MENTAL HEALTH : MINDFULNESS
Lessons from the ‘ CALMDOWN TEACHER ’ Karen Mascari brings mindfulness to her students and community WRITTEN BY CINDY SCHWEICH HANDLER
Karen Mascari , alongtime public school teacher in Garfield , worried that her fifth-graders were coming to school stressed out . So , about adecade ago , she decided toteach them something new : mindfulness meditation . Soon , focusing on the breath to slow down the body and relax became such afamiliar ritual that the students started reminding her they needed todoit , and calling her “ the calm down teacher .”
Meditating , Mascari found , did more for the children than just settle them . “ We practiced every day before the state testing , and mykids scored really well on it ,” she says .
Her success with meditation inthe classroom inspired Mascari tobecome a student herself ; she started taking online classes from an organization called Mindful Schools . And she continued to share mindfulness techniques . When she switched from leading aclassroom to teaching gifted education atall the Garfield elementary schools , she taught meditation to those students , too . She also offered professional development to instructors in Garfield and other Bergen towns .
“ Some teachers have come into my workshop with arms closed , saying ‘ This is weird ,’ but by the end , they see the beauty of it , and have asked me to come into their classes to teach .”
Around the same time , after a yearlong process and an in-person seven-day retreat at the Garrison Institute in New York — three of those days in silence — she became officially certified as a mindfulness instructor .
Mascari , who grew up and still lives in Glen Rock , has won over resisters of all ages , she says . She recalls being warned by the homeroom teacher in a Garfield kindergarten that one of the students had sensory processing problems , and often bolted from class .
“ She was a runner ,” says Mascari . “ I used a diffuser and a singing bowl ( that produces vibrations when struck ), and the girl closed her eyes and sat the whole time . The teacher was crying .” Through repetition , the child learned to self-regulate , says Mascari ; whenever she started to feel her nerves jangling , she closed her
KAREN MASCARI
eyes , focused on her breath , and became more tranquil .
Mascari has persuaded some peers , too . “ Some teachers have come into my workshop with arms closed , saying ‘ This is weird ,’” she says . “ But by the end , they see the beauty of it , and have asked me to come into their classes to teach .”
She says that some people erroneously think of meditation as a religious practice . “ It ’ s not , though it could be a spiritual experience ,” she says .“ I call what we do a ‘ mindful sit .’”
MEDITATION CIRCLES FOR ADULTS
During the pandemic , Mascari decided to find aspace where she could serve area residents outside the classroom , and in July 2021 , opened be . here . now A Center for Mindfulness in Ridgewood . Her clients
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