UNDSELF Recorded Video Discussion - Final Term: Lesson 2 and 3

Summary

The instructor combines Lessons 2 and 3 in a recorded discussion on setting goals for success and taking charge of one’s health. The discussion also explains the section’s final exam project: a collaborative literary folio.

Final examination: “Journey to Myself” literary folio

The class will create a shared, digitally designed literary folio documenting students’ self-discovery, personal growth, and understanding of the dimensions of the self covered in the course.

Required sections and content

1. Cover and title page

   • Include a creative title reflecting the section’s self-discovery experience.
   • Add matching cover art or visuals, the course name (Understanding the Self), section, and school year 2026–2027.
   • The title and folio content must be original and not AI-generated.

2. Table of contents

   • Organize student names alphabetically, with girls listed before boys.
   • List the folio’s sections and each student’s entries.

3. Foreword or preface

   • Include one section-wide introduction describing the folio’s theme, why it was chosen, and what self-discovery means to the section at this point.
   • Maximum: 300 words.

4. Multidimensional-self content

   • Each student contributes two to three creative entries and is named under their work.
   • Possible formats include reflective essays, poems, personal narratives or reflections, letters to one’s past or future self, visual prose, short memos, photo essays with captions, and visual art such as drawings or cartoons.
   • Entries should engage with aspects of the self studied in the course, from philosophical and social dimensions to self-management and self-care.

5. Synthesis and realization

   • Include a section-wide reflection connecting the entries and discussing core values, coping mechanisms, identity formation, and major course takeaways.
   • A collective message to the instructor may be included but is optional.
   • Maximum: 500 words.

6. Epilogue

   • Include a forward-looking statement about how the class plans to continue exploring and nurturing its evolving selves as college students.
   • Maximum: 300 words.

7. Editorial board

   • List the people involved, including editors and contributors, and appoint an editor-in-chief or associate editor.
   • Arrange names alphabetically, with girls before boys. Names should correspond with the table of contents, and the course instructor should also be listed.

Format, submission, and grading

• Create the folio digitally. Page size must not exceed 6 by 9 inches, and the folio must have at least 40 and no more than 200 pages. Number every page.
• Submit a PDF and an HTML link to the flipbook or magazine version through the LMS. One representative must also email the PDF and link to the instructor.
• Submit two bound printed copies to the department office.
• The stated deadline is November 25 by 5 p.m.
• AI use in any part of the folio is prohibited; the instructor says violations will receive a zero.
• The rubric totals 100 points:
  • Depth of reflection, originality, and self-discovery: 30 points
  • Integration of course concepts: 20 points
  • Literary quality and creative expression: 20 points
  • Visual presentation, design, creativity, layout, and cohesion: 20 points
  • Completeness and organization: 10 points

Lesson 2: Setting goals for success

Why goals matter

Goals provide direction, focus, motivation, and accountability. They help people identify what they are working toward and break success into steps. The instructor also connects purposeful action to mental-health practices and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, emphasizing that actions should align with goals.

Self-efficacy and social learning

Self-efficacy is a person’s belief in their ability to succeed at a particular task or situation. Higher self-efficacy can support motivation and persistence when difficulties arise.

The instructor identifies several ways self-efficacy can develop:

• Personal mastery through success and failure
• Observing or modeling others
• Visualization
• Verbal and social encouragement
• Awareness of physical or emotional states

An embedded explanation of Albert Bandura’s social learning theory describes four processes:

• Attention: Noticing a model’s behavior.
• Retention: Remembering what was observed.
• Reproduction: Being able to carry out the behavior.
• Motivation: Having a reason to imitate it.

The lesson links these ideas to Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment, in which children imitated aggressive behavior they had observed, particularly when the behavior was rewarded. A practical example contrasts panicking when a computer crashes with using self-efficacy to look for ways to recover and continue working.

Related concepts

• Self-esteem is the respect or regard a person has for themselves and their abilities.
• Locus of control concerns how people understand control over events:
  • With an internal locus, people take responsibility for their actions and outcomes.
  • With an external locus, they attribute outcomes to outside forces or other people.

The instructor notes that success can involve both personal effort and support from others, and that gratitude can acknowledge that support.

Fixed and growth mindsets

A fixed mindset treats intelligence, talent, and ability as unchangeable. The lesson associates it with avoiding challenges, giving up easily, seeing effort as pointless, taking feedback personally, and feeling threatened by others’ success.

A growth mindset holds that abilities can develop. It treats challenges and mistakes as opportunities to learn, sees effort as part of mastery, and uses constructive feedback to improve.

The instructor shares losing a student-government election and later serving in another role as an example of persisting after a setback.

Ways to foster a growth mindset

• Add “yet” to statements about things you cannot do, recognizing that ability can develop.
• Praise effort, strategies, and perseverance—not only talent or intelligence—and trust the process.
• Treat mistakes as useful information for learning and adapting.

Three types of goals

• Performance goals: Specific tasks or accomplishments to complete within a time period.
• Leadership goals: Developing expertise and taking initiative to help achieve performance goals, especially in collaborative work.
• Life goals: Longer-term aims connected to happiness, fulfillment, well-being, and service to others.

