This resource provides information and resources about Sun West iLearn's and SWTA's 2020 Keynote Speaker Trina Markusson and her presentations. You will find Trina's notes for the iLearn session.  This Mindfulness Handout includes information about breathing, presence, body scan, gratitude, self talk and self care. You will also find a link to download her mindfulness app - Release.Lastly, you'll find a link to her website where you can find further information about her services and resources. 

"Workouts provided on the Live Strong YouTube video channel will definitely help you improve your strength, flexibility and fitness. Celebrity trainer, Nicky Holender instructs most of the online workouts you’ll find here. He knows his stuff and tailors these at-home workouts for busy people who want a quick exercise fix."

As a comedian and performer, Jordan Raskopolous does not suffer from stage fright, but away from the lights it’s a different story. In this compelling and funny talk, she shares her insights into what it is like to live with high functioning anxiety and how people like her can be perceived - to be both shy and loud at the same time. A talk many will relate to and one that offers strategies for dealing with it.

Jordan Raskopoulos is a comedian, musician and digital content creator. She is best known as the lead singer of The Axis of Awesome, a world renowned musical comedy group and YouTube Juggernaut. She is the creative director of Press Start Productions. Press Start is currently producing Insert Coin, an ongoing web series about video games. Jordan is also host of This is About, a narrative non-fiction podcast on ABC RN. In 2016 she came out as transgender in a viral video called ‘What’s Happened to Jordan’s Beard’. Since then Jordan has become an inspiration to young LGBTQIA+ people by living her genuine life, openly and publicly and using her platform and profile to promote awareness and understanding to a broad audience through humour.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

Self-Compassion for Educators - We need to care for ourselves before we can care for those around us!
This session is based on the work and book by Canadian author Lisa Baylis and participants will discover the 7C's of resilience (which go beyond candles and bubble baths) and will also explore a few mindful practices that can help us treat ourselves and therefore others with compassion and care.

A FREE Psychological First Aid Guide from the Canadian Red Cross
The likelihood that a sudden crisis event might affect you or someone you know is higher than you think. That is why it’s critical that you take the steps to learn Psychological First Aid and prepare yourself to handle the extreme stress that a crisis event can cause.

The guide will teach you:
How to create your own self-care plan
The Look, Listen, Link, Live Cycle
How to provide Psychological First Aid to others
The Do No Harm Principles

Mental health is key to our well being. We can't be truly healthy without it. Build a healthy self-esteem, build positive support networks, get involved, build resilency, recognize your emotions and Spiritual well-being

1 in 5 Canadians Experience Mental Illness in Any Given Year. We All Know Someone.
And yet, one of the biggest issues in our health care system – and society at large – is that mental health is not taken as seriously, and treated as urgently, as physical health. But when you hear the stories, and see the impact mental illness has on the lives of so many around us, it's hard to stand idly by. Together, we can and must change the way mental health is treated not just in Canada, but around the world. We invite you all to join the movement. Watch the videos. Share the content. Donate now.

#MentalHealthIsHealth

"Prairie South's online Wellness Room provides individuals with tools, activities, and resources to support them with their Mental Health. There are “toolboxes” for parents, kids, teens, and teachers with great videos, articles, and websites."

Mindbodygreen is a lifestyle media brand dedicated to helping people live their best life mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally and environmentally.

"Here you’ll find a 360-degree approach to wellness that weaves the mental, physical, spiritual, emotional, and environmental aspects of well-being together, because we believe that these pillars of health are all interconnected."

Topic areas include:
Mindfulness
Health (including mental health)
Parenting
Food
Movement
Beauty

To begin this lesson I introduced the concept of mindfulness as being more than an empty mind but rather focusing on the present and staying in the moment and being in the now. Shared a video on Mindfulness from GoStrengthsOnline called Teaching Mindfulness to Children At Home and In Schools. We discussed other ways we can be mindful in addition to sitting and meditating or doing deep breathing. Introduced the concept of mindful colouring – focusing on the now (What am I doing now? What color am I choosing and what part of the image will I colour with it?) I shared an image that I’ve been working on and discussed my colour choices the feelings I had while coloring it. Following their art work students used an iPad to record their colour choices and thoughts/feelings they had throughout the project.

