Welcome to “From Stressed out to Chilled out”. The aim of this resource is to help educators create teachable moments to introduce stress- management strategies and skills and build emotional resiliency in their students and themselves. This resource is intended for adults who work with youth who are in grades 7 to 9, in classrooms and other educational and recreational settings. There are accompanying resources for students, as well as family members and other caregivers. 

The goals of the program are to: 

• Provide educators with a psychologically sound Canadian learning resource that’s relevant to a range of curriculum requirements.
• Provide students with opportunities and specific skills that will foster their social and emotional competence, resilience and well-being.
• Help educators and recreational staff create emotionally healthy learning environments by promoting self-awareness, empathy and mindfulness.

 Background to the program

Created in response to demand from Canadian teachers and other education professionals, this program has been developed in collaboration with a range of experts including educators, counsellors, stress experts and psychologists. The program takes a primary prevention approach, so that it is equally relevant to all students, and teaches valuable self awareness and stress management strategies that will serve young people well as they prepare to go on to high school, and throughout their lives.
The program:
• Is engaging, fun and student-centred
• Is grounded in evidence and current research about the teen brain
• Uses an inquiry project-based approach to help young people develop stress-
management skills
• Helps students understand what are “normal” stress levels and when to seek help
• Reflects the increasingly important role that self-regulation is playing in educational 
settings. Builds on existing curriculum and fits well with the 21st century, making it easy
for teachers to incorporate
• Addresses a range of learning styles
• Can help you learn skills to deal effectively with your own stress.

Research base

It is now well established that social and emotional skills, such as the ability to manage our emotions and interact well with others, play a significant role in academic achievement and overall success.  This program is grounded in research demonstrating the effectiveness of school-based stress reduction and social-emotional learning programs. Since childhood stress is a precursor for adulthood stress and stressful life events have been shown to be related to reduced academic performance, it is important that students are taught effective strategies for stress reduction. Research indicates that stress reduction programs in schools lead to improvements in academic performance, self-esteem, mood, concentration and behavioural problems.