Hello, and welcome to your second lesson in the mental wellbeing impact of our actions on mental health, unit.

Today's lesson, will be exploring issues with schoolwork.

Now we will be exploring sensitive topics today and therefore we recommend that you check with a trusted adult before starting this unit or doing the lesson with a trusted adult nearby.

I'm Mr. Clarke, and I'm going to be your teacher for today and talking about your wellbeing is one of the most important topics around so I'm really glad to have you in my lesson today.

Should we get started? To be able to fully participate in today's lesson, you're going to need to have with you either your exercise book or piece of paper and a pen.

So if you haven't got those with you now and you need to go and grab them, go and do so and pause this video and press play when you're back and ready to start.

Now this lesson has already started by you completing your intro quiz.

So the rest of the lesson today will be exploring workload anxiety, particularly with our schoolwork.

We'll be looking at next step anxiety, so thinking about the future and next step planning and anxieties that that can bring.

And finding a balance, how we go about finding a balance amongst all of these stresses and anxieties that were happening as part of our daily lives.

At which point you'll then be ready to take part in the exit quiz and show off everything that you've learned so far during this lesson.

Some key words for us to explore today, and we start with anxieties.

And now anxieties are feelings of worry or nervousness or unease about something with an uncertain outcome.

And we'll break that down more into how that might develop and show itself later on in this lesson.

Stress is also another word that we're going to be looking at, and it can be defined as a reaction caused by a situation, event or being placed under pressure.

So you may find that you develop stress through your anxieties.

What I would like you to do now is to just check in with yourself and see how you're feeling at this very moment.

So your task now is to write a short diary entry on how you are feeling at this moment, right now.

What are you thinking, what's on your mind, and how are you finding your current workload, how you're finding the current situation which you find yourself in? So pause this video, and when you've wrote your short diary entry, press play to resume the lesson.

The first part of this lesson is going to look at struggling with workload and what we might struggle with and how we can overcome that.

Let's look at Inside the thoughts of Joseph.

So Joseph thinks about his future a lot because he wants to be successful and make his parents really proud.

And he believes that his parents will be disappointed in him if he doesn't get a good job.

And so makes sure that he, not only finishes his homework, but also completes additional tasks.

Now because of all this pressure that he's pushing onto himself and of this workload, Joseph is finding that he staying up late during the weekdays to complete his work, you know, at the weekends he's spending his whole time inside studying which, subsequently, means that he's finding himself not being invited out by friends who are now switching off because they know he won't come.

How do you think then our workloads anxieties can take over? And let's look at this example of Joseph.

How do you think his workload anxieties can take over? Well, first of all, Joseph feels like he's got to get a full mark in this test and he keeps getting 90% and that's not good enough so that's adding to his workload anxiety and stress because he's worried about his future, we know what he wants to achieve.

Then on top of that, he's having to get more work done if he's going to be the best, because he's concerned that he, he feels that he isn't the best.

He feels that he's not doing enough so he's adding that pressure and stress onto himself.

On top of that, if he goes hangs out with his friends then he won't have time to study and we know that he's really anxious about his future and making sure that his work is all done and he can achieve the best grades possible in his work.

But this is building up still because what about if he disappoints his parents? So he wants to make sure that his workload is completed and everything's happening.

And then he's thinking, "Actually, what job do I really want? And how do I become successful in my future?" And then suddenly Joseph is completely consumed and taken over by his anxieties and this pressure he now feels because of all this workload that he's adding.

So what can we do to support Joseph? Your task now is to think about what we've just shown and what we've looked at, and write down your three top tips on what Joseph could do to help him manage his workload and calm those anxieties that he feels.

Think about who he could speak to as a clue.

So pause this video now and when you finished with your top three tips, press play again.

I'm going to help you by sharing my top three tips.

Now if these top tips are different to the ones that you had, then write them down as well so that you've got some extra tips should you ever find yourself or perhaps a friend in a similar situation to how Joseph feels currently.

