Teach your students Conflict Resolution techniques and show them how not to turn a problem they CAN handle into one they CAN’T… BeCool!

It’s not difficult not to take rejection personally. If someone doesn’t like us or doesn’t want to be around us, it’s easy to jump to the conclusion that there is something wrong with us. This interpretation of rejection can lead to aggressive retaliation. In this module, your students will see how rejection, when fed by negative self-talk can lead to losing it.

In each vignette, the protagonist is presented with a potentially provocative person or situation that could result in our hero losing it. Before doing anything, our leading character takes a moment to imagine what losing it might look like and how it could lead to doing something regrettable. Since Losing It always leads to doing something regrettable, our hero decides it’s better to be smart and talk him/herself out of it by modeling the use of BeCool Self-Talk.

In Part 1, Mindy loses it when she allows her own self-talk to interpret rejection by a close friend to be a sign that she is completely unlikable. (This is an incredibly common problem with pre-teen girls.) When Mindy uses her BeCool self-talk skills instead, she realizes that although rejection is painful and it will take some time to get over, it’s not the end of the world. In part 2, Troy is rejected by peers he thought were his friends. He feels let down and loses it when he allows irrational self-talk to support and arouse his knee-jerk violent response to get even. Using BeCool self-talk techniques, the rejection is put in perspective, helping to cool his anger and keeping him from turning a problem he could handle into one that was so big, he couldn’t.

The BeCool Paradigm is research based and truly works.