“How are you feeling today,” asked by Daisy Cook during the second of three stress management workshops hosted by LBCC.
The second workshop taught about the “cycle of anxiety, unhelpful thoughts and behaviors, and help identify a healthier more balanced perspective.”
The workshop was hosted by Daisy Cook, a Mental Health Clinician trained in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction.
“For everyone, it can be different,” Cook said, when asked about the most important factor in dealing with stress, “It’s really about what they feel is important.”
Cook hosts the workshop as an open space for everyone at LBCC, working to spread ways to lose the stigma around being open about our stress and anxiety
Cook began the workshop by going over the importance of comfort in a workshop like this, asking students to feel comfortable leaving or stepping away whenever they feel like it.
After this introduction, the workshop transitioned to discussing and recapping the topics went over in the first workshop
During the workshop, students were asked to feel open about discussing their feelings, with the ability to unmute and speak at any time, or simply send in chat if they feel more comfortable with that instead.
The focus of the second workshop was on the cycle of anxiety, with the components of the cycle being thinking, feeling, and doing.
This was followed by an exercise about this cycle, with students asked to write down different emotions and feelings they felt in a previous experience, with the writings not being shared aloud.
The last part of the meeting was to read aloud a number of positive assertions to make it evident that they are possible.
Some of the assertions included “Stop, and breathe, I can do this,” “These are just feelings, it will get better,” and “I can use my coping skills and get through this.”
“We need to normalize it,” Cook said “Acknowledging we all need help and that it’s ok to not be ok.”
The third and final of the workshops will be held Wednesday, at 11 am to 12 pm, focusing on “an introduction of mindfulness in which mindfulness exercises will be practiced.”