Implementation

IMPLEMENTATION

SICALS - Self Improvement and Coaching as a Life Skill took place in Pissouri Village in Cyprus from 22 to 31 of October 2021 and was implemented by ACPELIA organisation. The project manager was Nicolas Nikolaou and the trainers were Maria Fylaktou,Erma Georgiou and Albino Perreira. The implemented activities were the following:

23 October 2021

-GETTING TO KNOW EACH OTHER:

Activity to break the ice between the participants and get to know each other. We were walking in the room with a paper with our name and a circle (face). As we were walking with our papers each time and when the trainer said "stop", it was simultaneously suggested to draw each time a specific feature of the face of the participant whose name is on the paper, for example the eyebrows, eyes, lips. We continued until we had drawn the whole face. In this way, we had a portrait of each participant which had been drawn by various other participants. Afterwards, we put them up on the wall with an envelope underneath which was used to place some "presents'' and nice words to each person.

-PRESENTATION OF PROJECT,AIMS,GOALS & YOUTHPASS:

We did a presentation of the program and we talked about the project, its aims, the methods that will be used: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Coaching Methods, Art Therapy and how the next days would go on. We also created our rules together. Lastly the participants were asked to write down their expectations, fears and contributions regarding the project.

-TAKE A STEP FORWARD ACTIVITY:

Our trainer Nikolas, gave the participants scenarios that described specific physical or social characteristics. Each time, the participants were asked to take one step forward, when they were socially advantaged according to the character they were given. During the debriefing and evaluation,participants worked in groups and created posters that was related to social inequalities and discrimination in life and they did a presentation about it.

24 October 2021

-MEDITATION AND JOURNALING:

The participants started every day of their training with meditation, journaling and an energizer in order to prepare our body but mind as well for the day and learning valuable tools that help to increase the sense of well being and track progress and growth to their life.Meditation can give a sense of calm, peace and balance that can benefit both your emotional well-being and your overall health. And these benefits don't end when the meditation session ends. Meditation can help to carry more calmly through the day and may help us manage symptoms of certain medical conditions.Journaling can help to control our symptoms and improve our mood by helping us to prioritize problems,fears,and concerns.Tracking any symptoms day-to-day helps to recognize triggers and learn ways to better control them.Journaling evokes mindfulness and provides a greater sense of confidence and self identity.

-KNOWLEDGE OF SELF - STRENGTHS AND FLAWS:

Then followed an activity that consisted of scanning various areas of the body and how these are interrelated to illnesses and their characters/emotional reactions. The participants had to create 7 boxes each representing their root, their reproductive system, their stomach, their heart, their throat, their intuition and their connection to something bigger than them. In each box they had to scribble down or draw anything that represented them according to the suggestions that were given to them.

-WHEEL OF LIFE:

After knowing themselves better with the above exercise, the participants were given handouts of the wheel of life - a famous coaching tool.The Wheel of Life is an extremely popular visual tool or worksheet used in coaching to help clients quickly understand how balanced or fulfilled their life is in this moment.The wheel usually consists of 8-10 categories or areas considered important for a whole or balanced life. Clients will rate their level of satisfaction with each area, then map this onto an image of a wheel. And this gives them an immediate overview of their current "life balance".Crucially, the life wheel allows clients to see right away which areas of their life might need improvement.The life wheel technique gives clients a helicopter view of how satisfied they are with their life in key predefined categories such as health, finances and relationships.It's a valuable tool in coaching because it's a tangible tool that the participants can use in their life as a diagnostic tool for sources of stress or dissatisfaction.When they feel unhappy,frustrated,or down,the Wheel of Life scores make a great point for discovering what might be bothering them.

-GOAL SETTING:

The participants were given a coaching questionnaire and several other suggestions. They were asked to use the self knowledge obtained during the previous exercise and set their goals for each area of their life as represented in the wheel of life. They were asked to imagine how their ideal life would be and take the first step towards creating it.

-LEGO ACTIVITY:

Our trainer Albino, divided the participants in several teams and asked them to assign roles. Each team needed to have one messenger and two builders. The builders had to see a lego creation and give verbal instructions to the messenger who would transfer them to someone else who was supposed to build the same lego construction the builders had. When we finished, we put all the elements in a large circle with the elements of each group together and on the floor in front of them the construction obtained by the group and after we placed the original construction next to each construction. And from this point, we verified which of these constructions was more similar to the original one and started a debate about misunderstandings and what could have been done differently for a better transmission of the message. The groups that had the most similar construction,they should explain their technique.

Through this activity we can understand that the steps to convey a message effectively is always to be clear,to be objective,didactic and friendly and it engages empathy,collaboration,team spirit,organization or planning skills,creative thinking,working under pressure,leadership etc.