SMART and SMARTER goal setting

• Specific: Define exactly what you want to achieve.
• Measurable: Decide how progress or achievement will be assessed.
• Achievable/action-oriented: Identify clear actions and steps.
• Realistic/relevant: Account for circumstances and challenges, and consider whether the goal fits your situation.
• Time-bound: Set a timeframe.
• Evaluate: Review progress and performance.
• Reward: Celebrate progress or achievement to reinforce helpful choices and actions.

Lesson 3: Taking charge of one’s health

Stress and stressors

Stress is the body and mind’s response to a demand, change, or threat. Stressors are the internal or external events and circumstances that trigger that response.

Possible stressors include deadlines, financial concerns, family or relationship problems, conflicts, traffic, schoolwork and grades, bullying, body shaming, lack of sleep, loneliness, competing responsibilities, social media, peer pressure, and grief.

Reactions may be physical, mental, emotional, or behavioral—for example, a pounding heart, muscle tension, worry, anxiety, or eye twitching.

Types of stress

• Eustress is short-term, positive stress that can motivate performance.
• Distress is overwhelming or harmful stress, especially if it lasts.

By duration, stress may be:

• Acute: Short-term and immediate.
• Episodic acute: Recurring or repeatedly triggered.
• Chronic: Long-lasting, potentially persisting for months or years.

Filipino experiences and coping

The instructor notes that people may describe stress through expressions such as feeling tired, mentally fatigued, troubled, or worried, and that emotional stress can also show up physically. The lesson cautions against romanticizing hardship by assuming that Filipinos are always resilient or happy.

Money, health, work, and school burnout are identified as common sources of stress. A survey attributed to the Social Weather Stations is cited as finding prayer, rest or sleep, and going out among common coping responses. Seeking professional help is described as less common, in part because of stigma and cost.

The instructor encourages students not to equate therapy with being “crazy” and notes that mental-health support can also be used for self-understanding or checking in with oneself.

Stress-management techniques

The embedded videos demonstrate several techniques:

1. Box breathing

   • Inhale for 4 seconds.
   • Hold for 4 seconds.
   • Exhale for 4 seconds.
   • Hold again for 4 seconds.
   • Repeat for about 5 minutes.

2. Five-senses grounding exercise

   • Name five things you see, noticing their details.
   • Name four things you can touch, attending to texture.
   • Name three things you hear.
   • Name two things you smell.
   • Name one thing you taste.
   • Focus on the exercise without distractions for about 5 minutes. The video presents this as a way to return attention to the present.

3. Gratitude exercise

   • Before sleep, identify three people or things you are grateful for.
   • Optionally send someone a brief message of appreciation.

An additional video advises focusing on what one can control—one’s own thoughts, feelings, and actions—rather than trying to change other people.

Holistic wellness

The lesson presents six interconnected dimensions of wellness, attributed to the National Wellness Institute’s model:

• Emotional: Recognizing and managing feelings and stress, and practicing acceptance.
• Occupational: Finding satisfaction, enrichment, and balance in work or study and other responsibilities.
• Physical: Supporting health through nutrition, exercise, sleep, and medical care.
• Social: Building healthy relationships and connections with groups and communities.
• Intellectual or mental: Engaging in creative activities and lifelong learning.
• Spiritual: Exploring values, purpose, and connection to spirituality or a guiding belief.

Self-care, self-compassion, and RAIN

Self-care is framed as part of holistic wellness and includes understanding, accepting, and loving oneself. Self-compassion is distinguished from self-pity, indulgence, narcissism, or selfishness; the lesson encourages self-kindness alongside kindness to others.

Suggested practices include mindfulness, meditation, and positive self-talk. The RAIN technique for difficult emotions is described as follows:

• Recognize what is happening and what you feel.
• Accept the experience as it is.
• Investigate the feelings with gentle curiosity.
• Non-identification: Allow the experience to pass without treating it as the whole of who you are.

The discussion closes by encouraging students to study the final lessons, use the course materials posted to the LMS, and take care during the upcoming break.

Speakers and sources featured

• Course instructor: Leads the recorded discussion; the instructor’s name is not stated in the subtitles.
• Embedded narrator explaining Albert Bandura: Covers social learning theory, self-efficacy, and the Bobo doll experiment.
• Embedded narrator in a stress-coping video: Advises focusing on oneself rather than trying to control other people.
• Embedded narrator in a stress-management video: Demonstrates box breathing, the five-senses grounding exercise, and gratitude practice; the instructor describes the narrator as a medical professional.
• Albert Bandura: Psychologist whose social learning theory and self-efficacy work are discussed through the embedded video.
• Carol Dweck: Psychologist associated in the lesson with fixed and growth mindsets.
• National Wellness Institute and Dr. Bill Hettler: Cited in connection with the six-dimension holistic wellness model.
• Social Weather Stations: Cited for a 2025 survey on how Filipinos cope with stress.
• Kat Reed: Credited with the closing quotation about self-care giving the world the best of oneself.