Sorted for Schools provides Positive Mental Training audio programmes grounded in scientific research.
These programmes can enhance your mood, alleviate stress, anxiety and depression, and foster resilience and positive emotions.
We can improve our wellbeing with
The Feeling Good Programme, one of our Sorted for Schools programmes created especially for schools.
Programme
3
We recommend beginning with the first four foundation topics:
You can then choose to teach the other topics in any order.
Programme
Over the next few weeks, we are going to learn about ways that we can improve our wellbeing.
Relaxation, resilience and visualisation
Key vocabulary
Look at the words below. What do they mean to you? Discuss them and feed back to the class about what you think they mean. You could try to come up with a definition for each one.
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Resilience is bouncing back and bouncing forwards after experiencing something difficult.
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Wellbeing is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (according to the World Health Organisation).
(We’ll come back to the other key words later.)
Why do you think it might be important to develop your resilience skills and improve your wellbeing? How can doing so help us in our lives?
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A resilient attitude in practice
On getting a low mark in an exam, Pupil A thought,
“I’m just rubbish at this subject! I'll never get any better! There’s no point in even trying!”
A resilient attitude in practice
In contrast, Pupil B felt down for a bit but then thought, “It’s not so bad as I did OK in Sections A and B, and now I know which topics I need to work on to do better next time.”
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A resilient attitude in practice
Pupil B showed a resilient response to getting a low mark whereas Pupil A did not.
Learning how to be more resilient and how to improve our mental health and wellbeing means learning how to
Practice makes perfect!
The more we practise a skill, the better we become at it. Doing the same thing over and over again takes lots of perseverance, patience and resilience: it is easier just to give up, but to succeed in life, you need to acknowledge that you find something difficult, and then do it anyway, otherwise you’ll never feel a sense of accomplishment.
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Practice makes perfect!
Think about something you’ve learnt at school recently.
How many times did your teacher need to revisit that topic with you until it stuck?
How many times did you need to practise it as part of your homework or in lessons to remember it?
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Practice makes perfect!
How many times do you think you tried to walk as a baby before you could do so confidently?
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Practice makes perfect!
How many times did you try to ride your bike without stabilisers before you were able to?
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Practise relaxing
It might seem strange to think of ‘relaxation’ as a skill, but think about how busy our everyday lives are.
Practise relaxing
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Practise relaxing
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Practise relaxing
Practise relaxing
Note down the timings and activities of a typical day in your week and compare them to a peer’s.
Practise relaxing
Make a list of some of the things that you think get in the way of you relaxing.
(How has life changed in the past 30, 40, or 50 years that might make it even harder to relax than people your age might have been able to in the past?)
Share your ideas as a class.
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Mindfulness - what do you think it is?
Practise relaxing
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Practise relaxing
How often do you stop to really notice things that are going on around you or how they make you feel?
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Practise relaxing
When you feel really happy about something, what does that look like in your body language and in the expression on your face?
What do you say?
What sounds do you make?
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Practise relaxing
What do the body and face of someone who has just received bad news look like?
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How do you feel right now?
If you are tense or stressed, do you know how to make yourself feel more relaxed?
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These are some of the skills that you will learn over the next few weeks.
If you are tired or lacking in energy, do you know how to feel more energised?
Practise relaxing
We all experience low mood sometimes. That is a normal part of life.
Practise relaxing
Some people are better than others at lifting their mood so that they feel better, and in turn, this means that they are better able to let go of worries, cope with stress, sleep better, and therefore, feel more confident in social situations, concentrate better and have good overall wellbeing.
Practise relaxing
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It all starts with knowing how to relax our bodies, because when our bodies relax, our minds become relaxed and we need to be in this state to develop all of the other skills that help us in life.
To relax our bodies, we need to use breathing skills and we need to get to know how we feel, how we want to feel and what is going on around us.
Practise relaxing
Audio tracks
The audio tracks that you’ll listen to alongside the lessons (and at home if you wish) will help you to understand yourself better and they will teach you how to change the way you feel.
Audio tracks
But it will take practice! Try to listen to each track several times a week before moving on to the next one.
