Lesson 24: Choices, the Six Step Process

AIM: How will the six step process help us make the right choices for ourselves?

Do Now, in Journal:
Write your own definition of these Healthy Living vocabulary terms.

• decision
• action
• reaction
• consequences
• risk
• values

Background information:
Do you have choices all the time? Do you make choices or does it seem like you are on automatic? Feelings may cause us to react to a situation before we think about it, rather than thinking things through and taking the action that really represents us and our values.

Choices are a little like math problems. They should be broken down into smaller steps in order to be decided. Using the following Six Step process, apply it to one of the example situations. Choose one of the example dilemmas(problems). Use the six step process to describe how you would make a decision for this dilemma.

Example Situations:

1. You were planning to go to a birthday sleep over at a friends house Saturday night. You're parents had to change your family plans for Saturday. Now, you are going to New Jersey to visit your Grandparents, who really want to see you and take you shopping and out to dinner. You want to please your parents and Grandparents. You don't want to miss out on the fun with your friends. What should you do?
2. You get better grades in Math than your best friend. You have a math test tomorrow and she is afraid that she will fail it. She says "All you have to do is move your hand so I can see your paper ". You were taught to always help a friend. You were taught that cheating is wrong. What should you do?

Six step process:

1. State the situation(What are the facts, Who else is involved)
2. List the possible choices of actions that you might take
3. List the possible consequences and risks of each action (consider health, ethics-right and wrong, legalities, parent approval)
4. Consider your values (what is important to you?)
5. Make a decision and act on it (choose the action that best supports your values)
6. Evaluate the decision (Imagine the outcome of your choice, is it positive or negative)

Lesson 23: Back bending Poses and Making Choices: Action vs. Reaction

Back bends are poses that help us let go of feelings, release toxins in the body, and also develop flexibility in the spine, and spinal health. Some Poses that are in the back bend family are:

• cobra
• bow
  
• camel
• bridge
• wheel
• fish

Making Choices
Do you have choices all the time? Do you make choices or does it seem like you are on automatic? Feelings may cause us to react to a situation before we think about it, rather than thinking things through and taking the action that really represents us and our values. There is a decision making process that we can go through to make good choices for ourselves, but first lets see how we might make choices in a few example situations.

Journal Entry #23 : Choices, What action would you choose to take?
What choices would you make in these situations? How would you communicate with the other person involved?
1. Your friend is having a problem and wants to talk to you about it. You are also behind on a math project.
2.You are angry with your parents and you want to tell them. You also want them to let you sleep over at your best friends house.
3.You disagree with a grade that you received from a teacher.

Lesson 22: Feelings: Identify, accept, keep or let go

We saw in lesson 21 that feelings can be emotional or physical. For example happy/sad are emotions, hot/cold are physical feelings. This is not surprising because the mind, body, and spirit are connected to one another.
"Like attracts like", is a saying that expresses that the more positive attitudes that we put out into the world the more positive things will come back to us as a result. So if we can redirect our own attitudes to that of being positive and open we will get more happy things back to us. if we can accept ourselves and the negative attitudes and habits that come up in as, but also then let them go quickly, we will avoid more negative things coming our way. We each have the power to shape how our lives will be, positive or negative.

Journal Activity #22: Identify, accept, keep or let go
Copy this in your journal, do the activity and fill in the blanks :
There are Four simple steps that we can do to keep or let go of feelings:

1. identify why and what we are feeling
   
2. accept the emotions
3. notice where we feel it in our body
   
4. decide to keep or let go
   

*********************************************
1. Focus on some one that you love, whoever comes to mind first, write their name or initials in the blank:
When I think of _______________________, I feel love.
2. Continue to focus on this person.
When I think of _________________ I also feel these emotions:____________________, ________________, ______________________.
3. Focus on these emotions.
4. When I think of _________________ I notice a feeling in or around my ______________(body part, inside or outside body)
5. Take an action to symbolize keeping these feelings.
The symbolic action that I took to keep these feelings was ______________________________________________________.
6. Focus on someone that makes you uncomfortable, whoever comes to mind first, write their name or initials in the blank:
When I think of _______________________, I feel discomfort.
7. Continue to focus on this person.
When I think of _________________ I also feel these emotions:____________________, ________________, ______________________.
8. Focus on these emotions.
When I think of _________________ I notice a feeling in or around my ______________(body part, inside or outside body)
9. Take an action to symbolize letting go of these feelings.
The symbolic action that I took to let go was ______________________________________________________.

Day 21: Feelings, Attitude, and Success

How we feel often influences what our attitude is like on any given day or at any given moment. For example if we feel tired or angry, it might be difficult to be patient with other people. Patience is an attitude that others can sense about our personality. Our attitude then has an effect on how successful we are in reaching our goals, reaching our greatest potential. In the example, being impatient might keep us from being successful because other people might not want to work with us or be around us.
Answer the following question to do a self check, reflect on how these three things influence each other.


Journal Entry #21: Feelings, Attitude, and Success

Complete the sentences below, or in the case of a question, answer with complete sentences. Add reasons if you like for your answers.
1. The easiest person in the world for me to talk to is _______________.
2. The hardest person in the world for me to talk to is _______________.
3. Peer pressure is ____________. Peer pressure is real YES __________ NO________
4. How is your attitude related to your success in school?
5. What are three roadblocks to your success.

Week 20: Equanimity, Composure and Confidence

Equanimity
How do you handle stress and distraction?
If you find that you cannot maintain focus as much as you wish you could , or you think that your grades are suffering due to a lack of composure or confidence, you might need to practice. When our mind is calm and stable, we feel relaxed, it feels good. Many of us have a hard time feeling this relaxed, good feeling, it is very uncomfortable becuase we are not used to it. So we lose control of our thoughts and body movements. We wiggle in our seats, call out, take things personally, and even get angry and frustrated sometimes.
When our mind and body are calm and within our control is it called equanimity. It is easy to have this in normal situations, but when unexpected things happen it is a little more difficult to hold onto. Another word for equanimity is composure, and another personal quality that will help us have it is confidence, self-confidence.

Journal Entry #20: Composure, confidence and equanimity
Write your own definition of these three terms. For each term also recall a time that you used these qualities in your own life, or describe a real life situation in which you wish you could have used these qualities.