Self Care Superheroes

Big thanks to Randy for mentioning the Self Care Superhero aspect of my blog. I saw a couple ears perk up when I mentioned the concept, so I thought I'd take the time to talk about the workshop in a bit more detail. Yolo right?
As I mentioned before, I got the idea of selfcare superheroes while attending a version of the workshop in Winnipeg at the CACUSS Conference 2016. The workshop was administered by a couple folks from York University from the Student Success Centre. I was originally drawn to the workshop because of it's emphasis on student self care as I found my student staff stressing out, particularly around midterm and exam time. I wanted to provide them with some mechanisms to cope with stress and do it in a fun way. So I started thinking about providing this workshop for my students, found the nearest plasticine retail store (plasticine is super cheap by the way!) and started planning!
Each semester, we start with a staff training day which had typically started with some icebreaker games so our new staff could meet the veteran staff and vice versa. Well I took this opportunity to insert the Selfcare Superhero workshop into this space where we could go over what selfcare meant, while also giving students the opportunity to mill around the room and meet and greet each other. The entire workshop lasts about 75 minutes.
The workshop begins with a short introduction about the concept of selfcare and wellbeing. I used the selfcare concepts pulled from the New Economics Foundation, who was commissioned by the UK government's Foresight project on Mental Capital and Wellbeing. They developed a set of evidence based actions to improve personal wellbeing.

Here's an except from the powerpoint:
------------
The concept of wellbeing comprises two main elements: feeling good and functioning well. Feelings of happiness, contentment, enjoyment, curiosity and engagement are characteristic of someone who has a positive experience of their life. Equally important for wellbeing is our functioning in the world. Experiencing positive relationships, having some control over one’s life and having a sense of purpose are all important attributes of wellbeing. NEF has developed a set of five evidence-based actions to improve personal wellbeing
Take Notice
Keep Learning
Be Active
Connect
Give

By taking part in these activities we are better able to reflect on the beauty around us, develop our brain and body in different ways, and develop a stronger community that cares for all of it’s members!

------------

After making the students comfortable with the concept of selfcare, you really get into the nitty gritty of the workshop. Participants are given a sheet asking them to map out the following three things: which one of the 5 areas you need to focus more on, what the superpower correlating to your need would be and lastly what your superhero name would be.

After taking some time to deliberate and discuss, the students then used plasticine to construct a physical concept of their superhero. This was a great way for students to express their creative side and have fine.

So for example, I chose to create "Rickey the Rut" who strove to break free from getting caught up in the day to day activities and learn some new!

Ricky sits on my desk as a gentle reminder to learn something new every week to keep expanding my horizons.

The next part is called the "Art Gallery Walk". After everyone has created their superhero, encourage students to go around and introduce themselves and explain their superhero to their peers. I felt this gave the participants a great sense of camaraderie knowing students go through a lot of the same stuff every semester and that they are there to help support each other through it. As the students are chatting away, I went around and catalogued every student's superhero. 

After the walk,  I asked the students to reflect on what they saw around the room and engage them in a conversation about how they see themselves using this selfcare superpower over the next week, month, year, etc. This gave way to great discussion and some very relational dialogue between students.

As the discussion wrapped up, and we moved along with our day, I encouraged students to keep their Superhero as a reminder of the commitment they made to themselves. And, just in case they forgot, I sent them back the picture of their superhero 6 weeks later with a friendly reminder to keep their self care superpower in mind!

All in all it was a great success, and I'll probably do it once a year-ish as my staff turnover from year to year I think the students appreciated some self-reflection time, and I really enjoyed giving them some tools to help deal with the stress of exams.

If anyone else would like to see some more of the materials, I'm happy to share!