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Audio tracks
Listening to the same things several times can feel boring at first, but just like you need to practise before you can walk,
ride a bike without stabilisers,
recite your times tables,
do keepy-uppies,
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swim without armbands,
remember your lines in a play or
remember which bus takes you where or how to walk home from school without getting lost...
Audio tracks
...you need to practise the skill of listening to learn how improve your wellbeing!
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3 Minute Mindfulness
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plays on clicking - can take a second to respond
Audio tracks
How do you feel after listening to that track?
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Audio tracks
Perhaps you feel more relaxed.
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Perhaps you found it hard to listen to. Maybe it was difficult to pay attention to the voice.
You might even have found it boring!
Audio tracks
Whatever you felt, that’s OK!
You can put your head on your desk, doodle or close your eyes as you listen - you will still take in some of the information.
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Audio tracks
The more you listen, the more you will learn about yourself, how you feel and how to change the way you feel, and this starts with learning how to relax your body so that you can relax your mind.
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Sports Coach
Think of a professional sportsperson. Perhaps you have a lioness in mind, or a basketball player or a cricketer. Think about what it might take for them to perform at their best, week after week.
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Sports Coach
Discuss/write down all of the things that you think a professional sportsperson (as well as their coach, and other members of their team) have to work on in order for them to keep performing at their best.
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Feedback
What sorts of things did you come up with?
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Feedback
Perhaps you mentioned:
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Feedback
Anything else?
What separates someone who is quite good at a sport from someone who is the best at it?
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The Power of the Mind
Some of the best athletes understand that physical training alone is not enough to be at the top of their game. They recognise that they also need to be mentally strong to have the edge on their opponents.
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The Power of the Mind
Watch the clip below, called The Power Of The Mind (2 mins).
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Resilience
Athletes are very resilient people. They cope well with not always winning.
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Resilience
Sometimes, they have more than just ‘not winning’ to cope with.
Athletes can suffer injuries due to the physical demands that their sports place upon them and when faced with injuries that might see them missing events or matches, they might feel like quitting.
Resilience
They have to dig deep and bounce back from injuries; they have to find the mental strength and toughness not to give up in order to succeed in their sport once again.
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Resilience
Watch the clip below (3.13 mins) about how British gold medal-winning sprinter and former gymnast Asha Philip had to be resilient to bounce back after an injury that could have destroyed her career.
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How the Feeling Good Programme was developed
Everyone has the right to know the skills needed for good mental health, recovery from illness and resilience.
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Our charity developed a programme to help to improve people’s mental health by studying mind training techniques used by top Olympic athletes.
How the Feeling Good Programme was developed
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We need the same skills to succeed in different areas of our lives (such as socialising, learning at school or developing a hobby) as those learned and practised by athletes to excel in their sport.
A key skill is being able to see ourselves doing things well, and we can learn this mindset.
How the Feeling Good Programme was developed
Twist Your Body
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Review of ‘Twist Your Body’ Activity
How come you were able to twist further round by the end of the activity than you were at the start?
2. Rehearsal (practice)
Visualisation: to form a picture of something or someone in your mind.
Alex Honnold
Alex Honnold is an American rock climber best known for his ability to climb extremely high, steep mountains alone and without ropes, harnesses or other protective equipment.
Visualisation: to form a picture of something or someone in your mind.
Alex Honnold
As you watch, think about how Alex Honnold uses the mental training technique visualisation/ visual rehearsal to become better in his sport.
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Visualisation: to form a picture of something or someone in your mind.
Visualisation: to form a picture of something or someone in your mind.
Youtube Clip of Free Solo Trailer
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TED TALK Clip - How I climbed a 3,000-foot vertical cliff - without ropes | Alex Honnold
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Practice - physical training
He climbed it 50 times with a rope over 8 - 10 years.
If you want to become better at something, you need to practise it. This takes patience and commitment but as Alex Honnold shows us, that patience and commitment pays off.
How Alex did it (warning: don’t try it yourself!)
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How Alex did it (warning: don’t try it yourself!)
Visualisation - mental training
He visualised the moves and feelings, over and over again, in order to achieve a calm mindset and to help him to overcome his fear.
You used the same techniques as Alex Honnold to help you to twist round further in the ‘Twist Your Body’ activity. This is what mental training is: using the mind to help us to do things better.
