Counseling Tips
Self-Awareness Skills
The abilities to understand one’s own emotions, thoughts, and values and how they influence behavior across contexts.
Here are some ideas for how to develop self-awareness.
Positive Awareness. Write a list of the things you like about yourself. For example: “I am cheerful,” or “I am creative.” Students put this list in a place where you’ll often see it to reinforce the positives you see in yourself.
Thoughts-Actions-Feelings Circle. It depicts how thoughts lead to actions and actions to feelings, which lead once again to thoughts. Describe situations you might find yourself in. Talk about how those situations might make you feel, how and what you might think, and how you might act based on those thoughts and feelings.
Keep an Emotion Journal. As you learn to identify and label your feelings, keep an emotion journal. Taking the time for a daily “emotional assessment” allows you to understand and explore your emotions.
Establish and Work Toward Goals. Meeting self-awareness goals and objectives gives you successes to celebrate, fortifying your belief in yourself. Set a realistic goal and write down steps you can take to meet those goals.
Use Your Strengths. Identify your strengths. The act of identifying things that you are good at reinforces a positive self-image. Working to improve your strengths builds confidence, setting you up for success.
Relationship Skills
The abilities to establish and maintain healthy and supportive relationships and to effectively navigate settings with diverse individuals and groups.
Self Management Skills
The abilities to manage one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations and to achieve goals and aspirations.
10 Ways To Manage Everyday Stress
Life can be stressful at times. And it's not just the big things that can cause stress. Life's everyday hassles, demands, and pressures can cause stress too.
You can't avoid stress. But you can make it a goal to keep everyday stress at low levels. Here are ten things that can help you.
5 Ways To Cope With Anxiety
- Start with a 'growth' mindset.
Some people have a fixed mindset. They might think, “This is how I am. I'm too anxious to speak in class. So I don’t raise my hand.” With a fixed mindset, people don’t think things can change. They think they are the way they are, period.
But brain science has shown that you can teach your brain new ways to respond. People with a growth mindset know this. They know they can get better at just about everything — with effort and practice. That includes reducing anxiety.
2. Notice how anxiety affects your body.
When you’re anxious, do you feel "butterflies" in your stomach? Sweaty palms? Shaky hands? A faster heartbeat? Tight muscles?
These physical feelings are part of your body’s stress response. They can be uncomfortable but they aren't harmful. You can cope. Next time you feel them, try to notice them without getting upset that they’re there. You don’t have to push the feelings away. But you don’t have to give them all your attention either. See if you can let them be in the background.
3. Breathe
When you feel anxious, take a few slow breaths. Breathe in slowly. Be sure to breathe out all the way. You can use your fingers to count four or five breaths, in and out.
Taking slow breaths can slow the release of stress hormones. It can help your body and mind feel more at ease. As you guide your attention to your breath, you can pay less attention to anxious thoughts and feelings. Breathing like this can help you feel steady and less anxious.
4. Talk yourself through it.
When you’re anxious, you might tell yourself things like, “I can’t do this!” or, "What if I mess this up?" or, "This is overwhelming." Instead, plan to tell yourself something that could help you face the moment with a bit of courage like, “I can do this!" or, “It’s OK to feel anxious. I can do this anyway.”
5. Face the situation - don't wait for anxiety to go away.
You might think that you’ll put off speaking in class or talking to that new person until you no longer feel anxious about it. But it doesn’t work that way. It’s facing the anxiety that helps you lower it.