25 October 2021

-Morning Habits:

Many times in the training we mention how powerful it is to have or to create some morning habits, that can help us to start a new day with a positive mindset.So,In the days we had,we tried to establish some of them like meditation,breathing and journaling.Our topic for this day was how important is to be grateful for what we already have and we asked the participants to write down things that are grateful in their lives and also we talked about the power of positive affirmations.(Positive affirmations are statements that can help brighten your outlook on the world when you say them to yourself regularly or write them down in a journal. While affirmations are no substitute for professional help such as therapy when you're experiencing anxiety or depression, those who swear by the power of uplifting language do find that it increases their self-esteem and improves their mindset).We gave to the participants a card of Louise Hay with a positive affirmation on it and we asked them to read that affirmation and they feel that it express them to take some moments and to write something that they feel about that quote or they could choose another card.

-SMART GOALS:

Setting SMART goals means you can clarify your ideas, focus your efforts, use your time and resources productively, and increase your chances of achieving what you want in life.SMART is an acronym that you can use to guide your goal setting.

To make sure our goals are clear and reachable, each one should be:

• Specific (simple, sensible, significant).

• Measurable (meaningful, motivating).

• Achievable (agreed, attainable).

• Relevant (reasonable, realistic and resourced, results-based).

• Time bound (time-based, time limited, time/cost limited, timely, time-sensitive).

1.Specific

Our goal has to be clear and specific,otherwise they won't be able to focus their efforts or feel truly motivated to achieve it.

2.Measurable

It's important to have measurable goals, so that we can track our progress and stay motivated. Assessing progress helps us to stay focused, meet our deadlines, and feel the excitement of getting closer to achieving our goal.

3. Achievable

Our goal also needs to be realistic and attainable to be successful. In other words, it should stretch our abilities but still remain possible. When we set an achievable goal, you may be able to identify previously overlooked opportunities or resources that can bring us closer to it.

4. Relevant

This step is about ensuring that our goal matters to us, and that it also aligns with other relevant goals. We all need support and assistance in achieving our goals, but it's important to retain control over them. So, we have to make sure that our plans drive everyone forward, but that we're still responsible for achieving our own goal.

5. Time-bound

Every goal needs a target date, so that we have a deadline to focus on and something to work toward. This part of the SMART goal criteria helps to prevent everyday tasks from taking priority over our longer-term goals.

After,we explained to participants what Smart goals are with examples, we asked to gather in teams and design a SMART GOAL according to the previous day's goal setting, present them on posters and give each other feedback on how to improve their SMART GOAL.

-MIRACLE MORNING:

The participants were introduced to the Miracle Morning Habit and book. The Miracle Morning was designed by Hal Elrod who studied the morning habits of the most successful people in the world. It requires waking up one hour before usual and spend ten minutes to each of the following activities - the SAVERS:

-Silence: Meditation/ prayer/ staying in silence

-Affirmations: Positive affirmations are statements that can help brighten your outlook on the world when you say them to yourself regularly or write them down in a journal.

-Visualizations of the desired goals: Visualization techniques have been used by successful people to visualize their desired outcomes for ages. Visualization is really quite simple. You sit in a comfortable position, close your eyes and imagine - in as vivid detail as you can - what you would be looking at if the dream you have were already realized.

-Exercise: Even if it's for five or ten minutes,it's important to do some bodyweight exercise to get blood and oxygen flowing to the brain.

-Reading according to the goals set: Learn the knowledge of people who accomplished the things you want to do.

-Scribing: Journaling either on feelings or on what was read and how that could be practically implemented to achieve desired goals

The participants were prompted to continue with their miracle morning after the end of the project and keep one of the participants of the project as their accountability buddy.

-ATOMIC HABITS

The participants were introduced to the Atomic Habits. They learned how long it takes to form a habit, how to create good habits and how to stop bad habits. Atomic habits consist of 5 minute habits done repeatedly and being built up and becoming bigger. We explained how small effort done consistently compounds in an extremely positive way over long periods of time - the very essence of atomic habits.

Understanding how to build new habits (and how your current ones work) is essential for making progress in our health, our happiness, and our life in general.But there can be a lot of information out there and most of it isn't very simple to digest. To solve this problem and break things down in a very simple manner, James Clear has created this strategy guide for how to build new habits that actually stick.The first step is always to start with an incredibly small habit.Rather than trying to do something amazing from the beginning, start small and gradually improve. Along the way, your willpower and motivation will increase, which will make it easier to stick to your habit for good.If we continue adding one percent each day, then we'll find ourselves increasing very quickly within two or three months. It is important to keep each habit reasonable, so that we can maintain momentum and make the behavior as easy as possible to accomplish.We shouldn't expect to fail, but you should plan for failure. We need to take some time to consider what will prevent our habit from happening.Learning to be patient is perhaps the most critical skill of all. We can make incredible progress if we are consistent and patient.