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Mindfulness
In order for Alex to be able to visualise his climb, he had to quieten his mind and block out distractions.
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Mindfulness
This is what mindfulness helps with.
Regular listening to the Feeling Good Mindfulness audio track can help to train your mind to pay attention to what you notice - to your environment, including the sounds around you - and to calm your breathing.
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To become good at using mindfulness, you need to practise doing it.
Mindfulness
As well as being helpful in sports, in what other situations might you find mindfulness helpful?
Discuss/write down some ideas.
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Using mindfulness to improve mental health and mental strength
Some examples that you may have come up with:
Mindfulness: paying attention to thoughts, sounds and breathing and bringing your attention back whenever it starts to wander.
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Sorted: Mental Health app�
If you want to become really good at the skills that this programme helps you to develop, have a listen to the audio tracks at home. You can access the audio tracks any time you like via the Sorted: mental health app which you can download to your phone. Just type ‘sorted mental health’ into the search engine in your app store or use the QR code below.
66
An app for school staff/parents/carers too!�
Teachers: by delivering our schools programme, you can use our NHS-approved adult app for free! Please feel free to share with colleagues, parents and carers.
Search for Sorted: mental health (formerly the Feeling Good app) in the app store or use the QR code below.
Username: fg9sch
Password: positive
67
“It has certainly helped me to relax more and I am able to fall asleep, and mostly stay asleep throughout the night.”
An app for school staff/parents/carers too!
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“It has certainly helped me to relax more and I am able to fall asleep, and mostly stay asleep throughout the night.”
The second audio track is called ‘Get Relaxed’.
Remember to try to listen to this track every day for a week before moving on to the next track.
You may find it challenging to keep listening to the same track every day and that’s OK! It will become easier the more you do it and it’s the repetition of listening that helps the techniques to become effective so keep it up!
Audio Track
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Get Relaxed
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Breathing and other coping strategies
Key vocabulary
Look at the words below. What do they mean to you? Discuss them and feed back to the class about what you think they mean. You could try to come up with a definition for each one.
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It’s normal to experience stress or worry at different points in your life. You can feel stressed or worried about both positive and negative situations.
E.g., you may feel stressed before taking part in a race or worried when completing a test because you want to do well in these things.
Stress and worry
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Sometimes, we can worry for a slightly longer period of time and some people have more obstacles to overcome than others in life through no fault of their own, but there are things that we can all do to help us to feel better. There is also help available if we feel like we can’t manage how we feel by ourselves.
Stress and worry
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We have already looked at mind power and how to use our imagination and visualisation to help us to be successful and today we are going to focus on body power and relaxation.
Visualisation: to form a picture of something or someone in your mind.
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Mind and body
How can we reduce feelings of stress or worry?
Our heart rate is controlled by two nervous systems.
The sympathetic nervous system speeds up the heart rate. This happens when we are under threat (i.e. when we feel worried or scared) or during exercise.
The parasympathetic nervous system slows down the heart rate. This happens when we are feeling safe, making us relaxed and sociable.
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Research shows that when our body is relaxed, our mind is also relaxed (not the other way around as we might expect!).
Relaxing our bodies boosts our safety-based ‘rest and relate’ (parasympathetic) nervous system, which automatically switches off our threat-based ‘fight or flight’ (sympathetic) nervous system. This relaxes our minds.
How can we reduce feelings of stress or worry?
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How the body works - heart and breathing
In harmony: well together.
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Using music to help to relieve stress
Imagine that you’ve had a stressful day. Maybe you fell out with a friend or you got into trouble for something that wasn’t your fault.
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As we listen, think about: if these were your only choices, which song would you play to make yourself feel better and try to relieve the stress that you feel?
Using music to help to relieve stress
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The first song is called ‘Weightless’ by Marconi Union; the second is ‘Dark Days’ by Parkway Drive and the third is ‘Someone Like You’ by Adele.
Using music to help to relieve stress
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1. Weightless by Marconi Union
(Listen to the first 1 min 30 secs)
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Using music to help to relieve stress
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2. Dark Days by Parkway Drive
(Listen to the first 1 min 30 secs)
Using music to help to relieve stress
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3. Someone Like You by Adele
(Listen to the first 1 min 30 secs)
Using music to help to relieve stress
1. Weightless by Marconi Union
2. Dark Days by Parkway Drive
3. Someone Like You by Adele
Have a class vote and see which song is the most popular for coping with stress and making yourself feel better.