Tip number one.

I said that he could make himself a schedule.

We looked at that in lesson one, making sure that he puts in time to socialise, go outdoors for his own wellbeing.

We've mentioned before how important it is to get fresh air, to go for a walk, a jog, some form of daily exercise 'cause that can really improve your endorphins in your brain, which we'll explore at a later lesson, and really help you feel more positive about the outlook of how you might be feeling in that moment.

He can speak to his parents, his teachers, his friends, a trusted adult, and tell them how he's feeling.

It's really important that we don't keep things inside to build up because suddenly, like Joseph, everything comes to the top and you can't take any more and it's got nothing else to go to.

It's all boiled up inside.

So it's really important that we allow ourselves to talk to somebody else and let our feelings out so that it doesn't fully consume us, like we saw it is with Joseph and his anxieties for workload.

The third one I said as well is, try setting yourselves something called S.

M.

A.

R.

T targets.

Now this is nothing to do with any form of intelligence or anything like that.

A S.

M.

A.

R.

T is an acronym.

And what it stands for is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time bound.

So it's about setting targets that are about a particular thing, specific about a particular thing.

They are measurable, so they might, you know, you want to achieve a certain amount of points or you want to achieve a certain percent or whatever it might be, it's measurable, it's something you can physically see and check.

It's attainable, so it's achievable and realistic.

It's not something that you're not going to be able to achieve because that's not setting yourself a S.

M.

A.

R.

T target or a goal, yeah? It's got to be something that you know you can achieve and then you can set yourself the next target to achieve even higher or whatever it might be.

And it has to be time bound.

It might be in a month, it might be at the end of a term, whenever it might be.

It can't be something that goes on and on and on, it's got to be something that has a time limit which you then reach.

And then actually you go, "Do you know what? I achieved that, great.

I set myself the next target." Or, "I didn't, so I need to look at what that target was and see if I need to change it to make sure that it's realistic and attainable." So I would like you now to pause this video in a moment.

And I would like to look back at your diary entry that you wrote at the start of this lesson.

Can you think of any S.

M.

A.

R.

T targets that might help you overcome any anxieties or worries that you put? For example, you might have said that you were feeling a little bit overwhelmed by the current workload.

So you might try to give yourself time to relax by going outside.

So my S.

M.

A.

R.

T target would be to make sure I spend 30 minutes a day going for a walk outside.

So reflect on what you've put and think about what S.

M.

A.

R.

T target do you need to set yourself? The next part of this session links very nicely to what we've just looked at in terms workload because we know part of Joseph's anxieties were not just about the workload that he was adding to himself, but also the worry about his next steps.

And that's a real anxiety that plays with people.

You know, how are they going to feel about where their future is or what their future is? Some people have an idea and some don't.

So this next part of the lesson is going to look at those next step anxieties and how we can help to combat those so that they don't consume us.

Let's look at Joseph's future.

Joseph thinks about his future a lot.

So his teacher suggested this to him that he should make a plan of where he wants to be in the next three, five and 10 years as a starting block.

So he's come up with the following ideas to help him plan where he's going to be.

In three years time, he knows that he's going to finish his GCSEs and he wants to take A Level Law, English and Drama.

In five years time, Joseph has decided he would like to finish his A Levels and he'll be, hopefully, studying in law at uni, maybe in London, so he's given himself a rough air of where he wants to be and something he wants to achieve.

In 10 years time, Joseph has said that he wants to have finished his uni degree and not be living at home anymore.

That's what he wants to achieve.

So by fearing about the future and having no idea at perhaps the start of this, just by those few points, he now has an idea of actually what he's going to achieve, time bound, in the next three, five and 10 years, which helps him to map out where he's going to be and what he wants to do, which is helping massively relieve some of those anxieties and stress he was feeling at the start of that session.

Therefore, your task now is to use the same format that we've just seen used by Joseph and write down what you hope that you're going to achieve or be doing in the next three, five and 10 years.

