the one-hundred and seventieth post

i've been volunteering at this school 45 minutes away, nestled in the mountains, far away from anything "bustling". the school is for kids who have grown up in abusive and dangerous family situations, and instead of living in foster care, they live in "group housing" at the school. they're called cabins, and each one has RCs, resident counselors. these RC's act as families to the children, and from what i could observe, created a wonderful atmosphere to live in.

aaaanyway, all of that to say, there are a lot of behavioral / learning disorders, and since all of the kids are concentrated together in all the areas of their life, sometimes things get crazy. so the staff has developed these really great mechanisms at control.

they make each kid, and likewise each staff member (teachers, RCs, even the principal) aware of his or her "triggers" to anger, sadness, depression, etc. and then they make each kid and staff member develop a "SAFETY PLAN", which is a set of 5 steps to do when the you feel triggers. these steps are things you enjoy personally, that you know will calm you down. they write their safety plan on the back of their nametag, which everyone on the campus has.

and it got me thinkin, i should do that! so, here goes.

triggers:

stress

busy-ness

staying up past midnight

boy situations


safety plan!

take a short minute to intentionally talk to the Lord, not just in-head discourse

take a walk outside

listen to nice music on my iPod

take a quick nap

talk to a friend