Discuss people’s reasons for making their choice.
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Using music to help to relieve stress
1. Weightless by Marconi Union - a study conducted by British neuroscientists in 2017 concluded that this is the world’s most relaxing song! It’s been scientifically proven to slow a listener’s heart rate, reduce blood pressure and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Studies show that it is so effective in reducing stress that listeners are advised not to drive when listening to it and it’s been used to calm patients before surgery.
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Using music to help to relieve stress
2. Dark Days by Parkway Drive - a 2015 Australian study showed that after listening to heavy metal songs like this one, people felt calmer and happier afterwards (whether or not they were fans of this type of music). The music was effective in easing feelings of stress because it helped people to process a range of emotions and leave them feeling inspired and free.
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Using music to help to relieve stress
3. Someone Like You by Adele - this is the song that you probably know best out of the three! It came 8th in the 2017 study of the most relaxing songs.
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Using music to help to relieve stress
When you listen to music that you enjoy, the part of the brain that gives you a rush of feel good hormones is activated. Music makes you want to move, whether that’s dancing, swaying or simply nodding your head to the beat.
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Using music to help to relieve stress
Listening to music can be as energising as if you were to get up and start moving around. Music also activates our emotional memory system so when you listen to songs that link to positive memories, you relive those memories you feel good.
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Using music to help to relieve stress
Different types of music work for different people when it comes to relieving stress, in the same way that we might need to choose from a whole range of techniques for relieving stress to find the one that works for us.
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Using music to help to relieve stress
Discuss/write down other physical things (besides listening to music) that can help to relax your body, in turn relaxing your mind.
Hint: think about the very first audio track that we listened to!
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How else can you relax your body to relax your mind?
Here are some ideas that you might have thought of:
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How else can you relax your body to relax your mind?
Have you ever noticed when your heart rate and/or breathing is faster?
Think of a stressful situation. This could be being chased by an angry dog, having to speak in front of your peers, meeting new people or something else.
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Measure your heart rate
As you imagine this stressful situation, find your pulse by placing two fingers on your wrist.
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Measure your heart rate
Keep imagining this situation, set a timer for 30 seconds and immediately begin counting the number of heart beats you feel on your pulse.
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Measure your heart rate
When 30 seconds is up, make a note of the number of beats you counted.
Double the number and write it down.
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Measure your heart rate
When we exercise, the heart needs to increase the amount of blood circulating our bodies and it does this by beating faster. The heart also beats faster if we see, imagine or remember something bad, gearing up our bodies for action to fight or run away.
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When and why the heart beats faster
This is caused by the threat/alert system (the sympathetic nervous system) sending a nerve signal. This system also makes us feel bad, worried and frightened. We want to run away and hide, and when this is happening to us, our brains do not work well.
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When and why the heart beats faster
In these circumstances, people talk about feelings of anxiety or social anxiety and experiencing panic attacks. They describe symptoms like sweaty palms, pains in the chest, feeling like they’re going to have a heart attack, like they can’t breathe or like they might fall over.
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Anxiety/social anxiety/panic attacks
If we want to overcome these feelings so that we can mix with friends, engage socially, do new things, concentrate and focus on a task, sort out problems and take decisions, we need to feel safe.
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Anxiety/social anxiety/panic attacks
The amazing thing is that we can make ourselves feel safe by using our breathing. If we breathe slowly and into the tummy, we boost the safety system which counteracts the threat/alert system, so we can feel calmer.
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Anxiety/social anxiety/panic attacks
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Practise belly breathing
Simultaneously: at the same time.
Repeat the belly breathing exercise but this time, squeeze your left hand as you breathe in.
As you breathe out, relax your hand.
This hand and breath action can be a shortcut to relaxation.
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Hand squeezing
Now feel your pulse again as you continue the breathing/hand squeezing exercise for a further 5 breaths.
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Measure your heart rate again
Set a timer again for 30 seconds and count your heartbeat.
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Measure your heart rate again
Stop counting when 30 seconds is up.
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Measure your heart rate again
Double the number of heartbeats you counted and write it down.
