SESSION 8, ACTIVITY 5: CHALLENGE YOUR THINKING TO MANAGE YOUR STRESS
Refer to page 235 in your Facilitators Binder
Sample Script
Because stress is one of the top reasons for slips and relapse, let me cover one more strategy to help you manage stress. This involves managing your “internal” communication, or how you think about any given situation. Turn to the handout “Challenge Your Thinking to Manage Your Stress.”
First, you’ll see a list of “self-coaching” questions. By asking yourself these questions, you become your own coach. You can help yourself to stand back and gain perspective on the situation. By doing this, you can neutralize the stress of a situation.
Go down the list and choose the three questions that would be the most useful to you in challenging your thinking.
Ask for volunteers to share the questions that they selected as most useful.
Another way to confront and alter your “stressful thinking” is to stop and substitute a “positive self-statement” for any negative statement.
Look through the list of positive self-statements and again, choose the three or so that you would find most useful.
You might find it helpful to write your favorite positive self-statements and/or your favorite self-coaching questions on a 3x5 card that you can carry with you and quickly review when you find yourself in a stressful situation.
Ask participants if they want to share any of the self-statements they chose.
Turn to page 237 in your Facilitators Binder for the next activity
SESSION 8, ACTIVITY 7: CLEAN AIR FOR EVERYONE
Refer to page 239 in your Facilitators Binder
Sample Script
About 80% of adults in the U.S. are nonsmokers. And with people quitting like you, that number is growing. Now you may start to become more aware of clean air. You may even be disturbed when tobacco smoke pollutes the air you breathe.
The American Lung Association has been active in championing clean air for everyone. Everyone deserves to breathe clean air in restaurants and other public spaces. We encourage you to become informed about the dangers of secondhand smoke and work to prevent it. No smoking policies benefit everyone.
Refer group to “Facts About Secondhand Smoke” handout. (page 85 in the Participants Workbook)
This handout tells you what effect other people’s smoke has on the nonsmoker. Let me summarize some of the facts about secondhand smoke.
When you are around secondhand smoke, you are exposed to both smoke that a smoker exhales and smoke from the burning end of the cigarette.
Secondhand tobacco smoke is harmful to everyone but it’s especially dangerous for heart patients, people with asthma or breathing difficulties, and people with many different allergies. Secondhand smoke is also very harmful to children. Children of people who smoke have twice as many respiratory problems. Infants of people who smoke are admitted to the hospital for bronchitis and pneumonia more often than infants of nonsmokers.
Studies suggest that spouses of individuals who smoke are diagnosed with lung cancer and lung disease more frequently than spouses of nonsmokers.
If you’d like to become more ‘environmentally active,’ consider making a donation to or volunteering with a proven champion in clean air policies – yourlocal American Lung Association!
Turn to page 241 in your Facilitators Binder for the next activity.