中文
HOME
HOME / LATEST NEWS / Content

G7: Reading and Sharing — How to Easily Spend Your Day

June 6, 2023

We can often hear students sigh and say, “I’m so emo now”, or something of the same variety. “How are you today? Are you feeling well?” To help students in puberty deal with balancing studying and life, Psychology teachers carefully planned a noon literature-sharing group (once every week), utilizing books to provide mental health support to the 7th Grade Students.

Last semester, Ms. Yu brought together students to read a storybook The Benefits of Being An Octopus for 7th grade peers, which explored themes of companionship, familial relations, etc. In the end, the protagonist was able to find the inner power hidden within their heart and overcame these problems with their own light. This semester, Ms. Yu found another practical book regarding psychology — How to Easily Spend Your Day. The book introduces many tips and tricks to help people take care of daily problems and stresses that plague your mind.

When the “sharing” starts, Ms. Yu will have everybody think about what troubles they have had lately, no matter if it is to do with academics, friends, or life in general. These troubles are written down onto a piece of paper. Next, it’s time to share, and it seems that most students’ troubles are still to do with school and grades — primarily that of thinking their grades are too poor, stress before deadlines, inability to meet the expectations of their parents, etc.

“Does everybody have stress? Is having stress normal?” To combat this problem, Ms. Yu used a picture to explain the answer to the question. “Stress and Performance Graph” shows that people completely devoid of stress are usually very unmotivated, always tired, and bored. And those with too much stress will always feel drained of energy, anxious and even have break downs. So, only those with a moderate amount of stress can stimulate people to be at their biggest potential.

So, how do we reduce our stress? Ms. Yu recommended the book How to Easily Spend Your Day, which introduces 100 scientifically proven ways to say goodbye to your stress, broadly categorized into the following 5 topics : Relax your emotions, Reduce anxiety, Create more happiness, Enhance work ethic, and Freedom to socialize. A vote between the students yielded the topic of “Enhancing work ethic” to be the focus, electing and sharing 4 easy ways to do it: whatever you’re doing, get started, straighten your back, do weird poses while working and imitate your idols while working.

In the easy and laid-back atmosphere of the Reading club, the sharing nears its end. The students understand that everyone has their own emotions and anger. Even saints have times when they are emo, and these emotions help us grow and are there for a reason. Under the guidance of Ms. Yu, everybody learned how to accept their emotions, and face stress head on. In the after-class reflection, they all claimed that they would use their new-found tips and tricks to help straighten out themselves, and to control stress to a manageable and suitable level.

Written by 7-12 Jessie

Supervised by Fergal Lochhead

Pictures by Xu Chen

Edited by Serene Yang, Elaine Zhu (Intern), Niall Keenan