We teach girls how to increase their self-efficacy through our Six Cs (Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Communication, Coping Skills, Creativity, Confidence). Self-efficacy is a girl’s belief in her ability to succeed. Our Flip The Lid activity helps girls build coping skills by explaining how our brains operate under stress in a girl-friendly way. Coping Skills is where girls can practice self regulation and mental health awareness.
Coping skills are tools that help us manage our thoughts and feelings. When we are stressed or overwhelmed, our brain has a natural response that can cause us to make poor decisions. It is important for us to understand how our brain works when under stress, that way we can not only see the importance of having coping skills, but the importance of implementing our coping skills.
Now let’s imagine that your hand is your brain!
1. First, raise your hand, as you are able. Now fold your thumb in towards your palm. This represents the limbic part of your brain, or your “downstairs” brain. This is the emotional part of the brain! It is the part of the brain that controls your “fight or flight” instincts.
2. Now fold your fingers over your thumb to make a fist. Your fingers represent the cortex part of your brain, or your “upstairs” brain. This is the thinking part of the brain! This part of your brain helps you make decisions and problem solve. Sometimes, when we get really stressed or anxious, we can actually “flip the lid”!
3. Unfold your top fingers to expose your thumb. That’s what happens! Our thinking part of the brain is out of the picture and we are left with only the emotional part of the brain. It is extremely difficult to make good decisions when you aren’t using your upstairs, thinking brain. When we are controlled by our downstairs brain, we can accidentally say or do something we don’t really mean.