th, 2014
Rocky View Education Center, 9am-11am
Summary: Move Your Mood is a healthy
lifestyle program that teaches children and
youth accessing Mental Health supports how
exercise and healthy eating can improve their
mental and physical wellbeing
Please contact Jodi if you are planning to
attend at jneetz@rockyview.ab.ca
No School
March 14-17th, 2014
What Every Parent Needs To Know
About Children’s Body Image
Presentation
Presented by : Angela Bardick
Bert Church High School
March 20th, 2013, 6:30pm-8:00pm
Summary: Healthy kids come in all sizes.
This workshop will focus on practical things
that parents with youth ages 3-18 need to
know about helping children develop a
healthy body image.
Please register at Community Education
Services for this free session here
Cultural Diversity Week
Chestermere High School
March 24-28th
Parenting Teenagers Presentation
Presented by: Aileen Singh
March 26th, 2014, 6:00pm-8:00pm
Chestermere Public Library
Summary: This workshop will focus on the
challenges of parenting a teenager, the pros
and cons of different parenting styles, and
how to form a strong relationship with your
teenager.
Please contact Jodi to register for this free
session at 403-945-4800 ext. 4245 or
jneetz@rcokyview.ab.ca
Friends for Life Training
May 20th, 2014, 8:30am-4:30pm
Rocky View Education Center
Summary: FRIENDS for Life is a program for
anxiety prevention and social-emotional
learning.
Registration:(Please click the appropriate link)
Friends for Life Training
Friends for Youth Training
Success Coach
Melody Chow
Bert Church
High School
Success Coach
Lori Steenbergen
Chestermere
High School
A Message from Sharon:
Teens and Hyperrationality
In Daniel Siegel’s new book called
“Brainstorm: The Power
and Purpose of the
T e e n a g e B r a i n ”, h e
highlights a very important
aspect of adolescent
development called
“hyperrationality”. It speaks
to what’s at play in teens’
evaluative function.
It is a form of literal thinking – a cognitive
process that examines facts but misses
the setting or context. One example of this
is a teen planning a party when parents
are out of town. This results in putting
more weight on the exciting benefits of an
action than on the potential risks.
Evaluative Function
The message for adults is that in our
conversations with teens we need to help
- When you stress and you become
isolated, depressed, or zone out often, the
best relaxation techniques are rhythmic
exercises as it helps to energize your
nervous system.
Relaxation techniques for
Stress Relief
- When you stress and everything starts to
freeze or you feel like you need to hit the
pause button, the best relaxation
Having stress in our life is a good thing, techniques are yoga and mindfulness as it
but having too much stress is not. will help energize and give you a fresh
Stress is harmful when it puts your start.
nervous system out of balance. Don’t
fret, relax! There are many techniques - If you like to be alone when you are
to reserve our nervous system also stressed, practicing techniques alone and
in quiet spaces will benefit you more. If
known
as
the
you like to
“relaxation response.”
s u r r o u n d
yourself with
Most of us think that
other people,
when we allow our
class-setting
minds to “rest”- such
activities will
as zoning out, lying
benefit you
down, doing nothing,
more.
etc, it will help us to
de-stress and relax
ourselves. “Relaxation
response” requires us
to actively use our
minds to allow
ourselves to feel relaxed and calm.
“The evaluation centers of the brain
downplay the significance of a negative
outcome, while at the same time they
amplify the significance given to a positive
result. The risk seems worth it. This
positively biased scale can be activated
especially when teens hang out with other
teens or believe their friends will somehow
observe their actions.” (pg. 69).
Rural Mental Health Intake
Serves Airdrie and Chestermere
1-877-652-4700
them incorporate the “non-rational” such
as intuition, gut responses, positive
values and positive goals to offset the
hyper-rational thinking.
Here is a list of
d i f f e r e n t
relaxation
technique: Breathing meditation – Progressive muscle
relaxation –body scan meditation –
mindfulness – visualization meditation yoga and tai chi.
You will find details,
examples, practices for each of the
different relaxation techniques when you
read the full article.
Like most relaxation techniques,
relaxation response is not rocket science,
but it does come with practice. There
are several different types of relaxation
techniques and everyone will have their
own preference.
If you’ve been
practicing relaxation techniques and it Click helpguide.org to read the full
article.
has not been working for you,
here are some tips to try
different methods that may be
more beneficial.
- When you stress and you get
moody, negative, or agitated,
the best relaxation techniques
are meditation, deep
breathing, or guided imagery
as it will help calm you.
Our theme this month “Relaxation” has been inspired from the Mental Health Matters poster “Enjoy”.
For more information, please visit:http://education.alberta.ca/admin/supportingstudent/safeschools/
mhm.aspx
Pictures Sources: http://laughingsquid.com/wp-content/uploads/ultimate-relaxation-20100922-231210.jpg , http://www.gagcartoons.com/cartoons/0061.jpg , http://wallpapers.free-review.net/wallpapers/23/
Stones_relaxation_-_Japanese_method.jpg
Activity: Relaxation Ritual
Engage in a relaxation ritual! This routine will help get your body and mind
the time it needs to relax. Some ideas are bedtime baths, using a soft
blanket, writing in a journal or gratitude journal, listening to soft music,
leisure reading, mindfulness, meditation, yoga, etc. Try to have this in
your daily schedule and at a similar time each day.