And I challenge you now to try and get at least three things under each subheading, so for each, a year gap, you're going to have at least three things.

Use Joseph's example to help you if you feel stuck at any point.

Welcome to the final section of this lesson, which is looking at finding balance, making sure that we're taking on board not just our future and not just our schoolwork, but also our own mental health and our own wellbeing.

Here's Joseph, we've learned a lot about him over this lesson and we've helped him out a lot.

Joseph's mindset at the start was perhaps maybe something a little bit like this.

His schoolwork and his success is up here and his mental health was down here.

What do you think is the problem with this image? Why do you think there might be a problem with Joseph putting his schoolwork and all this energy there, but not focusing on his mental health? Jot down a couple of reasons now.

And when you've got those reasons, press play again.

Have you got some ideas? Fantastic.

We know for a fact that mental health is really important and to look after yourself is really important.

Joseph won't be able to achieve his dreams or his successes if he doesn't look after his own wellbeing and mental health, because he won't have the strength or ability, necessarily, to achieve those goals.

So therefore your second part of this task is to pause the video and think about, "Okay, well how can Joseph help to get a balance? What steps can he make?" Perhaps as well, if you're stuck, think back to some of the examples we've already looked at.

So pause the video now and write down two to three ideas about how Joseph could find ways to balance out so that mental health and his schoolwork and energies are at the same level.

Welcome back, great.

So let's have a look now at some of the ways in which he could help to find that balance.

Firstly, as we looked at in lesson one, creating himself a daily and/or weekly timetable and making sure he is setting himself set times to have a walk, to go outside, to make time for his own wellbeing and mental health, because it's so important.

Next one would be to talk to those around him about his thoughts and his feelings.

Remember, you are never alone, although it might feel like it when you're in a situation where things around you feel really overwhelming and you can't find the way out, there is always somebody that you can speak to.

Next, is to give himself time and space away.

Sometimes we can become so focused on something that we need a moment to just step back and think, "Actually, what's this for, why am I doing this?" Sometimes we do things without realising.

So giving himself time to step back, reflect and think about what he wants.

And write his thoughts down and track them, you know, see if there's a pattern.

Is it when he's doing a particular subject or a particular time in a day? Or whatever it might be 'cause that might help him to work out actually when is the best time for him to be revising, and when does he need to step back? Because he may find that at a certain time each day, he's not able to focus.

What other ideas did you have, or did you have some of the same as me? Joseph has now found loads of new techniques to try and he knows what he wants to do, and he feels happy with that.

But moving away from Joseph now, what techniques are you going to try? Pause this video now and think about what we've just spoken about and the options you put down as ways to find a balance and think about what techniques might work for you.

Try and pick at least maybe two techniques that you now are going to go and try for the next week or so.

And when you're ready, press play again.

Just like Joseph, it's really important to make sure that we are making our mental health balanced with our workload and schoolwork success.

It's really important that we find that balance.

And there are lots of techniques that we've explored that can help you do that.

It might be that one technique doesn't work for you but that's why, hopefully now, you've picked two techniques that you're going to go away and try and see which one works for you.

And if neither of them do, then that's fine.

You can always come back to this lesson and think about, "Actually, what other techniques have I learned that I could try?" Well done for an amazing lesson, you've worked really hard today.

Hopefully, you are keeping all your work together so that you've got all of these amazing ideas that we've come up with together, ready in a book for any time that you may need them or those around you might need some support.

Most importantly to remember is that there is always a way to let out your feelings in a positive and healthy way.

Writing them down, sharing them with others, or perhaps doing something creative with them like writing them into a song or a poem or drawing them into a piece of art.

It's about finding what works for you to help you relieve those anxieties and stress.

I really look forward to seeing you again for lesson three as we further carry on our learning with our mental health and wellbeing and the impacts that our choices can make on that.

Till then, see you later.