The Teacher As Connector: Mindfulness
“Hello. You were my 3rd grade teacher. Most importantly, my favorite teacher. You were my inspiration to become a teacher. I wanted to be for other kids what you were for me.”
I was delighted to open Facebook Messenger this week to see this sweet note from a former student from 1995 when I was teaching in California. It was great to reconnect with her after all these years and see a picture of her three adorable sons. She even shared our class picture from 1995!
My initial memory of this student was that she was sweet, helpful and “into” school. When she sent the class picture, and I saw her the way I knew her back then, many more memories came flooding back to me. In one of the replies, she wrote, “I know I wasn’t an easy student.” I found that interesting because I didn’t see her that way at all. Looking at her picture now, I only feel joy.
I do remember that she was anxious and sensitive sometimes. I knew nothing about trauma sensitive practices or mindfulness in 1995 to help her with her worries. I guess, by instinct, I was able to at least make my classroom a consistent, positive place for her.
“My parents’ divorce and custody stuff were a big reason too. My dad remarried shortly after my parents’ divorce and instant family. She had 3 kids before and they had 2 more together. That affected me for a long time. But here we are 20+ years later and I’m doing good.”
I don’t remember if I knew about the divorce or not when I was teaching her. This student shared that she was lucky to have loving, consistent parents throughout this time, but it was “chaotic.” Divorce can be very traumatic for children and bring up feelings of loss, anger, confusion, anxiety, etc. Our students may exhibit behaviors in the classroom because of these feelings and we may not necessarily know what is going on at home. Assume trauma and employ best practices to help them. Mindfulness is the practice I am zooming in on this week.
What is Mindfulness?
As I searched for just the right definition for mindfulness, I thought that it would be a cool learning exercise to have each student create a definition based on their experience with it. However, for now, I will share a succinct definition that I found on dictionary.com. Mindfulness is “a technique in which one focuses one's full attention only on the present, experiencing thoughts, feelings, and sensations but not judging them.” I would add to this that it is a connection to self.
My Experiences with Mindfulness
I have found a lot of success with mindfulness in the area of weight loss. Mindful eating and finding ways to deal with stress and cravings has changed my health and outlook. I have struggle with weight most of my life. I am finally able to lose weight and keep it off long term; although I did suffer from the quarantine fifteen. The struggle is real.
As far as mindfulness in the classroom, some years ago, I became familiar with Goldie Hawn’s Mind Up program (see resources). I haven’t looked back ever since but would love to authentically incorporate mindfulness even more in my daily routines with students. I am in no way an expert in this area.
Mindfulness and Trauma
In my last post, I wrote about trauma and the fight or flight response. Students experiencing trauma have pent up fight or flight energy that doesn’t get released. Mindfulness can release this toxic energy. It helps students suffering from trauma and you don’t need a degree in psychiatry to understand and implement it. My goal in this post is to share resources for this work.
Mindfulness Meditation
There are many different meditations that a teacher can use in the classroom. My students like the body scan meditation and chime breathing meditation. Loving Kindness is a meditation I want to start using in my classroom. It is powerful for trauma, but also social justice. I see variations on the wording, but here is the wording from Sharon Salzberg, an expert in this work.
May I/you be safe.
May I/you be healthy and strong.
May I/you be happy.
May I/you be peaceful and at ease.
You repeat these wishes, directing them first to yourself and then towards different people in your life as follows:
Start by directing the phrases to yourself.
Next, direct the metta towards someone you feel thankful for or who has helped you.
Now visualize someone you feel neutral about—people you neither like nor dislike. Direct the thoughts to that person.
Next, direct the thoughts to someone you don’t like or who you are having a difficult time dealing with.
Finally, direct the metta towards everyone universally: May all beings everywhere be happy.
“When we practice it, we acknowledge that every one of us shares the same wish to be happy, and the same vulnerability to change and suffering. We can shift the way we view ourselves and others—with kindness instead of criticism.”
Salzberg shares that like other types of meditation, loving kindness meditation brings so many amazing benefits to our lives such as:
Reducing stress and anxiety
Lifting our mood and producing more positive emotions
Increasing feelings of hope
Decreasing physical and emotional pain
Reducing anger
Increasing positive social emotions toward new people as well as loved ones
Activating empathy
Improving social connection
Increasing self-love and how we feel about ourselves
Here is an example of a video that could be used in classrooms. This one has a child’s voice guiding it.
“This type of meditation allows children to get in touch with their feelings. It can help guide them in sending positive and healing energy to people and kids in other places—even those who have hurt them like a bully at school. Children can develop a sense of power as they gain self-love and compassion for others. The practice is special since it goes beyond cultural barriers, economic situations, educational backgrounds, and geographic locations.”
Another mindfulness practice that my students enjoy is what some of them have called, “Chime breathing.” Often, when coming back in from gym or recess/lunch, students approach me and say that they are kind of hyper and need the chime breathing. The students also recommended that we do this meditation before starting MCAS testing each morning to calm their nerves. It is great to see them being mindful of how they are feeling and understanding the benefits of this work.
The students get into comfortable positions in their chairs or on the carpet. You hit the chime and students breathe in and out calmly and listen to the chime sound that slowly gets quieter until is disappears. I repeat this two more times. Students are mindful of their breathing and focusing on the chime sound.
One student shared with me that it took her to the third hitting of the chime to get all the negative thoughts about her fight with a friend out of her head, so she could focus on just breathing and listening to the chime. It is important to tell students to acknowledge any thoughts that come into their head, know that it is normal, and set them aside to focus back on the breathing/chime. Remind them not to be hard on themselves when this inevitably happens.
The change in the classroom from before the chime to after is so incredible. Below is a picture of the chime I use with my students and the Amazon link is in the resources. Rain sticks can also work for this calm breathing work, but the sound doesn’t last as long. I have also seen teachers use a Tibetan Singing Bowl and I will share a link for that as well.
If I had known about mindfulness in 1995, could I have made even a bigger impact on my students, and in particular, this former student who reached out to me this week. The answer is yes! Do all students respond to this work? I have found that fifth graders, and most recently, third graders do respond to this work and feel it helps them. It is especially helpful for students who had teachers in earlier grades that did this work consistently. That may be why I have had such great results with my students. They have been doing this work for a couple of years with other teachers. I do recommend to keep it short and sweet in K-5; no longer than 5-6 minutes.
It is hard to mindfully sit with yourself during meditation, especially if you have trauma and a reactive mind. I find some meditations just don’t do it for me and so will kids. However, teaching students these practices helps them to know about the option of using this to calm nerves and get in touch with themselves and their stress. This is the same as offering more efficient mental math strategies and students choosing which one works for their math brain. Options are powerful and they provide hope.
Mindfulness is worth the time and it helps students connect with themselves and others. Find out which mindfulness practices work with your students. It will change from year to year, of course, depending on the students you have. Incorporate mindfulness into your daily routine and teach students options to be mindful independently when they feel the need to calm down through out the day. Part of being mindful is noticing how you are feeling and not judging those feelings. When I think about this, I wonder where a growth mindset comes in and that is the topic for next week’s post. How powerful to be working with students on their mindset in conjunction with mindfulness practice.
Resources