Tarrant High Guidance Department

The Guidance and Gounselling Department wishes all parents of the Tarrant High family very happy parent month! Please watch this space as we celebrate you throughout the month of November 2020

🟢🟠🟡🔵🔴

Recommedations from *Psychologists*.

*1*. Isolate yourself from news about the virus. (Everything we need to know, we already know).

*2*. Don't look out for death toll. It's not a cricket or football match to know the latest score. Avoid that.

*3*. Don't look for additional information on the Internet, it would weaken your mental state.

*4*.Avoid sending fatalistic messages. Some people don't have the same mental strength as you have.

*5*. If possible, preoccupy yourself with something productive. Spend your time creatively and fruitfully learning something new. Take some time for meditation and prayer.

*6*. Your positive mood will help you to protect your immune system, the negative thoughts only weaken your immune system.

*7* . Maintain friendships that inspire and uplift you. Social distancing is not social isolation.

*8* . Look after your physical health - exercise, eat healthy meals

*9* . Stay happy, play music, dance, call friends, do quizzes, laugh more, limit daytime nap to 30 mins, manage your emotions in these times. Limit your consumption of news about Covid. Watch comedies instead.

*10* ..Most importantly, firmly believe that we will be safe that we will overcome this. Only a few wouldn't and that is the truth.. Stay very positive.
Don't panic.
Hence Don't forget God
Don't

https://youtu.be/i-wWz_SUyb4

Child-Friendly Ways to Address COVID-19 Need some help talking to your kids about COVID-19? Julia Pettiecord, a child life specialist at NYU Langone, helps explain the pandemic in child-friendly te...

Healthy Ways to Cope With a Crisis
What are some healthy ways to cope with a crisis and get through to the other side? Here are some guidelines to keep in mind when coping with a crisis.

Focus on What’s Important
When dealing with the aftermath of a crisis, it’s important to focus your resources. Just getting through the day is an accomplishment, so paring down your responsibilities in order to just do that should be key.

Order take-out so you can cut down on shopping and cooking, put unnecessary commitments on hold, and just focus on what really needs to be done, so you can conserve your physical and emotional energy.

Find Support
If others know about your trauma, chances are they will be offering to help; now is the time to take them up on it. Let your loved ones lighten your load by helping with tasks or providing a supportive ear. You can repay the favor later when you’re up to it and they need something.

You can feel better from receiving support, and others will probably feel better by being able to do something to help. That’s what friends do best.

Lessen Your Stress Response
When you experience a crisis (or even when someone close to you experiences a crisis), your body's stress response may become triggered and stay triggered, keeping you in a state of constant stress.

It may be difficult to feel "relaxed" in the midst or aftermath of a crisis, but you can practice stress relief techniques that can reduce the intensity of your stress levels, help you reverse your stress response, and feel more resilient in the face of what comes next.

Process Your Feelings
Whether you write in your journal, talk to a good friend, or consult a therapist, it’s important to put words to your experience in order to better integrate it.

As you move through the crisis, you may be tempted to ignore your feelings for fear that you’ll ‘wallow’ too much and get ‘stuck’, but processing your feelings allows you to move through them and let them go.

Take Care of Yourself
In order to avoid adding to your problems, be sure to eat a healthy diet, get enough sleep, exercise regularly, and do other things to keep your body functioning at its best.

Also, try to do some things you normally enjoy, like seeing a movie, reading a good book, or gardening in order to relieve some of the stress that you’re going through.

Be Patient With Yourself
Sometimes people who are dealing with a crisis or trauma wonder if their negative reactions are a sign of weakness, or if they’re handling things the ‘right’ way. While there are more and less healthy ways to handle troubling situations, be patient with your feelings and reactions to things.

It’s natural to feel ‘not yourself’ after a major—or even minor—trauma, and accepting yourself and your reactions will help you feel better and process things more easily.

Seek Help When Needed
If you experience intrusive thoughts and feelings, have recurrent nightmares, or are unable to move through your life the way you need to because of your reaction to the trauma, even after several weeks, you may want to talk to a professional about your situation to be sure you’re getting the support you need.

