For college students, staying relatively stress-free sounds like an impossible achievement. But the “Keep Your Calm” workshop series, offered at the Center for Community on CU’s campus, is teaching students how to control the various stresses in their lives.
The workshop is split up into three different series, each with four consecutive one-hour Monday classes, incorporating a variety of quick and easy physical and mental health exercises.
“Most of the exercises aren’t hard to do and are actually fun,” said Dorothy Moon, a licensed psychologist and group facilitator.
Many of the techniques taught in the workshop are as simple as writing down three good things that happen each day. These small triumphs can be as simple as “someone held the door for me” and as celebratory as earning an A+ on a final exam.
Moon said that doing this and other list-oriented exercises will not only increase overall happiness, but can make subliminal thoughts more optimistic.
A large portion of the series is dedicated to identifying the bigger issues that lead to high levels of stress and anxiety. An exercise called the “Downward Arrow Technique” is used to evaluate specific stressful situations. Students are asked to write down a stressful memory, followed by answering the question “What does this say, or mean, about me?” four times.
The final response, according to Moon, should reveal a deeper problem you can work on to prevent the initial stress from happening. She said that although the situation and the conclusion may seem unrelated at first, deeper issues are often the root of problems experienced on the surface, like tests and social anxiety.
Moon said her favorite exercise is called the “Pleasant Activities Menu.” In the workshop, students are asked to write down proactive things they can do when they experience stress, like going on a hike, listening to a favorite song or writing.
“Having a list is particularly helpful when you are feeling anxious or depressed, because you aren’t thinking as clearly,” Moon said.
The final workshop begins next Monday, Nov. 3, and will cover all of the same material as the first two series.
“I recommend the workshop to students who experience the normal anxiety provoking experiences of college, and ones that have negative thoughts about themselves. It’s also good for those that have tried other things that haven’t worked yet,” said pre-doctoral therapist and group facilitator Matthew Poon.
For more information on the times and location of the workshop, visit CU’s counseling and psychological services’ list of groups online.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Katie Garry at katie.garry@colorado.edu.