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Measure your heart rate again
How does it compare to the previous number, when you were thinking of a stressful situation?
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Measure your heart rate again
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Reflection
If you suddenly feel stressed (e.g. after an argument with a friend) you might feel like you need to calm down. What strategies could you try to help you to calm down?
Discuss/write down some ideas.
Managing stressful situations - in the short term
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Managing stressful situations - in the short term
(Discuss your ideas in pairs or groups before looking through this list of suggestions.) You could try:
Remember
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If you’ve been experiencing stress for a couple of weeks - perhaps because you’ve recently moved house or school - what could you do to manage how you feel?
Discuss/write down some ideas.
Managing stressful periods of time
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Managing stressful periods of time
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If you feel like nothing is helping to reduce your stress levels, what else could you do?
Discuss/write down some ideas.
Managing ongoing stress
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Managing ongoing stress
If you feel like nothing is helping to reduce your stress levels…
Whatever you do, don’t suffer in silence! It might feel really scary to talk about how you feel but keeping your worries and stresses to yourself will only make you feel worse.
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Sorted: Mental Health app�
If you want to become really good at the skills that this programme helps you to develop, have a listen to the audio tracks at home. You can access the audio tracks any time you like via the Sorted: mental health app which you can download to your phone. Just type ‘sorted mental health’ into the search engine in your app store or use the QR code below.
116
An app for school staff/parents/carers too!�
Teachers: by delivering our schools programme, you can use our NHS-approved adult app for free! Please feel free to share with colleagues, parents and carers.
Search for Sorted: mental health (formerly the Feeling Good app) in the app store or use the QR code below.
Username: fg9sch
Password: positive
117
“It has certainly helped me to relax more and I am able to fall asleep, and mostly stay asleep throughout the night.”
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Audio Track
This week’s audio track is called ‘Your Inner Safe Place’.
Inner safe place
Key vocabulary
Look at the words below. What do they mean to you? Discuss them and feed back to the class about what you think they mean. You could try to come up with a definition for each one.
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Ideal places
Would you rather live here…
...or here?
Why?
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Ideal places
Did you choose the Antarctic or the desert?
How did you make your choice?
Maybe both environments are too extreme for you! So what adaptations would you make to them so that they are more ideal for you?
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Inner safe place
What can you see in these photographs? What do they have in common? How would you feel if you were there? Why?
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Inner safe place
If you had the power to create a space that was perfect to you, that made you feel calm and safe, what would it look like?
Write down/discuss answers to the questions in your booklet to help you to plan your perfect place, then sketch it and colour it in.
You could produce this on a larger piece of blank paper if you prefer and it may take several attempts for you to create a place that you’re happy with.
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If you wish, you could play some relaxing music or calming sounds of nature whilst pupils create their inner safe spaces e.g.
Feedback
If you feel comfortable doing so, share your picture of your safe place with someone and explain why it looks the way it does.
What makes it special to you?
There are no right or wrong answers as what makes one person feel calm might not be the same for someone else.
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Positive words
What positive words would describe how you want to feel in your space?
Add them to your ideas or your drawing.
Remember that your positive words may be different from those of your peers and there are no right or wrong answers.
Positive: hopeful and confident and think about the good things rather than the bad.
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Positive words - Feedback
What sorts of words did you come up with?
Some of the words may be about being calm, happy, relaxed, warm etc.
Or they may be about a more active state e.g. creative, clever, focused etc.
Or they may be about safety, e.g. safe, secure.
If you wish, add some of these words to your sketch.
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When to use your inner safe place
One occasion when you might want to visualise your inner safe place is when you’re struggling to fall asleep.
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When to use your inner safe place
Getting enough sleep (just over 9 hours is the righ amount for your age) is extremely important for many reasons, some of which are:
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If you visualise being in your inner safe place when you close your eyes and try to sleep, perhaps feeling warmth from the sun and comfortable on a soft surface like a bed or a sandy beach, listening to a gentle breeze or some calming or relaxing music, and waves crashing in the distance...
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When to use your inner safe place
...it can help your body to relax so that your mind can relax and you can drift off to sleep.
When to use your inner safe place
Can you think of any other occasions when it might be helpful to visualise your inner safe place?
