Lesson 5: Anxiety Break-out

Sessions
Approximate timing: 40 minutes
Overview: This lesson is designed to follow at least one anxiety overview lesson and one anxiety
coping mechanism lesson. At this point in the mini-lessons, students should have a firm grasp of how
anxiety plays a role in their life, as well as how to control their breathing and mindset during moments
of anxiety. This lesson is focused on building self-esteem and is based on the work of Judy Bartkowiak
in the textbook The Self-Esteem Workbook. The lesson is still framed as working with anxiety, as selfesteem plays a large role in the severity of anxiety, as well as puts students in a feel good state as
they work through the lesson. This sentiment is based off of Dr. Alice Boyes website, which is located
at: http://www.aliceboyes.com/low-self-esteem-and-depression/
There will be three separate stations where students can work: The comfort zone, the coin toss zone,
and the self-value zone. These three activities are based off of activities from Bartkowiaks The SelfEsteem Workbook. The comfort zone has students drawing and visualizing their comfort zone, and
making alterations to their comfort zone so they can see how their perspective changes when they
change their comfort zone. This is a great zone for students who are still struggling with anxiety in
their daily lives, or students who prefer drawing and creating in school. The coin toss zone piggybacks
the red-green statement activity. Students have to write down beliefs or values that are negative or
limiting their life. Then they have to flip the idea to turn it into a positive belief that the student can
use in an advantageous way. Again, this activity is appropriate for students who are highly anxious but
prefer not to create, or want a more relaxed activity. The self-value zone has students focusing on
their positive traits and qualities. They are given sentence stems, and must complete each sentence
about themselves in a positive way. This station is great for students who feel that they do not suffer
from anxiety, as they will be able to boost their self-esteem and still leave the classroom with positive
benefits.

Materials needed:
Print outs for each station
Colouring materials for the comfort zone

Set up
Before class, create class set photocopies of each activity. If you want to rearrange the desks so three
large groups exist, feel free to do so. Students are able to bring their chairs to different areas of the
room if you want to keep your original classroom setup.

Lesson
Preview: Review what you have discussed about anxiety to this point. Let students know that they are
going to be choosing different zones and activities for the day. Briefly explain each zone (see
Overview) so that students are able to make an educated decision as to what they want to work on
during the mini-lesson.

Modeling: Complete one worksheet from each zone to walk through with students. This does not have
to be an extensive run-through; instead highlight important points and challenges you experienced
while doing the activities to preemptively answer questions that may occur during the activity. Once
you have briefly explained your own journey through each activity, leave the exemplars in each zone
for students to reference.

Independent practice: Students can choose what zone they want to work at during this anxiety
mini-lesson. Encourage collaboration without pressing students too far; this has the potential to be a
deeply reflective and personal experience for students. Students are entering the zones with a brief
description and exemplar of workthey should be able to work through the project with little more
instruction from the teacher. If a student rushes through their zone, have them move onto a different
zone to complete the activity. This allows students who take the project seriously to have an
appropriate amount of time while keeping others busy.

Wrap-up: Once groups have had a chance to complete each activity, open the floor for a group
discussion. Have each zone explain what difficulties and successes they felt as they worked through the
activity, and how it impacted their perspective of confidence and self-esteem.

Zone worksheets:

Comfort zone

Draw what your comfort zone looks like in the small, inner square. It does not matter how well drawn
your comfort zone is, as long as YOU have a clear visualization of what your comfort zone looks like.
Leave the outside square empty until you reach the list. You may need to add to your comfort zone
based on the list:

Now, go through the following list and check off whether each change made your comfort zone better,
worse, or kept it the same. Use the outside empty square to add to your comfort zone, if necessary.
Some of the changes on the list will have to be visualized instead of physically drawn.

Better

Worse

Same

Make the colour lighter

Make it darker
Change it to your
favourite colour
Make it larger
Make it smaller
Make it smell lovely
Make it taste lovely
Make it clear and
transparent
Make it opaque
Bring it closer
Move it further away
Make it into something
you like, e.g. donuts
Give it a lovely tune
Make it quiet

Which changes allowed you to step out of your comfort zone? Which changes made it more
comfortable?:

Coin toss zone

Write down a belief or value that YOU feel is negative or limiting in your life in a circle in the Tails
column of coins. Then, in the Heads column of coins, flip the idea into a positive idea that benefits
your life.

Self-value zone
Complete each statement about yourself. Be honest, but be gentle. This is meant to be fun and
uplifting, but can also be deeply reflective and emotional.

What I really love about myself is:

Things people love about me:

Things I contribute to people I interact with:

I inspire other people by my:

What I really want to keep is my:

What gives me self-worth is my sense of:

What I value most about myself is: