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"NVC is a “language of life” that helps us to transform old patterns of defensiveness and aggressiveness into compassion and empathy and to improve the quality of all of our relationships. Studying and practicing NVC creates a foundation for learning about ourselves and our relationships in every moment, and helps us to remain focused on what is happening right here, right now. Although it is a model for communication, NVC helps us to realize just how important connection is in our lives. In fact, having the intention to connect with ourselves and others is one of the most important goals of practicing and living NVC. We live our lives from moment to moment, yet most of the time we are on autopilot, reacting out of habit rather than out of awareness and presence of mind. By creating a space for attention and respect in every moment, NVC helps create a pathway and a practice that is accessible and approachable."
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"An average academic intervention implemented to fidelity is going to increase academic scores approximately 3-5%. Social-Emotional Learning Intervention implemented to fidelity is going to increase academic scores approximately about 18-21%."
Benefits of Mindfulness & Manifestation"The B4C Meditation curriculum supports educators in understanding and embodying the practice of meditation in our lives, classrooms, and communities. Our meditation framework consists of a cyclical progression of three practices: Cultivating these practices in our everyday lives allows us to harness the neuroplasticity of our minds and consciously refine our experience of reality. Direct Benefits of Mindfulness1. Develops present moment awareness of sensations, emotions, and thoughts. 2. Creates space for conscious choice and response to sensations, emotions and thoughts. 3. Reduces the perpetuation of sensations, emotions, and thoughts that cause suffering 4. Increases focus and attention 5. Activates the parasympathetic nervous system and decreases toxic stress 6. Calms the mind and body 7. Strengthens mind-body connection 8. Increases social and emotional awareness 9. Cultivates sense of compassion and self-acceptance 10. Creates space and freedom to grow Long-term Outcomes of Mindfulness1. Increases overall health and well-being 2. Increases social, emotional, and academic intelligence 3. Improves behavioral, emotional, and mental regulation 4. Enhances mental, physical, social, and academic performance 5 .Increases ability to respond vs react 6. Reduces overall stress, anxiety, and burnout 7. Increases happiness and life satisfaction 8. Reduces tension and risk of injury 9. Increases coordination and proprioception 10. Enhances spatial perception, proprioception and athletic performance 11. Significantly reduces anxiety Direct Benefits of Manifestation1. Aligns thoughts, words, and actions with purpose 2. Enables us to respond instead of react 3. Fosters desired experiences and outcomes 4. Cultivates joy, peace, and love 5. Increases personal power and sense of autonomy 6. Supports growth mindset Long-term Outcomes of Manifestation1. Increases purpose and sense of fulfillment in life
2. Enhances success in personal and professional goals 3. Enables international reprogramming and reshaping of the mind and body 4. Improves mental, physical, emotional well being 5. Generates harmony between internal and external realities 6. Cultivates abundance in all forms 7. Develops leadership qualities and capacity to serve others. Source: Breathe for Change Check out the link to find the breathing tool. This tool will help students (and yourself) when emotions run high. Help your students calm down when they are upset, overwhelmed, anxious, stressed, or even content. Taking time to intentionally breathe will stimulate our parasympathetic nervous system which is our rest and digest response. Breathing deeply slides the diaphragm along the vagus nerve, sending calming signals whereas breathing shallowly or gasping sends distress signals.
Click here -------> BREATHE As teachers, we commonly group students so they can practice and refine interpersonal skills. There are so many creative ways to groups students. I have done it all- numbers, pictures, letters, grouped kids based on color of socks, birthday months, etc! However, I never grouped students by positive adjectives until I was placed in a group during my Breathe 4 Change program based on positive adjectives. Just the simple word associated with my group made such a difference in how I felt, so naturally I wanted to use this approach in my classroom. I found these rustic wood round slices at Hobby Lobby and I thought the students would like just the act of holding these. Kids like holding and touching different textures, and receiving something different is always appealing. So, I used these wood slices to write positive adjectives. I passed them out randomly to the students, and then had them form groups based on the same words. So all the amazing kids sat together, all the rad kids formed a group, all the kind students created a group, and so on (you get the picture). Just switching the language alone made such a huge deal!!! My students really enjoyed being placed in groups based on positive adjectives. Of course, we had fun with it since I do teach middle school. I would say things like, "Who is awesome? All my awesome students are over in this group. If you are awesome, you belong here! If you are not awesome you are not here." Kids would laugh and tease. LOL The reason I really enjoyed grouping students this way is because let's face it, many students don't receive positive affirmations by their parents. Sometimes students just need to hear these words directed at them. There are so many expectations and tasks placed on them at this age that sometimes students just struggle to keep up and they often feel inadequate. So, it is very important to speak life into them! Helping them find that confidence through a simple change in our language is easy through something like grouping. However, I do not believe positive affirmations are enough by itself. Check back for my next blog on the intentions and actions behind positive affirmations. For now though, just know that by being mindful and purposeful in everything we do as teachers, every little counts. Our students are watching us and learning through our actions and words. Visualization is a powerful strategy! Last weekend in B4C training, we were instructed to take a comfortable seat or to lie down on our mats. The instructor led us in a visualization activity while we were encouraged to pay close attention to our breathing. I really enjoyed this experience. I felt all my worries drift away with the breeze as I was relaxing in the hot sun on a tropical island all alone in tranquility. In fact, after a 10 hour training and 2 hour drive home, my husband was shocked to see that I wasn't tired because I am normally dragging my heels around 7 and in bed by 8pm. LOL...It had to do with all the meditation and breathing exercises I was forced to do! It made a huge difference in how I felt! So naturally I wanted to implement this in my classroom right away! Anytime I have great news or a fun idea, I just can't wait to share it with my kiddos! So, the next day, I went into the classroom and I decided to implement the visualization and breathing exercise before starting a task. The first day, I felt great! I know the kids were a little weirded out. LOL...there was giggling and awkwardness, but they were good sports. The second day, went much better! I set it up a little different. I told them to close their eyes and just envision their day. I asked them to think about all the things they had to do today: How do you see your day going? Only you are in control of your responses and actions so how will your day go today when you are in math class? at break with your friends? What will you eat today? Are you going to make healthy decisions with your eating habits today? How can you brighten someone's day? What will you do if you see someone alone? ...basically, I asked them questions to visualize their day overall. I ended the visualization with reminding them that their day starts with the first task I was about to assign. Afterwards, I had them take some deep breaths in and out. When they opened their eyes, it was like a huge transformation right in front of me!!!!! It was crazy! The kids just looked so peaceful and serene. We went right into the lesson and I cannot even express enough what a positive experience it was for me and them. Later during lunch, a student came up to me and told me she complemented someone and she felt good about doing that. I am super stoked! Even though I knew the benefits of visualization and breathing exercises, taking time to go through a program that provides the reminder, insights, and tools was so needed!! With the standards, to do lists, and accommodations, testing, schedules, and everything else we, teachers, have to remember to cram into 52 minute periods, it is so easy to overlook things like meditation, but when we take time to speak to our students' souls and care for their well being first, everything else falls into place. Some helpful links I found: 1. 7 Visualization Techniques to Calm Your Anxious Mind 2. Guided Meditation 3. 10 Calming Breathing Techniques for Kids Last weekend was my first weekend training and learning all about SEL*F through the Breathe for Change Program. SEL*F stands for Social Emotional Learning and Facilitation. Traditional approaches to SEL include the 3 main components of skills: 1. Cognitive Regulation Skills (aka executive function skills) This category includes working memory, cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, and attention control. 2. Emotion Skills: This category includes emotion knowledge and expression, emotion behavior and regulation and empathy and perspective taking. 3. Interpersonal skills (aka the social domain) This section includes prosocial behaviors and skills, the ability to understand social cues, and conflict resolution. Breathe for Change believes there is a forth category missing in this traditional approach to SEL- FACILITATION: This category refers to the teacher's own personal embodiment of the 3 categories of skills plus the ability to authentically facilitate from their own experiences in the classroom. Thus, SEL becomes SELF. The foundation of Social Emotional Learning in the classroom is the teacher's own sense of emotional and social well being which will further enhance the students' ability to then build on the SEL skills. Through yoga, meditation, and B4C's instructional practices, I am already learning how to better support my students and myself. Check out my next blog post on visualization and breathing in the classroom. |
AuthorHey all! This blog is devoted to my Social-Emotional Learning and Facilitation journey through Yoga all thanks to the Breathe 4 Change Movement- a program designed by teachers for teachers to promote wellness for teachers and students! Archives
June 2019
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