levels of stress - so how can we all learn to skillfully navigate stormy waters?
By using the body as a compass we can sometimes chart a better course than by relying solely on the more analytical, problem-solving part of our brain.
Not so long ago, I was about to take a group of high school students on a ‘sensory safari’ – a walk off campus that would involve silence, deep listening and reflection. Having worked in middle school for the majority of my teaching career, I have never seen myself as a high school teacher. As we left the school it began to rain lightly and I stopped the group in a covered alleyway to explain the ground rules for this somewhat unusual learning experience – one that can work against the naturally social grain of the teenage brain. As I stood waiting for the group to assemble I noticed a knot in my belly and an elevated heartbeat. There was a dampness in my palms. A familiar stress signature was beginning to take shape and I took a moment to tune in and turn towards these symptoms. Was I feeling threatened? Yes. Why? Perhaps the body language of the students, my sense that they might not be into this, that I was maybe taking them too far out of their comfort zone. Underlying that I realized I have always had a secret fear of teaching older adolescents. Perhaps because of my own issues with authority and some deeper rebellious tendencies, perhaps because of my experiences at age 11 when I was the youngest and shortest of 800 boys in a British grammar school where bullying was the norm. For whatever reasons, my vague fear of not being able to control a group was manifesting itself as threat symptoms in my body.
When we are threatened we close up, our thought processes narrow down towards ‘tunnel vision’– not a good state to be in for teaching mindful awareness in nature! So what could I do? All of this happened in the space of a few moments, but the key step had already been taken - by noticing the physical symptoms, and acknowledging what I was feeling I was already giving myself some space to maneuver with awareness, instead of being subconsciously propelled by my reactions. Deciding then that a closed response was not where I wanted to be for the next 40 minutes, I was able to turn a little towards the physical symptoms, take a deeper breath, let go more on the out breath, allow these symptoms to be there (“I don’t have to like feeling this way, just need to accept it”) and then to use this heightened awareness to guide me into the next moment.
By focusing my alertness onto what I wanted to achieve, onto connecting with the students, and internally clarifying my intentions, I was able to avoid overreacting when I saw them not sticking exactly to the ground rules that had been set. Better to have a flexible response, to allow things to settle a little than to sternly force them to behave and be quiet. Acknowledging openly that this exercise was unusual - a challenge even - may have helped the process unfold whereas clamping down and being demanding might have provoked their own threat or avoidance response and could have cut them off from the sensitive learning experience I was attempting to create for them.
Being Mindful
How can we develop this increased capacity to notice what is going on in the moment and to choose to respond rather than react? Some teachers may just naturally have this gift, but for many of us it can be struggle – especially when we are so used to spending so much time in our thoughts and rely so heavily on our analytical problem-solving skills. For me, what has helped has been the gentle and repeated practice of training the attention. The foundation of ‘Teaching Mindfully’ is ‘Being Mindful’, and for many of us this can be enhanced through developing a personal mindfulness practice. This increased capacity for sustaining attention becomes even more important when turning towards more challenging emotions, thoughts or situations. Mindfulness is in essence a training in developing relaxed alertness, and once we begin to feel some confidence in growing this for ourselves, we can then begin to apply it in our classrooms – without ever needing to turn it into a lesson on mindfulness. Some teachers may then want to go on to explore helping students develop this capacity for themselves.
Understanding ourselves – our minds, bodies and emotions is a key life skill and one that can legitimately be a core part of learning in schools. teachers understand and can take care of ourselves, the better job we will do in the classroom – and this is especially true for those children who may have missed out on some aspects of social and emotional development at home. A sensitized, self-aware teacher can give children a crucial second chance to develop their emotional and social intelligences - and the research is showing that this happens not so much through what we teach, or through cerebral engagement with SEL programs, but through the way we interact in carefully crafted learning environments. Ours is indeed a ‘caring profession’.
We all deal with stress in different ways – for some it’s running, dancing, playing music or hiking. Knowing what nourishes and what depletes us are key factors in sustaining positive mental, emotional and physical health and in avoiding burnout. Mindfulness does not replace these activities, but as a portable skill it can enhance your preferred ways of de-stressing and furthermore we can take it with us into the meeting or the classroom. If you would like to explore this area further the course book by Mark Williams “Finding Peace in a Frantic World” is an excellent resource. Better still, check out local availability of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) courses - which are a training more than a therapy. They deal specifically with understanding ‘the exhaustion funnel’, burnout and depression. Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) courses also can also be highly effective in doing exactly what their title suggests.
Kevin Hawkins is a former middle school principal now working as an educational consultant and teacher trainer in the fields of Social Emotional Learning and Mindfulness. Kevin will present a range of workshops on these topics at the ELMLE Warsaw conference in January 2015.
kevinjhawkins1@gmail.com
...the more we as teachers understand and can take care of ourselves, the better job we will do in the classroom
Knowing what nourishes and what depletes us are key factors in sustaining positive mental, emotional and physical health and in avoiding burnout.
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