Emotional Wellbeing

"Feel the feeling but don't become the emotion.
Witness it. Allow it. Release it."

- CRYSTAL ANDRUS

What is Emotional Wellbeing?

Emotional wellbeing are our thoughts, feelings, and actions that occur from our thinking and our body's response to manage the positive and negative stress. Good emotional wellbeing is our ability to manage the range of emotions that we feel, being aware of them, and to deal with them in different ways.

Being emotional healthy does not mean we are always happy. Just like learning to kick a soccer ball is a skill, learning to be aware of our emotions and feeling or acting on them in positive ways is also a skill! There are steps we can take to help us be aware, manage, and act on our emotions in more positive ways because healthier minds will produce much more positive and responsible actions in online environments!

Emotional Wellbeing Challenges:

🏆Level 1: Reflect and understand emotional regulation: How to recognize and be aware of feelings and emotions

🏆Level 2: Apply growth mindsets: Turn our emotions and approach from the "bad" into the "good!"

🏆Level 3: Experiment with emotional regulation strategies and sprinkle kindness everywhere!

🏆Level 4: Create feelings of gratitude and gratitude and being grateful!

Becoming Aware

Changing our Mindsets

Strategies and Practice

Being Grateful!

becoming aware

How we feel is different from our choices and how we act. While we sometimes act out if we are feeling angry or frustrated, such as repeatedly clicking the mouse when the computer slows down on us, we can CHOOSE our actions to be more positive despite having feelings of anger or frustration. The ability to become AWARE of our emotions, process, and feeling these emotions, will determine what actions we will DECIDE to take. This is the skill we will be working on in this emotional wellbeing module. Our feelings don't always have to be how we are suppose to act. We want to separate negative feelings from behaviours and choosing more positive behaviours whether we are in the classroom, at home, or in online environments.

🏆 Level 1: Understanding and recognizing feelings and emotions

📕 Create the table shown below in your online journal and answer the following questions:

Think of a time when you had a more "negative" feeling (i.e. angry, frustrated, anxious). Write down the feeling in the left column. Write about the scenario or situation that happened in the middle column. Then describe how you de-escalated or calmed down or returned to normal in the right column.
Now think of a time you were feeling your best or "positive" moments. Write down the feeling in the left column and the situation or what you were doing at that moment in time under the scenario column.
Write down how you are feeling NOW at this moment. Try to describe or pinpoint the feeling of how you are feeling now. The scenario is you are completing this onboarding emotional wellbeing program. For the right column, how will you continue or manage the emotion you currently feel?

🍳 Extend: Looking at your chart and your reflections or experiences of feeling different emotions, this is what we call emotional awareness. Knowing the feelings that occur from different situations can help us make more informed decisions in the future and help prevent situations that make us feel more uneasy. Feel free to use this chart as a tracking system each day to help you become more aware of your own emotions and learning about the different feelings.

(Toggle to the next slide by clicking the right arrow for examples)

CHANGING OUR MINDSETS

Fixed Vs Growth Mindset

Changing our mindset is a way to manifest or attract more positive experiences in our learning whether they are in our physical or online classrooms. If we approach with a more open mind and believe we are not perfect and have a lot to learn, we will be more willingly to try new things, bounce back from failures, and motivated to learn more.

Even as teachers, we are still learning every single day! Learning is a life long process and the earlier we adopt and practice a Growth Mindset, the more we will realize that learning is fun and will light a fire that is in each of us- our passions! When we are faced with challenges and learning in new ways, we will better manage our emotions and thus, exhibit more positive behaviours with those around us and in online learning environments!

🏆Level 2: Approaching the "bad" into the "good": Changing our mindsets!

💬 To help understand and practice fixed versus growth mindset, look at the table below and see if you can match the phrases at the bottom to the correct column in either Growth Mindset, or Fixed Mindset!

✏️ Extend: Using the slidedeck below, see if you can come up with your own growth mindset phrase for each "negative" or fixed mindset phrase in the slides. I have provided some of the answers for you in the slides so that you can learn how we can mentally approach and phrase things more positively!

Growth vs Fixed Mindset!

STRATEGIES AND PRACTICE

There are many different ways to help regulate or control our emotions. We will produce positive outcomes and more desireable behaviours in our immediate surroundings and online environments if our emotions are in check! Remember when we react to something such as an opinion response in a discussion forum online, what we post online may be permanently be there forever and may add to the negativity, which we don't want! Therefore, we want to cultivate positive online and responsible environments and doing little tricks as shown in the videos and activities below to help us with managing different feelings or emotions.

This is a learning curve for all of us as there is no one-size-fits-all approach to helping students such as you handle emotions; everyone has a different way of doing things and it is up to YOU to experiment and try different strategies to help YOU manage emotions to foster positive wellbeing and outcomes! Remember, good emotional wellbeing equals to having a mindset that is more more ready for learning and will contribute more positively to online environments. This is a part of what being a good digital citizen is all about!

🏆 Level 3: Practice strategies and sprinkle kindness everywhere!

🧘 Watch the videos above in learning other ways to promote your own emotional regulation and wellbeing. BEFORE trying EACH strategy on your own, in your online blog or journal, describe how you are currently feeling. Then watch the video again and follow along and try it! Then, write about how you feel AFTER you have finished the video activity.

✏️ Jot down 5 strategies that you think would be useful to you in making you more calm or happier if you are in a state of frustration. The 5 strategies can be either from the videos and strategy lists above, or if there is one that you use that is not mentioned, record that as well as I can learn a strategy from you too!

📱 Extend: Find an app that you can use to help with more positive headspace. For example, "Calm," "Headspace," and "Breathe2Relax" are some apps you can download to try if you are looking for strategies literally at your finger tips! :)

being grateful!

🏆 Level 4: Emotional Wellbeing Challenge

✏️ Write down 3 things you are grateful for today in your online blog or journal! Make sure they are specific and not largely general like, "It is sunny out today!"

⏱ Create a flipgrid video in answering this question: Why does gratitude and good emotional health and wellbeing promote good digital citizenship and responsibility?

☑ Extend: Sign the pledge! Before leaving this module, make sure you understand each of the sections to help you promote more positive actions and behaviours in online environments! Are you ready to handle your emotions, improve your overall wellbeing, and contribute to positive online environments in BECOMING RESPONSIBLE DIGITAL CITIZENS? Then sign the pledge below!

Pledge to encourage emotional wellbeing and practicing good "netiquette"

REMEMBER: Practicing emotional regulation strategies and positive emotional WELLBEING habits will foster POSITIVE THINKING AND CHOICES. This will result in POSITIVE ACTIONS and SUCCESS in both physical and online environments!

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