Mind Empowered

Exploring emotions with students at Kadamakudy

10 November · Others

Our Life Skills and Mental Well-being Programme runs at GVHSS Kadamakudy. It brings together Olimalar Foundation, Mind Empowered and Sajeeva Counselling and Coaching Centre. The partners help Plus One students with school pressures, relationships and everyday choices. Topics include self-awareness, emotions, communication, managing stress and making decisions. Olimalar designs the sessions and trains a Mind Empowered facilitator to lead them. We led the opening session. Our aim was to learn about the students and plan the programme to fit what they need. After that, the facilitator ran the sessions. This was our third session. Earlier sessions covered introduction and trust-building, then identity and self-awareness. We prepared worksheets. They had a body outline and spaces for emotional triggers, thoughts, reactions and what might help. The facilitator brought existing visual charts about feelings and coping strategies. Students worked in groups. Each group explored happiness, sadness, anger, fear or disgust. Students used the worksheets to identify situations that might bring up their emotion. They wrote down accompanying thoughts and reactions and marked where the emotion might be felt in the body. This connected the discussion to everyday experiences. The facilitator gave simple explanations in English and Malayalam. Students could write answers in either language. Then they discussed what emotions might tell us and what could help them pause before reacting. They filled in feedback slips. The slips noted whether their understanding had improved and one thing they could try before reacting. Because of delays, we hope to go back to the original schedule. We want to prioritise the most important topics with our partners. George will join the next session. He will hear from the students and the facilitator and find out what support they need.

A Wednesday support group met in one of the meeting rooms

4 July

Maya of Mind Empowered ran an in-person therapeutic support group in one of the meeting rooms every Wednesday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. A small group gathered to share their mental health journeys and support each other through challenges. Sessions were free, and the group kept people anonymous.

An art therapy session had everyone draw a four-floor house

4 July

aikyam space and Mind Empowered hosted an art therapy session led by Cristelle Hart Singh of Dil Se. Participants drew a house with four floors, each floor stood for a different part of their emotional life. The foundation stood for core beliefs, and the first floor stood for habits to refrain from. They then drew the most vivid emotion that came out of it and shared the drawings.