Lesson 3: The mind

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Introduction (2–4 minutes)

Welcome and recap

Welcome back to the session everyone! Today we have our last lesson in “BAM!” We’re going to talk about the third part in building resilience and managing our stress: the mind. In our everyday life, it is not always easy to tell which of our thoughts are accurate and true and which might be somewhat inaccurate. Before we begin today’s lesson, let’s review what “BAM!” stands for:

What does the “B” stand for? [Wait for student responses.] Yes, how our bodies react to stress. Look at your first puzzle piece on your BAM! puzzle worksheet to remind you of what we learned.
What does the “A” stand for? [Wait for student responses.] That’s right, the impact of our actions when we are anxious, stressed, or irritated. Take a look at your puzzle.

That brings us to today’s lesson on “M,” the mind.

Using your BAM! puzzle worksheet, find the final blank puzzle section and write “Mind” on the dotted line. You can also color that section.

What do we remember about the ways stress impacts our bodies?

[Wait for responses that include increased breathing and heart rate, tense body, sweat, feeling tired, and changes in appetite. If students do not respond, remind them of these effects.]

How do we sometimes act in response to stress?

[Wait for responses that include withdrawing from situations or people; avoiding tasks that need to be done; yelling; feeling “on edge,” angry, or sad feelings; exercising; talking to friends; etc. If students do not respond, remind them of these responses.]

We have learned a lot so far! Who remembers the two magic words from our first lesson?

[Wait for students to respond.]

Yes, “Just Breathe!” Let’s take a moment to breathe in for 4 seconds [breathe in with students], hold it for 4 seconds [hold breath with students], and exhale for 6 seconds [exhale with students]. Let’s do it one more time. [Lead students through the exercise once more for practice. Students should be told that if they feel uncomfortable at any point, they can just sit quietly and not do the exercise.]

[Use the BAM! summary and review of lesson two (PDF, 29KB)opens in new window on a whiteboard or easel paper to help students remember the previous lesson.]

Today’s lesson is going to be focused on the mind. The mind is a very powerful thing! We know that an important part of being resilient is something we call “self-efficacy.” That is kind of a big word, but what it means is that we have the belief and thoughts that, while we can’t control everything in our lives, there are a lot of situations in which we can take control and make choices that reflect what matters most to us. Even when the world around us seems out of control, like when we are not able to do the things we want to do or get what we want, we can still choose our response to those situations.

Having a self-efficacy mindset helps us get through hard times. To learn how to do that, it helps to know how our brain works.

When we get stressed, nervous, irritable, or sad, our minds can come up with thoughts that can make us feel worse. These thoughts about our situations seem real and accurate but sometimes they are actually “thinking errors.” And, thinking errors that are repeated over and over again can become habits that we can change.

Worksheet Activity (3–5 minutes)

Seven thinking errors and challenge questions worksheets

Self-talk is what we say to ourselves in our minds. It can be helpful, neutral, or unhelpful. Take a moment and become aware of what kind of thoughts you are having right now. They could be thoughts about what you’re having/had for lunch, what you’re doing after school, a grade you got back that you didn’t like, or questions you have about why we are even talking about this today.

[Thoughts can be about little things like lunch or about something bigger like grades, an argument with a friend, or a situation at home. If time permits, students can share these thoughts in a class discussion.]

Let’s think more about self-talk as we look at these worksheets on seven thinking errors.

[Distribute or project the worksheets. The script below illustrates how the presenter can focus on two of these errors if there is time and interest. Presenters can also use the full worksheet.]

Our minds are usually pretty busy, even when we are not paying attention to them. But it can be helpful to sometimes check in and notice what we are thinking, especially in those moments when our self-talk isn’t so helpful. We all have different self-talk and thinking habits. Getting to know which ones come up the most for you and cause you problems can really help.

Let’s look at the seven thinking errors worksheet (PDF, 38KB)opens in new window. Today, we are going to focus on two of the most common thinking errors: catastrophizing and filtering [you may choose to use only one error in class].

Let’s take a look at the rest of the thinking errors. As we go through them, I want you to think about how often you have these types of thoughts. Put one checkmark next to the types of thinking habits you sometimes fall into, two checkmarks next to thinking habits that come up pretty often, and three checkmarks next to thinking habits that describe how your mind typically works. Keep your answers to yourself and try to mark them as honestly as possible.

[Read aloud the seven thinking errors.]

[Option: Ask students to share personal examples related to the seven thinking errors.]

Now, let’s look at the challenge questions worksheet. These are great questions to ask ourselves when we fall into a thinking error or habit that can be harmful. This helps us with our helpful self-talk, so we can build ourselves up to be the best we can be. [If time allows, have students complete the worksheet.]

[Using the page that poses challenge questions (read out loud or have students read to themselves), direct students to consider challenge questions to combat their thought errors (e.g., catastrophizing).]

Now, let’s focus on catastrophizing for a few minutes. Examples of catastrophizing thoughts are things like:

What if the teacher calls on me in class and I don’t know the answer?
What if my friend doesn’t invite me to their party?
What if I go on the roller coaster at the amusement park and it breaks down?