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Examples of inner safe places
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Can you find your calm place even in the midst of daily activity, when you’re not listening to the audio tracks/the app or taking part in these lessons?
Start small
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Set yourself some small challenges.
Start easy: maybe visualise your inner safe place while you’re in the shower or walking in nature or waiting for the bus. If that goes well, perhaps try to visualise it when walking on a busy street or when out shopping.
Start small
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Even just remembering that safe and calm place (even if you can’t quite feel it) will help to settle your mind and your body.
After you’ve practised visualising your inner safe place when you don’t need it, it will become easier to visualise it when you do. For example:
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When to use your inner safe place
This is because visualising your inner safe place in your mind can help you to become calmer and make you feel more positive.
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When to use your inner safe place
Sorted: Mental Health app�
If you want to become really good at the skills that this programme helps you to develop, have a listen to the audio tracks at home. You can access the audio tracks any time you like via the Sorted: mental health app which you can download to your phone. Just type ‘sorted mental health’ into the search engine in your app store or use the QR code below.
136
An app for school staff/parents/carers too!�
Teachers: by delivering our schools programme, you can use our NHS-approved adult app for free! Please feel free to share with colleagues, parents and carers.
Search for Sorted: mental health (formerly the Feeling Good app) in the app store or use the QR code below.
Username: fg9sch
Password: positive
137
“It has certainly helped me to relax more and I am able to fall asleep, and mostly stay asleep throughout the night.”
Understanding emotions
Key vocabulary
Look at the words below. What do they mean to you? Discuss them and feed back to the class about what you think they mean. You could try to come up with a definition for each one.
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Audio Track
This week’s audio track is called ‘Build Your Self-confidence’.
Emotion: a feeling.
Can you guess how many emotions a human can experience? Note down your guess.
Emotions
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Emotion: a feeling.
Can you guess how many emotions a human can experience?
C) 34,000
What do you think about that?
Emotions
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Emotion: a feeling.
How many of the 34,000 emotions that exist can you name? List as many as you can!
Emotions
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Some emotions that you might have come up with:
Anxiety: a feeling of worry, nervousness or unease about something with an uncertain outcome.
Examples of emotions
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Acceptance: an attitude or feeling that you cannot change something and that you must get used to it.
Disgust: a feeling of very strong dislike or disapproval.
Anticipation: waiting eagerly for something you know is going to happen.
5. Fear
6. Anger
7. Surprise
8. Anticipation
After studying emotions for many years, American psychologist Dr. Robert Plutchik proposed that there are eight primary emotions and that all other emotions are built from these:
What emotions do humans experience?
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To see some of these emotions in action, watch the clip below from the Disney film ‘Inside Out’.
What emotions do humans experience?
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Understanding how we feel: self-awareness
Having an understanding about how we feel and behave is called self-awareness.
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Understanding how we feel: self-awareness
If we can recognise how we’re feeling in different situations, we can become better at knowing how to change the way we feel.
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Understanding how we feel: self-awareness
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We can also become better at knowing how to react to other people’s behaviour and emotions.
Tune in to your body.
Your body is always talking to you – what is it saying?
Is it tense? Tired?
How do you feel right now?
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Are your muscles relaxed or tight?
How do you feel right now?
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Have there been any changes to your sleep or appetite recently?
Have you noticed any changes since you started listening to the audio tracks or the app?
How do you feel right now?
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How are your energy levels?
How do you feel right now?
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What behaviour changes might you plan to help your body to feel better (and, in turn, your mind)?
Noticing how others feel
An interesting way of getting good at noticing how the body and mind/mood are connected is to observe it in others.
It is open, extended, expansive and relaxed.
It closes in, slumps and contracts.
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Talking about our emotions
Some people find it difficult to talk about how they feel. People worry that if they open up to someone, they will be judged or laughed it, or they may assume that other people won’t understand how they’re feeling, so they end up keeping their emotions - which may turn into worries - to themselves.
Did anyone read Ruby’s Worry at primary school? What did it feel like for Ruby to carry her worry around with her and not talk to anyone about it?
Sometimes, we can experience emotions and we’re not quite sure why, or we can’t name the emotion we’re feeling, and this can make us feel even worse.
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Acceptance: an attitude or feeling that you cannot change something and that you must get used to it.