Mindfulness is a form of brain training. It is training our brain to pay attention to where we want it to be. It is training our brain to not wander or be stuck on one thought but to be able to train our brain to go where we want it to go … and ultimately, be able to stay there for a while. The goal of Mindfulness Meditation is simply to get our brain to pay attention to the present moment, and what is happening ‘right now.’ But we must also be able to do this without judging our thoughts, ourselves, or others.
This resource includes:
- How mindfulness works
- Instructions to do it

What Is It?

A downloadable packet of mindfulness activities and tools from Panorama Education, Open Circle, Breathe for Change, and other expert organizations.

The resources (like a "Self-Care Practice Guide" and a Spotify playlist for Mindful Practice) are perfect for developing your own mindfulness practice and/or modeling mindfulness to staff and students.

Includes great low-lift ideas for tuning up your physical health and mental health, so you can be of better service to students.

What's Inside This Resource Pack?
1. Self-Care Practice Guide (from Breathe For Change)
2. Calm Breathing Techniques for Students (from Open Circle)
3. Free Access to Inner Explorer's Audio-Guided Mindfulness Program
4. Spotify Playlist for Mindful Practice
5. Webinar Recording: Mindfulness Strategies for Adult and Student Wellness

Not Myself Today is an evidence-based solution - offered by CMHA- that helps employers transform mental health at work.  This initiative helps companies engage employees to:Build greater awareness and understanding of mental healthReduce stigmaFoster safe and supportive culturesWe all have mental health and we need to take care of it. 

Perfectionism is not necessarily about being ‘perfect’. Ask yourself this question… Is it ever really possible to be 100% ‘perfect’? So, if it’s not about being ‘perfect’, then what do we mean when talk about perfectionism?
Although there’s no perfect definition, we understand perfectionism to involve three things: Firstly, the relentless striving for extremely high standards for yourself and/or others that are personally demanding. Secondly, judging your self-worth based largely on your ability to strive for and achieve such unrelenting standards. Thirdly, experiencing negative consequences of setting such demanding standards, yet continuing to go for them despite the huge cost to you.

**Site includes workbook and information sheets available for download.

Within the attached document, you will find several links to "personal development" resources crafted over the years by Leanne Hintz, Regional Teacher for the Sun West Distance Learning Centre.Maintaining her blog entitled, Our Life Well Lived - Leanne Hintz, as well as publishing two books in 2020, has been Leanne's "side gig" for the last number of years. As she has learned and grown as a mother and as a human being, she's shared her reflections and her journey within the pages of this blog!  

In order to feel good about ourselves, we need to pay attention to the 5 different areas of our life that bring us wellness.
1. Spiritual- How do I fit in this world? What is my purpose in life? What things can I do to feel happy? What can I appreciate?
2. Physical- What physical activity did I do today? Did I eat healthy?
3. Emotional- What feelings did I have today? If I had negative feelings today, how can I change them to positive feeling
4. Intellectual- What is something I learned today? What did I discover that was new?
5. Social- Did I talk with anyone today? Did I spend time with a pet today? Did I get connected to others face to face today?

Take time to relax, recharge, and remember your strengths with these fun coloring pages.

Sayings include: I Believe in Me, Breath in Courage Exhale Doubt, I Can Do Hard Things, Don't Give Up! I Can Do This!, It's All Going to be Okay

Check out the great connected lessons that accompany the coloring pages, as well as many other resources.

A Progressive Muscle Relaxation is a great way to relieve anxiety and stress in your body by having you slowly tense up your muscles and then gradually relax them again. This helps us to relax by making us focus on our muscles and how they feel when we relax them from a ‘tensed up state.’ When we practice progressive muscles relaxation regularly, it becomes a valuable tool we can use to help us to relax and calm our body. It will also help us to be able to recognize when our body is experiencing tension and then be able to relax it. The resource includes instructions and how progressive muscle relaxation works.

Google Quick, Draw! tells you what to draw and then uses artificial intelligence to try to guess what you're drawing. Fun!