Even if you have no major problems but just feel that it might be a good idea to talk to someone, it’s better to err on the side of having extra help. It’s a smart and responsible way to take care of yourself

Moorlands SEP

Guidance Department partnering with the community

Poet Kahlil Gibran informs us,
“When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.”
Here are 7 tips to help during this time:
• If you are mourning for a recent loss make sure to make time for feeling the emotions that arise, whether they are anger, sadness, or pain. There is no need to judge these emotions as good or bad and know that it is Ok to feel these and they will not last forever as all things come and go. You may even create a little ritual where you spend time with the picture or object connected to the person who has passed.
• Friends sometimes get uncomfortable around grief and if they try and make you feel better in the moment, thank them for this, and let them know it is normal and natural to feel how you feel.
• Make sure to also take care of yourself during this time, go out on a walk, make sure to eat healthy.
• Try and open your eyes to the delights around you. It could be a smile on a child’s face or your own. Smelling a wonderful flower or maybe tasting your own favorite food. Even in the midst of grief we can be open to the wonders of life.
• Know your limits and allow yourself to take a break from feeling when it’s becoming overwhelming, but make sure to let your grief know that you will come back. Make a time to revisit it otherwise it will occupy you all day.
• Being altruistic can be a great way to move through grief. Maybe you would like to volunteer at a homeless shelter or make some things for those you care about.
• Support has been known to be very helpful and so joining a grief or support group either online or in person can be enormously supportive.
More than anything treat yourself with love and kindness during this time. The grief will seem more acute during some times and more subtle during others.
As always, please share your thoughts, comments, and questions below. Your experiences and additions here provide a living wisdom for us all to benefit from.

"The 7 Stages of Grief"

Here is the grief model we call the 7 Stages of Grief:
1. SHOCK & DENIAL-
You will probably react to learning of the loss with numbed disbelief. You may deny the reality of the loss at some level, in order to avoid the pain. Shock provides emotional protection from being overwhelmed all at once. This may last for weeks. This cannot be happening. I wonder if the person has gone away and is delayed and will be back soon? Is this for real? Seriously?
2. PAIN & GUILT-
As the shock wears off, it is replaced with the suffering of unbelievable pain. Although excruciating and almost unbearable, it is important that you experience the pain fully, and not hide it, avoid it or escape from it with alcohol or drugs.

You may have guilty feelings or remorse over things you did or didn't do with your loved one. Life feels chaotic and scary during this phase. Was it because of me? What did I do wrong? If only ……..?
3. ANGER & BARGAINING-
Frustration gives way to anger, and you may lash out and lay unwarranted blame for the death on someone else. Please try to control this, as permanent damage to your relationships may result. This is a time for the release of bottled up emotion.

You may rail against fate, questioning "Why me?" You may also try to bargain in vain with the powers that be for a way out of your despair ("I will never drink again if you just bring him back"). ( I will never smoke again if…… I will never fight or curse again if
God…..)I wish it was me and not her or him..
4. "DEPRESSION", REFLECTION, LONELINESS-
Just when your friends may think you should be getting on with your life, a long period of sad reflection will likely overtake you. This is a normal stage of grief, so do not be "talked out of it" by well-meaning outsiders. Encouragement from others is not helpful to you during this stage of grieving.

During this time, you finally realize the true magnitude of your loss, and it depresses you. You may isolate yourself on purpose, reflect on things you did with your lost one, and focus on memories of the past. You may sense feelings of emptiness or despair.

5. THE UPWARD TURN-
As you start to adjust to life without your dear one, your life becomes a little calmer and more organized. Your physical symptoms lessen, and your "depression" begins to lift slightly.
6. RECONSTRUCTION & WORKING THROUGH-
As you become more functional, your mind starts working again, and you will find yourself seeking realistic solutions to problems posed by life without your loved one. You will start to work on practical and financial problems and reconstructing yourself and your life without him or her.
7. ACCEPTANCE & HOPE-
During this, the last of the seven stages in this grief model, you learn to accept and deal with the reality of your situation. Acceptance does not necessarily mean instant happiness. Given the pain and turmoil you have experienced, you can never return to the carefree, untroubled YOU that existed before this tragedy. But you will find a way forward.

You will start to look forward and actually plan things for the future. Eventually, you will be able to think about your lost loved one without pain; sadness, yes, but the wrenching pain will be gone. You will once again anticipate some good times to come, and yes, even find joy again in the experience of living.

You have made it through the 7 stages of grief.

Whats on your mind?
Want to talk?