Strength skills

Key ideas
1. We have to work hard to calm our strong emotions.
2. Making good decisions often means "thinking under fire"

Activity
In the previous lessons, we talked with children about emotional arousal and emotional highjacking. Now begin encouraging them to put that knowledge to work in their lives.

Emphasize a simple SaT practice. SaT means "Stop and Think." Stop immediate action and let the emotions cool as one Thinks. What thought? Now we can introduce the REACH concept.

A student, for example, knows he has to give a speech in the class. In a few minutes before his talk, he first stops and thinks. Instead of paying attention to his rising fear, he begins to focus on what is going on in his mind. He quickly...

Recognizes the emotion he is feeling ("I'm afraid. My knees feel weak.").
Evaluates the situation in terms of the emotion ("I might look foolish in my talk; they might laugh at me.").
Assesses his position ("I'm prepared as best I can; I can do this; if I make a mistake, I'm only human.").
Chooses a course of action ("Ok, let's go. Time to give the speech.").
Honors himself afterward ("Whew, hey that was a brave thing I did. I can do better next time.").

In difficult circumstances, the first four steps of REACH can occur lightning fast, so fast that a person is not even aware of thinking. Examine the case studies your group selected in earlier lessons. How did these individuals show "thinking under fire"?

http://www.ksu.edu/wwparent/programs/hero/hero-strength-2.htm--Revised June 15, 2005
Copyright © 1996-2005 Charles A. Smith. All rights reserved.