1. Kick Off
How does the way you express emotions reflect your mental health?

2. Chapter 3: Achieving Mental and Emotional Health

3. ACHIEVING MENTAL & EMOTIONAL HEALTH

4. Lesson 1: Developing Your Self-Esteem
Mental & Emotional Health: The ability to accept yourself and others, express and manage emotions, and deal with the demands and challenges you meet in your life.
The Importance of Mental & Emotional Health:
Mentally healthy people are, in general, happy and enjoy their lives
They are confident and comfortable spending time alone or with others
They are flexible and can cope with a wide variety of feelings and situations

5. Characteristics of Good Mental/Emotional Health:
Sense of Belonging - feeling close to family, friends, teachers, and others that provide support.
Sense of Purpose - recognizing you have value.
Positive Outlook - seeing the bright side of life.
Self-sufficiency - having confidence to make responsible and safe decisions promotes self-assurance and a sense of independence.
Healthy self-esteem - helps you accept and recover from difficulties and failures

6. Signs of Good Mental/Emotional Health
Realistic about strengths and weaknesses.
Responsible for personal behavior.
Avoid risk behaviors.
Open-minded and flexible.
Fun-loving and relaxed.
Respect needs and the needs of others.
Respect peoples values.
Develop positive relationships.
Express emotions in positive ways.
Put talents and abilities to good use.
View change as a challenge.

7. Self-esteem: how much you value, respect, and feel confident about yourself
Having good self-esteem will also affect your overall attitude and the health choices you make.
Trying new challenges can raise your sense of competence: having enough skills to do something
Benefits: helps you feel proud of yourself and your abilities, skills, and accomplishments.

8. Developing Self-Awareness
Understanding you needs and meeting them in healthy ways will help you reach your highest potential
Abraham Maslow created a theory that explains human development and motivation called Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – a ranked list of those needs essential to human growth and development, presented in ascending order, starting with basic needs and building toward the need to reach your highest potential

9. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

10. Lesson 2: Developing Personal Identity & Character
Personal Identity is your sense of yourself as a unique individual. Your personal identity describes who you are and is one of the most important tasks you will accomplish during your teen years.

11. Your Personal Identity
How identity forms:
Recognize your likes & dislikes
Your talents and abilities
Your values and beliefs
Your goals
Relationships and experiences with family and friends
Role models: Someone whose success or behavior serves as an example for you
One part of your identity is your personality – a complex set of characteristics that makes you unique.

12. Importance of Good Character
Character plays a significant role in your decisions, actions, and behavior.

13. Traits of Good Character
Trustworthiness
Respect
Resposibility
Fairness
Caring
Citizenship

14. Working Toward a Healthy Identity
Recognize your strengths and weaknesses
Demonstrate positive values
Develop a purpose in your life
Form meaningful relationships
(Constructive Criticism: non-hostile comments that point out problems and encourage improvement)
Contributing to the community
Avoid unhealthful risk behaviors

15. Lesson 3: Expressing Emotions in Healthful Ways
Recognizing and acknowledging your emotions is a sign of good mental and emotional health.
Emotions are signals that tell your mind and body how to react.
~ Sometimes referred to as feelings, they are our responses to certain thoughts and events.
Hormones: chemicals produced by your glands that regulate the activities of different body cells.
Can make you feel as your emotions are swinging from one extreme to another.

16. Expressing Emotions in Healthful Ways
Recognizing and acknowledging your emotions is a sign of good mental and emotional health.
In 2006, over 720,000 people ages were treated in emergency rooms because of a violent act.
29% of teens reported feeling sad or hopeless that they stopped
doing some usual activities.

17. Identifying Your Emotions
Happiness
Sadness
Love
Empathy
Fear
Guilt
Anger

18. Managing Your Emotions
Empathy: the ability to imagine and understand how someone else feels
Strategies for dealing with emotions in a positive way, ask yourself:
Why do I feel the way I do about this event?
Will the situation matter tomorrow, next week, or next year or later in my life?
Why should I wait before responding?
What can I do to feel better?
Who can I ask to help me deal with my negative feelings? Seek help if negative feelings don’t go away.

19. Responding to Difficult Emotions
Some people choose to manage difficult emotions by avoiding situations that make the uncomfortable. Defense Mechanisms: mental processes that protect individuals from strong or stressful emotions and situations. ~ May be used unconsciously as a way to protect yourself from intense emotional pain.

20. Responding to Difficult Emotions
Handling Fear: recognize fear and figure out what is causing it
Dealing with Guilt: Look at circumstances realistically and honestly – some situations are out of your control.
Managing Anger: Figure out what is causing anger. Calm down, deep breathing, or remove yourself from situation
Do something to relax
Channel your energy to a different direction
Talk with someone you trust

21. Self-Esteem and Positive Outlook
When you have a healthy identity, you will experience increase self-esteem and a higher level of mental/emotional health 

22. Demonstrating Character