We elaborated further on how to achieve each of the above and on the required mindset shift in order to be consistent with small repeated effort.Afterwards,we asked the participants to design an ATOMIC HABIT based on their goals set previously, present them on posters and give each other feedback.

-EXCURSION TO LIMASSOL:

The participants were taken on a cultural visit to ancient Kourion where they were asked to perform a small play related to the stories behind the mosaics and the Roman Agora that are inside of the ancient theater . One of the stories was about Achilles and the way he tried to avoid taking part in the war by dressing as a woman. The other story was about the house of Gladiators.Gladiators were professional fighters who usually specialized with particular weapons and types of armour.Apart from taking part in wars,gladiators were fighting to entertain the public in hugely popular organized games held in large purpose-built arenas (like Colosseum in Rome,Italy).Participants asked to represent gladiators fighting in Kourion.The third one was about Efstolios,a man that he was born and raised in Kouron and at some point he left and traveled to other countries but when he returned back,he found the city destroyed due to the earthquakes. Efstolios,decided to honor his ancestors and to reconstruct the city with the addition of baths for the citizens to use.He developed the city and brought it back to life. The last story was about Roman Agora,an open space that served as a meeting ground for various activities of the citizens.They would gather at Agora for daily religious,political,judicial,social and commercial activity. A popular trial is that of Philosopher Socrates,even though it took place in Athens, we used the story for our activity.They also visited the ancient temple of Apollon Hylatis and Limassol's historical center,that they had free time to enjoy the city.Through this activity,they had they chance to learn about the culture and history of Ancient Theater using non formal activities and have fun at the same time.

26 October 2021

-BRITISH DRAMA GAME

One of the activities was a role play about emotions.One person was in the middle and had to behave as an emotion would do, and the other participants asked different questions like how that moment was feeling as the emotion of anger for example,of love etc.It was very interesting for both sides to visualize the emotions and think more how an emotion can affect our behavior in our lives and also it was kind of funny to see some reactions that actually all people do when we are experiencing these emotions.

-DIGITAL HABITS

The participants were introduced to various influential persons, the pomodoro technique and app - which consists of 25 minutes of work and 5 minutes breaks with timers, as well as the habitica app which they could use on their own or along with other participants. The habitica app would enable participants to enter their daily/weekly goals based on the work of the previous days and gamify their life. They were given a character in the app and they achieved various levels and features when they kept doing the habits they put in the app.

-PARTICIPANT'S PRESENTATION:

The participants of Croatia, presented a presentation and interview that they did in their country with a professional coach. They presented various questions such as whether a psychology degree is needed for someone to be a coach and how to ask the right questions to coaching clients. They also presented a beautiful poster with all the relevant information that we put up on the wall.

Moreover, they did two activities related to coaching.The first,was to divide the participants into four groups.Two groups were at the plenary and the other two outside. The groups that were inside had to choose an object that they wanted and when the others groups came in to give it to a person a gift. The half of the other groups had the instruction to reject the present and show disappointment and the others to show excitement. Afterwards, we discussed that this activity was related to expectations that we have from other persons and other people have from us and that some times can be dissapointed for us or for other people and the importance of active listening in order to achieve active communication.

The other activity was like the known game "Damaged phone" but with movements,one participant started to show to another some movements at the moment that the others were looking on the other side and at the end, we see if those movements change along the way.We discussed that many times happens also with communication when something is transfer from one person to another.

27 October 2021

-HIKING-PISSOURI

Hiking route activity in Pissouri (Melanta route) to get known with the place of being and to get closer as teams.Pissouri is the third largest village in the district of Limassol and is located just off the A6 motorway, midway between Limassol and Paphos (34 kilometers from each) in the Southwest of Cyprus.Pissouri Village is located about 3 kilometers from the sea on the Cape Aspro ridge, and about 500 feet above sea level (152 meters). The area has 8 hiking trails, crossing through the hills, providing some spectacular views and an amazing geological experience, with fossils of sea life to be found many hundreds of feet above the sea level.After the hiking,participants had free time at the beach. Also,we had a photo contest about the best three photos of the hiking time.

-EMOTIONS - 2 1/2 SESSIONS

The participants were introduced to the Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Model. The activity started with a discussion on which are the 9 emotions and how to describe each of them. The participants were given a double scenario on each emotion for which they had to present two plays and choose the ending of their theater performances choosing between the options handed to them. For example for jealousy the first scenario was a boyfriend who is constantly suspicious of his girlfriend without any reason and the second scenario a girlfriend who is jealous because her boyfriend is flirting with another girl. The participants chose how to end their plays, in the former case the boyfriend working on his insecurity and feeling more attractive towards his girlfriend , whereas In the latter the participants chose the break up solution.

