Career Girls

It’s National Women’s Health Week, and a perfect opportunity to remind ourselves that our physical and mental health should be a priority, despite all our other responsibilities. It’s pretty straightforward to remember to schedule a checkup with your gynecologist, but navigating the maze of mental health can be more daunting.

 

The Alliance for Girls’ 4th Annual Conference featured a workshop that discussed tools you can use to make it easier. Social and Emotional Learning, or SEL, is an important component of academic and life success. SEL Tools can be put into practice beginning in grade school to help both girls and boys thrive, and are useful at any age.

 

You can practice the 5 core competencies of SEL by yourself, or in a small group: 

 

Self-awareness - Recognize your own emotions and thoughts, and connect them to your behavior.

 

Self-management - Regulate your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors according to the situation you’re in. For example, some situations call for controlling your impulses, and others call for motivating yourself. 

 

Social awareness - Relate to and respect the perspectives of people from different backgrounds and cultures. Recognize the various forms of support around you in your family, school and community.

 

Relationship skills - Communicate clearly, listen actively, cooperate with others, resist inappropriate peer pressure, and negotiate conflict constructively. It may seem like a lot to remember, but we do many of these things naturally around those who are close to us. In tandem, these skills are key to maintaining healthy relationships. 

 

Responsible decision making - The previous 4 tools all lead up to this. Your overall well-being and success depend on how realistically you evaluate the consequences of your actions, and how constructive and respectful your social interactions are. It all comes down to the choices you make. 

This is just a basic run through of the SEL Tools, and you can learn much more about how to use them effectively from Elizabeth McLeod, who facilitated the workshop. Elizabeth is an education consultant, and co-founder of the Institute for Social and Emotional Learning. She’s also the co-founder of GirlVentures, an amazing outdoors program that empowers girls transitioning into young adulthood. 

 

Another great source for advice on staying healthy and making the right choices is always at your fingertips. The Career Girls website and YouTube channel is full amazing video content. Here’s a clip from from pediatrician Dawn Thompson - Golden State Warriors’ Klay Thompson’s aunt - on the best possible advice to stay healthy: