Posts

Mental Health and Mindfulness Day 9 (Kenna)

Image
  For the first hour of day 9, we started with meditation that focuses on our Ajna chakra. This helps build a foundation that invites deeper concentration and furthers intuitive thinking. We felt the energy of the earth go through us as we sought positive affirmations. Afterwards, we had a Zoom call with Dr. Reese so she could inform us on personality disorders. We learned a multitude of things on the subject of personality disorders and those who are diagnosed with them. We learned the importance of being compassionate to people who are diagnosed with this and the importance of informing ourselves on this topic and understanding the different aspects of this disorder. We learned how it develops in the brain, either environmentally or neurologically. We also learned about the different segments of personality disorders that there are, and what symptoms make them different. Finally, we learned how this disorder can be treated with therapy and support from others. This presentat...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mental Health and Mindfulness Day 8 (Emma Holloway)

Image
YOGA We started the day off the same way we usually do, with yoga guided by Dr. Reese. Today, we focused on the story of Vishnu, a deity in Hinduism who protects the Earth. It is said that he will come down to Earth 10 times, and he has already done so 9 times. Each pose we did either reflected a symbol that represents Vishnu, like a conch shell, staff, chakra, or eagle. It was interesting to learn about Vishnu, and it was a very fun and relaxing start to the day. The flying eagle pose Vishnu NEURODIVERGENCE LECTURE After morning yoga, Dr. Reese gave a lecture on neurodivergence and neurodiversity. Neurodiversity is the idea that everyone’s brain is different, and no one has a “normal” brain. Neurodivergence is people whose brains work and develop differently. Neurodivergent people tend to have different strengths and struggles socially, academically, and physically. We learned also learned about interoception and neuroception. Interoseption is the brain's ability to sense your bod...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mental Health and Mindfulness day 6

Image
 Angelica  1-13-26 We first started off the day with a wonderful meditation class with Ms. Novak, where we did multiple different yoga positions such as downward dog, mountain, childs pose, tree pose, etc. After that, a guest speaker came and spoke about symbols and dreams and taught us that different types of objects have different  symbolic meanings depending on the person and how they interpret the object. We did a small exercise where we grabbed an object and tried to connect it to our own selves. We then learned more about dreams and what they symbolize, such as, different dreams are images of our thoughts. This can also be applied when having nightmares, meaning something you are battling in the real world, shows up in dreams also.  After learning about dreams and symbols, we then started presenting our findings about different mental health issues and medications that help with those. A presentation that really stood out to me was when a student spoke about Ge...
Post a Comment
Read more
Image
Mental Health and Mindfulness Day 5 (Cora Walker)                                                          The Perks of Being a Wallflower Today we watched The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The Perks of Being a Wallflower isn't just about a quiet kid trying to fit in; it's about how messy real life can be. The main character, Charie, goes through a lot of emotional ups and downs from dealing with past trauma to figuring out who he is. For me, what makes this story so powerful is how honest it is about mental health. Even when Charlie is getting better, he still has his bad days, which they showed well in the movie. When you think about mindfulness, it actually connects a lot with what Charlie goes through. Mindfulness is about being present and gentle with yourself, even when things feel complicated. Charlie figures out who he is at the same tim...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mental Health & Mindfulness Day 4 (Madeleine Genzer)

Image
On day 4 of Mental Health and Mindfulness, we started bright and early at 8:30 with Dr. Reese for morning yoga up until around 10 AM. Some of the poses we did consisted of Child's Pose, Windshield Wipers, and Wild Thing, and some of the previous poses we had been working on throughout the week, as well as new poses that Dr Reese taught us.   Which was fun to learn and get to try out the new poses she showed us.   I think the group could agree that we felt very relaxed and refreshed to start our day off right. After yoga and mindfulness, we quickly set up the room for our guest speaker.  Sofia Heyl who talked to us about Music Therapy and how it is a professional, healthcare, and educational discipline.   She also went into depth about how in order to become a Music Therapist you must have a bachelor's degree or higher in Music Therapy from  The American Music Therapy Association.    Another thing she talked about was how Music Therapy is...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mental Health and Mindfulness Day 3 (Mads Klopp)

Image
Morning Yoga      Starting off the third day of the Mental Health and Mindfulness J-Term, we started the day off right with Yoga with Dr. Reese. Up until 10 AM, we refreshed our memory with going over and trying out some of the poses we had done previously on Tuesday, such as Downward Dog, Child’s Pose, Windshield Wipers, etc… and built upon them with a few more new poses, among some more adventurous ones, such as Wild Thing pose, which was a fun challenge for those who attempted. I personally was unable to do some of the harder poses, however by the end of our yoga session, I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we felt refreshed and ready for the day! JFS Mental Health Workshop      Afterwards, we cleaned up and quickly reset the space, as we had a guest speaker coming to speak with us! We had a mental health workshop from the Alexander Jewish Family Service, which is a Houston-Based non profit that offers diverse support services to the entire ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mental Health and Mindfulness Day 2 (Veronica Pascucci)

Image
      We started off our second day of the mindfulness and mental health J-term in the most fitting way possible; a relaxing coloring session. All of us were allowed to choose 12 different markers, a pencil case, and a mandala coloring book that we would get to keep for ourselves. Mandalas represent the universe, and are made to aid in maintaining our focus as well as acting asa a reflection to connect with our inner spirit; all of us took the time and concentration to color in our mandalas in a way which let us not only connect with ourselves, but also relaxed our minds for the day coming up.       Once students had gotten the chance to relax their minds a bit as a morning stimulus, our wonderful guest speaker Ms Jill came in to teach us all about mental health and stress, with a heavy focus on stress management techniques. All of us got to learn new things about stress and the way it works, such as the spike in cortisol affecting our dopamine le...
Post a Comment
Read more