My name is Mrs. Flemister and I am the School Counselor at Werner Elementary. I am starting a monthly Resiliency Resource page for families. Please look for it each month to help your student build resiliency to overcome difficult times and build self-confidence. 

Welcome to the School Counseling monthly resource on RESILIENCY, parents and guardians!

February Resiliency

Talk to yourself like you would a loved one or a good friend!

As School Counselors we often notice how critical and cruel students can be to themselves. Sometimes, our inner critic can serve a helpful purpose by pushing us to grow and improve. However, it can also become overly critical, leading to self-doubt and demoralization. When this happens, one of the best things we can do is start “talking back” to our inner critic with positive affirmations and resilient self-talk. This may sound simple, but it requires a lot of practice and mindfulness. 

Check out this resource to learn more about resilient self-talk: https://www.solutionsforresilience.com/negative-self-talk/

Some examples from the site:

The Benefits of Taking on Your Negative Self-Talk

1. Your mental health will improve as you reduce the internal put downs. Feelings of anxiety, stress and depression will calm.

2. Talking positively to yourself will increase your sense of self-worth and feelings of confidence.

3. When you speak supportively to yourself your nervous system calms down and you are then better able to think clearly. You will know when it is wise to accept a situation and when it is better to work on a solution.

4. Turning your self-talk into some possibilities allows you to better handle inevitable setbacks.

5. When you speak kindly to yourself, you are apt to speak similarly to others. Support yourself becomes the ability to support others.

25 Affirmations to Increase Your Positive Self-Talk: These affirmations for negative self-talk will get primed with some positive thinking. Note which ones are missing from your brain’s tapes:                      

1. I can keep myself safe.  

2. I deserve love. 

3. I am a good and loving person. 

4. I can do it. 

5. I can trust myself. 

6. I am in control of my life. 

7. I now have choices. 

8. I have intelligence. 

9. I am okay just the way I am. 

10. I can succeed. 

11. I can make mistakes and learn. 

12.  I can choose who to trust. 

13. I belong here. 

14.  I can feel all of my feelings and still be in control. 

15. I can feel and make good choices at the same time. 

16.  I can know what I know. 

17.  I can initiate, grow and learn. 

18. I can be active and quiet. 

19.  I can think and speak for myself. 

20.  My needs and wants are important. 

21. I can be independent and interdependent. 

22.  I can be powerful and ask for help at the same time. 

23. I can be creative, competent, productive, and joyful. 

24.  I can trust my inner wisdom. 

25.  I am lovable at every age. 

7 Ways to Help with Stress

1. Physical Activity - do an activity that gets you moving

2. Know your support system - Connect with someone (parent, grandparent, friend, etc.)

3. Breathe - do some deep breathing

4. Laugh - humor is a great way to relieve stress

5. Hug a loved one

6. Cry if you need to and get it out of your system

7. Be creative - bake, paint, build, etc.