Think of blowing a balloon and filling it with all these “what ifs.” It gets bigger and bigger until it pops. We don’t want it to pop. We want to challenge those unhelpful “what if” thoughts so we can have a nice soft balloon filled with thoughts. If this was (or is) a thought you have, how would you challenge it? And how would you answer the challenging question?

Helpful challenging questions to help with catastrophizing thoughts are:

What is the worst thing that can happen?
What are the chances the worst thing will happen?
What are more realistic possibilities of what would happen?
If that happens, does it mean [what your catastrophizing thought is]?
What can I do to make it better?
What would I suggest my friend do if they were worried about this? We are often much harder on ourselves than we are with people we care about.

Some helpful answers are:

I have handled many hard things before.
I won’t always know all the answers.
It’s okay to say “I don’t know.”
I can ask my teacher or other adult I trust for help.
It might hurt my feelings if I don’t get invited to the party. It doesn’t mean no one likes me. I can ask another friend to do something fun with me that day or work on making new friends.
What are the chances the worst thing will happen?
What are more realistic possibilities of what would happen?

For example, you might be scared to ride a roller coaster because you think it might break down or you might get hurt. You might think: “I’ve ridden on a roller coaster before, and it didn’t break down. People are on roller coasters every day. I know a lot of people who have ridden a roller coaster without an accident. It’s not likely that a roller coaster will break down.”

Now, let’s focus on filtering for a few minutes.

Filtering is a thinking habit that involves focusing on the things that go wrong without noticing or paying attention to what goes right or even just okay. The problem with this is that it makes you feel bad to focus on those negative events without remembering all the other parts of your day, or your life, that are going well.

So, if you didn’t get invited to the party and get stuck thinking about that instead of the other events you have been invited to, you are filtering out what went okay and holding on to the hurt and disappointment. If we fall into this habit a lot, over time it gets harder to remember anything but the challenges and difficult times.

Think of a bucket and what you fill it with. If you put everything in the bucket, you can see that there are challenges, efforts, and successes. But if you only put the hard times in your bucket, that is what you will carry along with you. One helpful habit to develop is to decide what you want to put in that bucket.

[Allow students to respond with challenge questions. Feel free to use your own example here in place of the party example or another example.]

Helpful challenging questions to help with filtering thoughts are:

Am I only focusing on one part of my day or the experience?
Am I looking at the whole picture?
Is there another way to think about the situation?
What would I tell my friend who was focusing on what didn’t go well?

A helpful answer might be:

“This one bad event or experience doesn’t make me bad or mean that everything went wrong.”

This is a great example of helpful self-talk.

The nice thing about self-talk is that we have the power to change our thoughts.

Thoughts are just thoughts, but sometimes they are unrealistic or unhelpful. By challenging those thoughts, we can redirect our minds to think more realistically and helpfully. For example, thinking that not winning a race or losing at a game means you will never be a good runner or athlete is a really unhelpful thought. Staying in this kind of thought pattern could stop you from chasing your dreams. You could challenge this thought by thinking of the race or game as an opportunity to practice more.

Another example could be thinking that asking a question in class would make all the other students think you’re dumb. We can challenge that thought by thinking, “Someone else probably has this question,” or, “What are the chances someone is actually focused on just my question?”

[Feel free to add your own example(s) here.]

Closing (3–5 minutes)

Summary

We’ve learned so many coping skills through these lessons! You will move forward as the world continues to change and evolve around you. You are resilient and building even more resilience. I am so proud of how you are learning new strategies to handle life’s challenges. You’ve learned “BAM!”—how your body, actions, and mind are connected. You now have tools that will help you through many situations. I encourage you to use them as you go through this school year and beyond.

[Use the BAM! summary and review of lesson three (PDF, 30KB)opens in new window to create a visual summary for students on a whiteboard or easel paper.]

[You may want to use one or more of these additional activities to further engage students:

Additional activity 1: Journal reflections

Assign students with a journal reflection activity for the school year.
Students could be asked to go back to their thinking errors checklist and choose one or two that they would like to improve as they move forward into the future.
This assignment is designed to:
- Give students more meaning and allow them to think about it in a more meaningful way throughout the year beyond the time spent with these lessons.
- Provide students with ways they might challenge the negative or unhelpful thoughts that come up for them throughout the year.

Additional activity 2: Mind-body connections

Bring up on the screen the APA mind-body webpage: APA Topics: Stress and the body used in the “Body” lesson to remind them of this connection.
Scroll through the webpage and demonstrate the various areas where stressful thoughts impact the body by addressing each area of the body and reading highlights from the text out loud.

Additional activity 3: Mind lesson

Ask students to think about the lesson on “self-talk,” then ask what “self-talk” they have become aware of in themselves.
Next, ask students what two ways are that they might challenge the negative or unhelpful thoughts.
Ask the class to think about how “BAM!” connects to their own experiences and lead a discussion on what they’ve learned and ways they are trying to put some of these things into practice in their daily lives.]

See the full module document (PDF, 1MB)opens in new window, for a resource list for students who may need additional or outside help.

Lesson 3: The mind