ERASMUS+, Key action 1: youth exchange
Venue: Katowice, Poland
Timetable of this mobility:
- Advance Planning Visit = APV: 9—11 April 2024.
- Youth exchange: 9—17 June 2024
Czech team: 4 participants + 1 group leader
Please read the APV info-pack
Hosting organisation: Fundacja Instytut Inicjatyw Lokalnych
Project report:
Have you ever been stressed? Sure you have! Would you like to know how to make yourself less stressed? I sure did. And so did more than 30 people from 6 different countries.
We embarked on a journey of self knowledge, learning, practice and exercise.
We started off with getting to know each other. Both through group games but also just informally in our free time. Shout out to my roommates Milosz and Ante, you were great.
Then there were lectures on the anatomy of stress (gotta know your enemy) followed by learning about and discussing alternative ways of coping with stress. It was very informative to learn about how other people deal with stress. Much of it was similar but it was funny to me as a Czech person that “going to the beach” could be a way. I am jealous…
We also learned and practiced ways of relaxation. Specifically, we tried meditation and Jacobson’s relaxation technique which is a type of therapy that focuses on tightening and relaxing specific muscle groups in sequence.
Self affirmations were also talked about. Alongside mindfulness. We all found that one quite interesting. For the record the presentation was about ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy) for those who want to learn more themselves.
Of course we didn’t spend the whole time in a lecture room studying. We had a chance to discover things about other countries in more detail through so called Cultural nights. We brought food, drinks and prepared a short presentation about our country. And so did the rest of the participants. It was all very interesting and some of the food was really good while some… not so much.
Our stay was a hotel just a couple of tram stops from the city centre of Katowice. We discovered the city mostly on our own. Then we had a free day to travel to nearby Krakow and some teams chose to pay a visit to Auschwitz.
As our final project we split into mixed international teams and created short movies about the topic of stress. They were surprisingly genuinely good and very funny to watch on our last evening together.
Overall, we had a good time and I feel like we learned something too.
Tomáš K.
