Westwood Students Take Time to 'Chill Out'

Students of Westwood High School had the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of relaxation methods, stress reducing techniques, and overall health awareness during their lunch block on Monday.

During a "Winter Chill Out" program, administrators at Westwood High School hosted a variety of stations that allowed students to engage in a variety of exercises and games.

School Nurse Karen Poreda and School Psychologist Jessica Cataldo were the coordinators of the program.

"We wanted to have a program that could expose all students to stress management and relaxation techniques," Cataldo said. "It was important that the workshop was not only informative, but fun as well."

Judith Wine, director of K-12 wellness, was in charge of the exercise station.

“The idea here is that it doesn’t take a lot to exercise,” said Wine as she picked up a small digital device. “Strap on this little pedometer and wear it for the day, and see how many miles you walk. It’s as easy as can be, and it’s a great motivator for kids.”

Jessie Conyngham, who promotes appreciating generous actions performed by others, ran a "gratitude station," where students were given thank-you cards. The purpose of the station, Conyngham said, was to remind students that if they’re feeling like they may be in a rut, it’s good to take some time to think about everything they have to be thankful for.

“It helps to take the focus off of yourself for a little bit,” said Conyngham.
Tracy Gabriel, youth counselor for Westwood Youth and Family Services, ran a station involving relaxation collages.

“You can create an individualized collage of images that are relaxing and make you feel calm, and then when you are having a time when you’re feeling stressed out, it’s something that you can look at, reflect on, and eventually start feeling a little bit more relaxed,” said Gabriel, who had a pile of magazines, scissors, and glue to create the collages.

Another station was run by Jackie Crawford and Gene Sharry. Crawford has been the senior greeter at Westwood High School for five years, while Sharry is a librarian at the school. Their station promoted knitting as a relaxing technique, and had some skillfully crafted examples for the students to view.

Caraline Ogonowsai was in charge of the bubble station, where students could blow their troubles away.

“Relax your body and picture something that is a concern or a worry in your life, then you gently blow the bubbles out, and as the bubbles are floating, you picture them as your worries floating away," Ogonowsai told the group. "Then when they pop, they’re outside of your body where they can’t bother you anymore, and you keep doing that until you’re relaxed.”

Certified Laughter Yoga teachers Bill and Linda Hamaker were in charge of a group engaging in laughter yoga. The exercise is done in various techniques, such as talking gibberish or walking around and making eye contact while laughing hysterically with each other.

“You just have to laugh your way through life,” said Linda Hamaker. “If you are arguing with someone, and you start doing gibberish, you aren’t arguing anymore. It clears your mind. My husband has a very technical job in software during the day, and gibberish helps him think and get creative.”

There were also mats set up for students to practice traditional yoga. Guidance Counselor Maryanne Bowe helped run this station.

“The idea here is to try to reach more kids," Bowe said. "We used to have a workshop that the kids could sign up for at lunch time, but the kids who were really stressed were not necessarily signing up, because even though it was okay with the teachers, they didn’t want to miss class. So, we’re trying to bring it to them, and not only bring it to them, but reach some other people that didn’t know about it.

Paul Houston, a teacher of the Flex Program at Westwood High School, was in charge of an animal therapy station alongside Otis, the Therapy Dog.

“There’s all sorts of studies out there that having a dog and petting a dog can relieve stress,” said Houston. Students gave the cheerful Otis heartfelt pats on the head as they passed.

Whitney Goodwin and Colleen Wheaton are guidance counselors at Westwood High School, and ran the Positive Affirmation and Progressive Muscle Relaxation Station. For positive affirmation, they encouraged students to think good thoughts about themselves, and to write them down. much like giving yourself a good pat on the back. Positive Affirmation helps boost confidence, a powerful tool in everyday life.

“It starts the day off on the right foot,” said Goodwin.

Said Wheaton, “Progressive Muscle Relaxation is a technique that you can physically reduce tension in your body. These are two things that you can do more on the quicker side of things to help reduce stress."

“You don’t need a lot of materials or time. It’s good before you go to bed, or before you take a test,” Goodwin added.

Chris Frangieh and Matt Masi-Phelps ran the music station.

“We’re part of the Music Honors Society, it’s our first year at the high shcool," said Masi-Phelps. "We compiled a list of songs we like to chill out to."

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