Thoughts Are Not Facts Activity

Note Card

Birds of a Feather Worksheet

 At my field placement we have a Tier 1 intervention, called Ladies Lunch.  All girls are welcomed to attend.  During ladies lunch we have snacks, do crafts, have discussions, practice mindfulness and coping strategies, and have outside speakers come in who are experts on various topics, from motivational speakers to professionals in careers the girls are interested in pursuing.  A few weeks ago we had a clinical psychologist from the Dupage Health Department come and talk to the girls.  I was really impressed by the activity she did with the girls and how well the girls responded to it, so I asked her if I could share it with my class.  I am at a high school, but I think this activity could work well with younger students and males. It could be done in individual sessions or group sessions. It is designed to be an introduction to mindfulness, focusing thoughts on the present moment, and not allowing the bad or embarrassing moments to overtake our thought processes and shape our sense of identity.

The first step of the activity is to allow students a minute to draw dots on a note card.  Next, students are given the "birds of a feather" worksheet and are asked to check off thoughts that trouble them about themselves.  They are then asked to move on to the next section and check off what thoughts often accompany those thoughts, showing that negative thoughts often "flock together."  The last section of the worksheet focuses on checking off the emotions that student's feel as a result of the negative thoughts they have about themselves.  After giving students some time to process that, she asked the students to look at their note card and compared it to all the moments in our day, week, month, year.  She explained that there are millions of moments, but we tend to hold on to the few moments where we felt embarrassed, like a failure, or less than.  For example, just because you fail one test does not mean you will fail all tests.  She explained the importance of being in the present moment and not allowing negative thoughts to hold you back.  She explained one way to get back into the present moment when students begin having negative thoughts is to just be aware of how you are feeling without any judgement.  Finally, the thoughts are not facts sheet was handed out and gone over.  Students were told to keep this in a folder or notebook and refer back to it when they begin having negative thoughts or emotions.