An Oilfields teacher gave students a shocking lesson on how to handle stress last week.
Teacher Chris Hughes had approximately 12 students pass around a small ball that gave off random tiny electric shocks to see how they dealt with the anxiety – kind of an electrical game of hot potato.
“It was to let the students become aware of their own responses to stressful situations,” Hughes said. “The idea was not for everyone to get a shock, but for them to see what was happening in their minds, their bodies and their emotions to the build-up of that stress.”
The students — all members of an Oilfields Math 31 calculus class — are the first students at Oilfields, and Western Canada, to take the nine-week .b program.
It’s an effort to help students handle stress.
“Five or six years ago we surveyed the kids for test anxiety and we discovered significantly in our Grade 10 girls population,” Hughes said. “It was dramatic. By Grade 12 it had evened out. The claim was the .b program and mindfulness programs dramatically increased the ability to deal with stressful situation and get over it and get back to work.”
Hughes took the .b program instructor course in England last year to teach it to Oilfields students.
“I have been aware of adult-use of mindfulness for chronic pain, disease, depression and it has been successful,” Hughes said. “I have been curious about introducing it to the school, but no one had really done that. I was doing some research and I stumbled upon this .b program.”
He said studies shows the program increases the students’ focus on their work. While it is used in the United States, Europe and Ontario, Oilfields is the first to offer the program in Western Canada.
“A week ago I walked around the class and I asked the students if it was working,” Hughes said. “Some of them —not all off them — said it was quite useful. There were a significant number who said they were doing the exercises.”
Those include such simple things as taking the time to breathe.
Those include 7-11 in which students breathe in through the nose for a count of seven and out for a count of 11.
Grade 12 student Rydan Powell said he will use the exercises as he faces 50-per-cent diploma exams in two months.
“It takes the emotional stuff out of it when you are doing a stressful exams,” Powell said. “So, you can focus better and understand things better… it’s stressful knowing these 50 per cent exams are going to effect you do in your life and in your career. I’m starting to think about it now.”
He said he has used some of the .b program at home.
“I might sit there, wiggle my toes and feel what is in my feet, and not other thoughts,” Powell said. “At the start I was (skeptical) but after the first class, it was a lot different.”
Jaelynn Varty said it doesn’t mean getting rid of the stress, it is about handling it a positive way.
“You let the emotions come and the stress – you face it,” Varty said. “For a test there is still stress, but it teaches how to deal with it and work around it.”
She does do breathing exercises from the .b program, such as 7-11, to deal with stress.
“It’s training yourself to be focused on one thing,” Varty explained. “If I focus on my breathing and other thoughts come in, you recognize they are there and try to push them away.
“It helps with tests and stuff.”
Hughes said while the b. program does help handle stress, it is not a replacement for depression or other mental illness issues. He said students see counsellors at the school and the community if needed.
For more information go to www.mindfulnessinschools.org/what-is-b/
