Boy Group | Being An Expert | Wk 4

We all have worries. We worry about the future, about the past, about what people will think, what we are doing, how we are feeling. We worry about the world, our families and friends and our relationships. We worry we won’t be up to the task of school, work, life. Worrying is normal.

In Sunday’s session we worked to help the Boys understand that while worried thoughts may persist, we have the power to change our behavior.

Sunday was about how we can deal with anxiety, fears and problems with more confidence and positivity. The Boys had a chance to share about different fears and stresses in their lives and how they try and deal with them. One shared about how hard it has been to have his grandmother be sick, but he wants to be helpful to his mom and to stay positive about it all.

The kids were able to depict a fear that they had: Costco (which came up twice – big and noisy!), dying relatives, school, broken bones to name a few. We encouraged the Boys to draw their worries on clear plastic and then put them into the “Magical Shrinking Machine” (aka the toaster oven.) The Boys were thrilled to watch their worries shrivel and shrink away. We watched Costco contract to a fraction of its original size and broken bones almost disappear. Creating a concrete metaphor is our way of bringing the mind and body together.

We all talked about the different ways that we try and keep our fears from overtaking our emotions and how we can be supportive of one another.

When a worry or an emotion threatens to overtake us, try this:

THINK: How can we re-frame the worry? Can it be a motivator? A question? A call to action?

TALK: Ask a friend, parent or teacher how they managed or re-framed a big worry.

Write: In your notebook, write a list of your worries using the tiniest letters you can write. Write them again, even smaller. Shrink your worries down. Keep them in your notebook where they can’t bother you.

Do: Tighten every muscle in your body. Your arms and legs and neck and face. Tighten. Tighten. Count to five. Release all your muscles. Feel the relief.

Be: As you breathe, imagine your worry is a balloon. With each breath you take, see the air leave the balloon. As your worry shrinks, your body becomes full and comfortable.

As always please feel free to reach out with any questions! We hope to see your Boys in our next workshop Sunday, 5/13 where we'll spend our time on the topic The Places that Scare Us. Details below!

And a quick plug! Got Girls?! Check out the Girl Group Summer Camp promo happening now. Refer a friend who signs up their Girl for summer camp and your BOY gets a FREE fall series. It's a pretty sweet $240 deal! In order to make Girl Group Summer Camp happen we need to enroll Girls by May 11th. Help us spread the word! Registration closes on May 11th!

All my best,

Mike

#boygroup #imanexpert #shrinkingourworries