Teaching students how to self-regulate and manage stress

Emotion Regulation
​We all have an emotional temperature.  We tend to like comfortable emotions: joy, surprised, excited, happy, and prefer to stay in our comfort zone.  When our temperature increases and we begin to feel sad, afraid, frustrated, or angry we feel less comfortable and we want to do something to return to our comfort zone, aka self-regulate.  The things we do to regulate our emotions can be healthy or unhealthy, determined by the long-term impact they have on our health and well-being. 
Wellness rooms teach healthy coping skills to regulate our emotions, bringing our temperature down and allowing us to choose how to respond rather than react.
​What we experience creates new neural pathways in our brain.  This process is called neuroplasticity and simply said, it is the brain’s tendency to continue to restructure (rewire) itself based on experience.
When students experience the calming physiological effects of engaging in sensory soothing activities, they learn these activities calm them down and they will choose to do these activities instead of engage in maladaptive behavior when they become upset or dysregulated.
Rates of anxiety and depression are increasing in children and adolescents.
We know the root of anxiety is fear and may involve ruminating over the past or worrying about the future.  The key is bringing our attention to the present moment. When we are intentional about being aware of our thoughts and emotions in the moment, we are more empowered to respond and cope in healthy ways.  Learning how to recognize our emotions and regulate in a healthy way is a lifelong skill and can help decrease anxiety and depression. 
We all have to do our own work (emotion-regulation) and the Wellness Room provides a safe and comfortable space
​to find the coping skills most helpful for us.  
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 Empowered with emotion-regulation
Identifying our triggers is an important step in learning what increases our emotional temperature (aka arouses our nervous system).  When we recognize how we feel in response to things happening around us, we gain self-awareness about when we need to use coping skills to
​self-regulate.  Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl taught,
"Between stimulus and response there is a space.  In that space is our power to choose our response.  In our response lies our growth and our freedom." 
How are you using the space?
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