The "Journey Station" Psychological Counseling Station of the School of Tourism and Wellness (STW) has launched a series of activities before or after the 5•25 (homophony for "I Love Me" in Mandarin Chinese) Chinese Mental Health Day.
On May 24th, having written down their recent anxieties or troubles on a note, those who took part in the activity were supposed to post them on a mind display board, and randomly select an encouragement note from a comfort blind box to exchange for candies.
On May 30th, a special activity called creating mandalas was practiced for centering, meditation, emotional expression, and self-soothing. At the beginning of the activity, Yang Tianyu popularized the origin, meaning, and role of creating mandalas to the participants. “Mandala coloring or free drawing is a therapeutic tool that serves to help a person to achieve anxiety reduction. The shapes and colors you create in your mandala art therapy will reflect your inner self at the time of creation. Your instinct and feeling should inspire and guide you through the process of creation. Ultimately, you will be creating a portrait of yourself as you are when creating the mandala,” said Yang Tianyu. The theory appealed to all of them, who couldn’t wait to draw their mandala flowers. In fact they found the process of drawing and filling in the mandala to be very calming. In adition, the structure of the circle surely served both to provide a sense of containment and to decrease anxiety. Finally, Mr. Yang briefly analyzed their work, and said his comment didn’t count, but that learning to soothe emotions and reconcile with oneself was the true essence of this lesson.
On the afternoon of May 31, many students learned to understand themselves, appreciate themselves, and accept themselves and others in some activities such as "Greedy Snake (The moral is that it is not a sugar-coated bullet that defeats oneself, but one's own growing body, and oneself is the most powerful enemy)" , "Image Sculpture", and "I am a Unique Person".
