I have had an amazing opportunity to join a 6 week course called Mindsets . This program helps me identify my strengths and how to improve on them. This course also helps me gain knowledge in how to help my peers as well as myself with any stress or self-doubt we may be going through. Today in group we spoke about refocusing and what refocusing means is to refocus on a problem for example if you were to only look at the negatives you would have to try and change your perspective and focus on the positive and try to self-motivate as well as encourage yourself as much as you can. We did meditation which focused on our breathing and that helps you to connect to yourself.

We picked our 3 strengths ourselves and the 3 i chose for myself were Perspective, Love and Gratitude. These are my top 3 strengths i still am working on them but they make me who i am and help me gain a more positive outlook on life. This course will benefit me in so many ways and as well with my leadership skills. I am looking forward to what is to come as i have taken home already so much knowledge on how to deal with stress, sadness and anger in a much better way.

What has gone well for me this week is being able to identify my problems and not bottle or push aside the way i am feeling but rather to face it. This course has helped me realise that and i hope i can pass this to others. What has also gone well is that i am now able to meditate in a way where i can calm myself which is a good trait to have when i am stressing about upcoming exams.

Thank you for reading,

Sophonia Kerr-Bell

Weekly reflection

As Term 3 has begun the first week back at school has been a challenge getting back into routine and pushing myself to complete tasks in class. One of my goals for this year is to pass NCEA level 2 with merit endorsement, to ensure this happens i have stayed determined to complete work towards assesments within my subjects. Last term i didn’t try as hard as i know i am capable of and am making up for that now, I have made completion of work my priority to help me reach my goal. A couple things that have gone well for me this week is my concentration in classes.

I have taken Geography this year as one of my subjects. In class we have been given work working towards an external exam coming up in 5 weeks time. I have recently resided back into Papakura High School and the work we have been doing my class has partly studied in Term 1 so i am behind but have been driven to catch up before the external.  I have been trying my best not to get distracted or to be a distraction to others around me. I am easily led off task but as we have the exam coming up i have been aiming to finish my work in the time frames given and understanding all the work provided without any distractions.