How 60 Seconds Can Lead to the Integration of Mindful Teaching Strategies.

Reflection, awareness, mindfulness. Can’t it be as simple as breathing? The thing that we do all day, everyday? Spoiler alert! I am not a mindfulness expert, just a person that is learning to manage stress, drama, and sees the power of the breath to change how students see themselves.

Stop! The most powerful word and action for a student in a full on, reactive, amygdala- fueled moment. “Stop, breathe, do not do anything else right now.” I have found the most success slowing a reactive child with that statement. Asking them to stop, be present in themselves, and assess how they are feeling at that moment, is a powerful thing. Another option is to just send that child packing. Kick them out, letting that become someone else’s problem. I would hope that you would consider that exact action for a moment. You react to a child in crisis by being reactive and sending them away. How does this develop a relationship? Trust?

I get it. You have many responsibilities, and a melting down child takes time away from your other students. But, if you can, I truly believe that the act of taking a second, not being reactive, and being in the moment with that student, you will foster a sense of empathy and caring for that student that will resonate.

Some questions to ask:

How do you feel in that moment?

How do they feel in that moment?

What narratives have been created that are based in fact?

What narratives are fueled by emotion, but are not true?

Like it or not, part of our jobs as educators is to help foster social-emotional development. We can’t do our jobs effectively while ignoring the massive emotional growth that is happening. Our kids are absolutely bombarded with stimulus from media, friends, family, hormones, the world around them is constantly feeding them images that must be handled. Some (read: not all) adults can find ways to handle stress in positive ways. This is learned behavior. How will our students learn to be mindful of themselves, and learn how to handle feeling “done?”

What do you when you are feeling “done?” Done with making decisions, done with people, done with be “on” all day long? You have to defrag your brain, which is normally accomplished at night when asleep. I don’t give students nap breaks, nor do I take them myself, but being “done” is an emotion that must be addressed.

Disclaimer, to accompany my earlier spoiler alert. I am nine years into my recovery from subarachnoid brain hemorrhage. I refer to my life as a “new normal” because people almost never take stock of how they are perceiving a situation. How they are reacting to those around them. How they are thinking about themselves. Colors, lights, sounds, stimulus. My brain does not dump all of the stimulus from the previous day. I wake up each morning about half empty, so by mid day, I can begin to feel pretty “done.” In a 24 hour time span, I went from me, to questioning if I was still “me.” It is humbling not to really know for sure. So, stopping, being reflective, and listening to how I feel in every situation is paramount for my day. I meditate, and I always worry that I am “bad” at it. Being an endurance athlete, I would time myself to see how long I could “not think.” Yep, totally the wrong way to go.

I realized that mindfulness, for everyone, is more about recognizing that you ARE feeling and thinking. Recognizing that your brain, on the whole, is a squirrely, traffic jam situation. So, I learned to recognize, and return to the most basic of functions. I would return to the breath. Breathing, as a focus, forces your mind to return to a way point. Like clouds in the sky, leaves in a river, thoughts come, thoughts go, but returning to the breath provides a break in the noise.

In my attempts to help students learn to recognize their own narratives. (and that the “drama train” is never far behind) we start with a basic quiz.

Beginning class with a minute of quiet. Just asking them to sit quietly for 60 seconds can feel like a loooong time. Getting out of your own head does not have to take a long time. It may not disrupt your schedule all that much. To be fair, beginning your class may take five or more minutes, so 60 seconds is a feasible option. But soon, they will see how little time it takes to center, breathe, and realize how they are feeling inside themselves, at that moment. A couple handy resources to start the discussion are:

“Change to Chill.”

“Mindfulness for Teens.”

With a little work, and a minute or so a day, you can change student views of themselves, and provide valuable strategies for their lives. Give them the gift of “off.” We try so hard to be engaging, but what happens when you ask them to disengage?