A discussion followed on why each team chose the particular ending in their scenario. Then the DBT model was presented again where participants learned to recognize and talk about their feelings, and evaluate whether their emotion fits the facts. If the emotion fits the facts, the participant can act on it if its beneficial - and express it, if the emotion is unreasonable - doesn't fit the facts, the participants needs to act the opposite way of their emotion.

Further we discussed that the tool that enabled the participants to evaluate whether the emotion fits the facts was individual and was based on their wise mind. The wise mind, it was explained, was further aided by meditation and being calm, relaxed and accepting of the moment.

-APOLOGY GAME AND ASSERTIVENESS GAME

The participants were presented with the DEAR MAN model, on how to apologize or ask for something they want. They were given general scenarios like a friend who is always late, or confronting someone who always borrows their stuff and never returns it. The teams had to present theater plays that would implement the DEAR MAN on both persons, the one who was being assertive and the one who was apologizing.

"D" stands for Describe-Make use of facts,Don't elaborate on unnecessary things,Emphasize on issues.

"E" stands for Express- Explain how things are affecting you personally and professionally.

"A" stands for Assert-Assert factors that you wish to see in the near future.

"R" stands for Reinforce- Instead of insulting other individual,Rewarding them it will create a happy bond.

"M" stands for Mindful- Don't get sidelined by your past experiences.Don't put forth your past grievances in any way.

"A" stands for Appear Confident- Embrace confidence in every possible way.

"N" stands for Negotiate- Be willing to Give to Get. Offer and ask for alternative solutions.Focus on what will work.

The participant who was apologizing, apart from DEAR MAN, had to also present the FAST GIVE part:

F -(Be) Fair to YOURSELF and to the OTHER person.Remember to VALIDATE YOUR OWN feelings and wishes,as well as the other's person's.

A-NO APOLOGIES- Don't over apologize No invalidating the valid..

S-Stick to YOUR OWN values.

T-( BE) TRUTHFUL-Don't lie. Don't exaggerate or make up excuses.

G- (be) GENTLE - Don't attack or threaten. Be nice and respectful.

I- (show) INTEREST -Listen to the other person.Make good eye contact.

V-alidate- Be aware of the other person's feelings and situation.

E -EASY MANNER.Be friendly.Be approachable.Be open for advice.

28 October 2021

-CULTURAL VISIT TO PAPHOS

We visited Petra tou Romiou,or Aphrodite's rock,the legendary birthplace of the goddess Aphrodite,known as Venus by the Romans.The Birthplace of Aphrodite is one of the most beautiful beaches near the city of Pafos, where locals can enjoy swimming with their families. In the water one can see the enormous rock where legend says Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, was born from the ocean.In the myth of Aphrodite's birth, the beautiful Goddess of Love emerges naked from the water around Cyprus. She had just been created from the foam of the sea caused by Cronus castrating his father Uranus and throwing his genitals into the water. Although Aphrodite had originally begun drifting towards the Greek island of Cythera, the wind blew her towards her spiritual home near Pafos.One of these rocks has been named Aphrodite Rock - partly because of the foam that is being formed at its base, which brings in mind the story of the deity's birth. A local story is that anyone who swims around the rock will be blessed with eternal beauty.Afterwards,we visited the center of Pafos,where participants had free time to enjoy the city.

-CONTINUATION OF THE APOLOGY GAME AND ASSERTIVENESS GAME

A discussion followed on effective communications and participant's self-reflection on their communication habits.

29 October 2021

-ART THERAPY SESSIONS:

The participants had various art therapy sessions and discussions related to coaching and confronting their mental obstacles/ excuses.

A discussion on how to shift mindset and the THOUGHT-ACTION-EMOTION loop followed. It was explained how changing thoughts can change the emotional state.

One of Art Therapy Sessions, was to draw a house and at each area of the house we gave them a question like values that govern your life,areas of your life that need change,or list of the things that make you happy etc.Participants enjoy a lot this activity and helped them to "see" more clear their goals.

30 October 2021

Visit of a professional Coach:

A professional coach Katia Sakakini was invited to answer participant's questions on coaching, inspire them and explain how to ask the right questions in coaching and how to keep within the coaching boundaries - the pursuit of future goals and not the analysis of past events/trauma. Additionally, the participants were introduced to the Cold showers, Wim Hoff's breathing techniques and a meditation on finding the child and power within.

-CACAO CIRCLE

The participants were given ceremonial grade cacao and gathered in a circle for the final farewell. They were asked to say a few nice words to each other.

-YOUTHPASS/EVALUATION

Reflection, evaluation of the program through a questionnaire, summing up and giving of youthpasses.

-HALLOWEEN FAREWELL PARTY

A themed farewell party took place. Participants had the opportunity to dress up for Halloween,say goodbye to each other and play Halloween games.

SUNDAY

-OPTIONAL VISIT TO PISSOURI OR DEPARTURE

Participants had the chance to spend time in Pissouri depending on the time of their departure or flights.