Disgust: a feeling of very strong dislike or disapproval.
Anticipation: waiting eagerly for something you know is going to happen.
5. Fear
6. Anger
7. Surprise
8. Anticipation
Have a discussion with your partner or group. Can you come up with examples of when you or others might experience each of these emotions?
What emotions do humans experience?
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Complete each sentence
Challenge
7. I feel anticipation when…
8. I feel acceptance when...
Recognising how you feel
Acceptance: an attitude or feeling that you cannot change something and that you must get used to it.
Disgust: a feeling of very strong dislike or disapproval.
Anticipation: waiting eagerly for something you know is going to happen.
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How are you feeling now?
Can you remember how to use breathing techniques to relax your body and relax your mind?
Practise them now. You may wish to close your eyes so that you are fully concentrating on your breathing.
For even deeper relaxation, squeeze your hand as you breathe in and relax it as you breathe out.
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How are you feeling now?
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Reflection
Discuss or write down your experience of thinking about and finding one of the emotions that you’re feeling.
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Remember that it is OK and normal to feel sad, angry, worried or stressed sometimes. Everyone experiences these emotions sometimes.
Instead of categorising emotions as being positive or negative, accept that emotions just “are” and that we have the ability to change the way we feel. We can build on the positives in our lives and recognise and focus on what makes us happy.
Accept the way you feel
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Positive: being hopeful and confident; thinking about the good things about a situation instead of the bad things.
Negative: a fact, situation, or experience that is negative is unpleasant, depressing or harmful.
The audio tracks in the app contain positive words and ideas that help us to think positively about ourselves and our lives.
Take a moment to think back to the list of things you can do to manage stressful situations.
You can use these ideas to change the way you feel.
Change the way you feel
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Managing stressful situations - in the short term
If you suddenly feel stressed (e.g. after an argument with a friend) you might feel like you need to calm down. You could try:
Remember
Reminder!
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Managing stressful periods of time
If you’ve been feeling stressed for a couple of weeks - perhaps because you’ve recently moved house or school - you might need to find other ways to manage how you feel e.g.
Reminder!
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Managing ongoing stress
If you feel like nothing is helping to reduce your stress levels…
Whatever you do, don’t suffer in silence! It might feel really scary to talk about how you feel but keeping your worries and stresses to yourself will only make you feel worse.
Reminder!
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Acceptance: Name, don’t blame!
Use ‘I’ statements instead of ‘you’.
Instead of “He’s annoying me”, say “I’m feeling annoyed at the moment”.
Instead of “That work is making me feel really frustrated”, say “I feel really frustrated right now”.
Stick to the present and don’t generalise.
Instead of “My friend is so irritating! She makes me so angry!” say “I feel really upset when I think about what my friend said yesterday”.
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Appreciate the positives
Another way to change the way you feel is to remind yourself what you are grateful for. Studies have shown that people who regularly express gratitude enjoy a happier life.
Discuss or write down three things (big or small) that you are grateful for or that made you smile or:
Gratitude: the quality of being thankful
Grateful: thankful; appreciating something or someone
Positive: hopeful and confident and think about the good things rather than the bad
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Feedback
Gratitude: the quality of being thankful
Grateful: thankful; appreciating something or someone
Can you share some examples of what you are grateful for or that made you smile?
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Say thank you
It’s easy to forget about the positive things in our lives when we’ve had a bad day, but some easy habits you can adopt to remind yourself about the good things are:
Gratitude: the quality of being thankful
Grateful: thankful; appreciating something or someone
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Sorted: Mental Health app�
If you want to become really good at the skills that this programme helps you to develop, have a listen to the audio tracks at home. You can access the audio tracks any time you like via the Sorted: mental health app which you can download to your phone. Just type ‘sorted mental health’ into the search engine in your app store or use the QR code below.
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An app for school staff/parents/carers too!�
Teachers: by delivering our schools programme, you can use our NHS-approved adult app for free! Please feel free to share with colleagues, parents and carers.
Search for Sorted: mental health (formerly the Feeling Good app) in the app store or use the QR code below.
Username: fg9sch
Password: positive
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“It has certainly helped me to relax more and I am able to fall asleep, and mostly stay asleep throughout the night.”