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By Margaret R. McLean

Students at Spencerville High School take part in a Mental Health Activity Day | News




Students at Spencerville High School take part in a Mental Health Activity Day

SPENCERVILLE, OH (WLIO) – As students approach the end of another school year, Spencerville High Schoolers had the chance to put away their notebooks and just have some fun. Our Nathan Kitchens reports.




Students at Spencerville High School take part in a Mental Health Activity Day

“In high school, it’s hard. You struggle with a lot of things. You’re trying to figure out your life, and is just really hard mentally on you,” stated Emma Core, a student at Spencerville High School.




Students at Spencerville High School take part in a Mental Health Activity Day

Spencerville High School is bringing awareness to the mental health challenges any high schooler can face with a mental health activity day. Students had a chance to release that stress with fun activities from bounce houses to sidewalk chalk and even boxing. Wrapping up a busy school year, a break from the hustle and bustle is just what the students needed.




Students at Spencerville High School take part in a Mental Health Activity Day

“After having our state test, I think we’ve all kind of needed a moment to relax and kick back. Boxing has been really fun. We’ve done some painting, a lot of artwork, which has really helped our mental well-being I think,” explained Henry Lee, a student at Spencerville High School.

Overcomer Boxing Studio opened their doors and taught the students basic boxing combinations. The students had permission to have at it with a punching bag, and they appreciate the chance to release that tension inside.

“It’s exciting to have a class like this that’s usually so, oh, you don’t want to be aggressive, we get a chance to let that aggression out and let our minds be a little bit more free than a school setting,” added Lee.

“I feel like they come in, they are kind of wound up. By the time they leave, they are a little bit wound down, they’re a little more stress-free. That’s what I really love to see, that’s kind of why

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By Margaret R. McLean

Exercises for Preakness celebrating | 11 Fitness

11 Fitness: Exercises with a Preakness theme



IT’S TIME FOR 11 FITNESS AND TEDDY SAVAGE FROM PLANET FITNESS IS JOINING US. YOU HAVE YOUR PREAKNESS OUTFIT ON FOR TODAY BECAUSE YOU CAN EVEN DRESS NICE AND WORKOUT AT THE SAME TIME. ABSOLUTELY. AND YOU KNOW, IT STARTS WITH THE HAT. YOU ABSOLUTELY HAD TO GIVE HIM THE NICE BRIM HAT WITH THE FEATHER. BUT LIKE YOU SAID, PREAKNESS IS HERE EVERY BODY IS EXCITED AND GOING TO BE FUN. BUT YOU GOT TO MOVE YOUR BODY IN A DYNAMIC WAY BEFORE THE RACE IS GOING TO BE SOME CELEBRATION. SO WE GOT TO MAKE SURE WE COULD DO THAT SAFELY. A LOT OF CALORIES BEING EXPENDED TODAY AND A LOT OF CALORIES BEING CONSUMED TODAY. SO I’M GOING TO GIVE YOU THE STAGE. YOU TAKE IT AWAY AND GIVE US YOUR LITTLE WORKOUT THERE. WHAT DO WE GOT SO EVERY EXERCISE IS GOING TO HAVE A PREAKNESS THEMED TITLE TO IT. THE FIRST ONE IS BLACK-EYED SUSANS. ALL RIGHT, BEN AND REACHES. SO YOU’RE GOING TO STAND WITH YOUR FEET ABOUT LESS THAN HIP WIDTH APART. RAISE THOSE HANDS UP LIKE YOU’RE CELEBRATING, AND THEN YOU’RE GOING TO CASCADE DOWN TO THOSE TOES. SO YOU’RE BENDING AND YOU’RE REACHING AND YOU’RE STRETCHING AND YOU’RE RELEASING ENDORPHINS FROM YOUR BRAIN. THEN IT JUST MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD, RIGHT? NICE. YES. SMILING. AND THAT ELECTRICITY INSIDE IS STARTING TO THRIVE. RIGHT. SO THE NEXT ONE IS SUPERFECTA SIDE LUNGE TO REVERSE. LUNGE. NOW THAT SUPERFECTA IS, YOU GOT TO CHOOSE FOUR WINNERS AND CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER. SO THIS ONE IS GOING TO BE A LITTLE BIT TOUGHER. YOU WANT TO STAND WITH YOUR FEET ABOUT HIP WIDTH APART. STRIDE OUT TO THE

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By Margaret R. McLean

‘Should be part of everyone’s education’: WHS Student-Run Club Brings Body Positivity Message to Middle Schoolers

The Wilton High School student-run club Reshaping Reality aims to tackle body
positivity and self-love. Next week they hope to bring that message to younger students who may be more vulnerable to self-image issues through “Middle Schoolers in the Mirror,” an interactive program held at the Wilton Library.

The program, which will have sessions on two consecutive Tuesdays (May 23 and May 30), focuses on educating middle school students about the challenges and warning signs of eating disorders, as well as how to maintain a healthy body image.

The students of Reshaping Reality decided to center their efforts around middle schoolers after noticing the impact self-image had on their own experiences.

“We chose to do this with the middle schoolers because as high school students, we
know in middle school we faced these issues with social pressure and self-esteem
problems,” Jolene Massad, current WHS junior and co-president of Reshaping
Reality, said. “We saw a lot of our friends struggle through eating disorders and other damaging health behaviors — we wanted to help them know these warning signs, but also help them help themselves.”

Massad and the other students in Reshaping Reality will lead program at the library with eating disorder coach Oriana Laflamme using activities, discussions, videos and body image exercises to support their message. Most activities are planned around navigating online presence and distinguishing the ‘fake’ from the ‘real’ as middle schoolers start using social media.

They chose to cap each session at 20 students to offer more one-on-one, personal support for participants. Both workshops will be held from 3:30-5 p.m., and require registration beforehand.

At the end of her freshman year, Massad was approached by a friend from Staples High School in Westport about a club called Reshaping Reality; in her sophomore

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By Margaret R. McLean

10 Mental Health Awareness Month Activities

In the weeks after my daughter returned home from an inpatient mental health treatment early this year, she and I spent a lot of time by the stream that curls through my apartment complex. There, she began to rediscover some of the simple joys she once loved as a curious, carefree child. We turned over rocks in a stream to see the life in miniature living beneath, pulled up some wild onion grasses, and took samples of everything back home to look at under a microscope.

There was something essential in these mental health awareness activities, in the science, the learning, the wonder, and in the grounding of her and me together. There was something profoundly human about reveling in the everyday parts of nature that we come to overlook when our lives get too complicated and hurried. Here are other May mental health awareness month activities you can try with your kids, or alone, as needed throughout this month and beyond.

Walk in the Sunshine

With healing properties (killing bacteria, reducing high blood pressure) and vitamin D, sunshine gives us so much, often in as little as 10 minutes a day. But putting aside the quantifiable results of time spent beneath the sun for a moment, simply walking outside in nature as it is being woken up in the spring, as it grows strong again, and as it radiates in the sun’s glow can transfer all of those effects to us! One of the simplest but most beneficial of the many mental health awareness month activities you can do anytime…providing the clouds part overhead…is taking a walk in the sunshine.

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Journaling

People often find it difficult to articulate their feelings and emotions verbally. This is true of adults, but especially so in the case of kids who are struggling

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