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In our RESTORES group at St. Elizabeth School in Oakland, we recently completed a unit focused on Healthy Boundaries. As part of this, we had a group discussion centered around healthy ways to manage stress and anxiety. This group is often light-hearted and playful, but on this particular day the conversation opened the door for middle school students to talk more openly about their personal experiences.
One student, a girl, who has typically been very quiet and hesitant to share in past sessions seemed to talk a bit more. When the topic of anxiety came up, she openly expressed that she experiences a lot of it. This marked a shift in her engagement with the group.
As the discussion continued, each participant was invited to share their own coping tools. She shared a strategy I had never heard before — using magnets. While I initially wasn’t clear how magnets might help with anxiety, she explained that holding two magnets close together and observing how they pull toward each other is soothing for her.
Other students began to share their tools including lifting weights, making music, spending time with pets, playing sports, drawing and more. Everyone had something to share about how they coped.
Read the full story on our website cceb.org
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