Social Emotional/ Mindfulness
As someone who practices mindfulness techniques everyday I believe that it is extremely important to introduce these ideas to our students. As a HIndu I practice mindfulness techniques as part of my religion every day. It helps me calm down and keeps my mind feeling calmed and cleansed. Everyone believes that practicing mindfulness techniques in your everyday life is only a religious thing when in reality it's meant for everyone. Mindfulness techniques can help us and our students make sure that we are able to handle our emotions as well as free our mind from negativity.
It is important that with increased mental health issues that we implement more mindfulness practices into our classrooms. "Nearly 1 in 3 adolescents will meet criteria for an anxiety disorder by the age of 18" (Mindful Schools, 2021). Mindful practices such as meditation can help students learn how to control their emotions and find a new and healthy way where they can control their emotions. "The meta-analysis found that school-based programs were most effective when conducted by school staff (e.g., teachers, specialized instructional support personnel), indicating that SEL can be incorporated into routine educational practice" (NYSED.gov, n.d). When teachers and school staff members are the ones teaching the students about mindfulness the students are more likely to learn and benefit from the practices.
You have to make sure that you are there to help your students and to not hurt them. In the file Room to Breathe the students think lower of themselves when their class is chosen to be a part of the film as well as being chosen to be taught mindful practices. You don't want to make it seem like a punishment for the students. The only way it works is if you make it known that this is being taught to help them. You want to follow the "Nine Ways To Ensure Your Mindfulness Teaching Practice Is Trauma-Informed" (Schwartz, 2019). This guide is designed to help make sure that you are teaching mindfulness properly. If you do not follow these steps it can greatly hurt your students and they will not understand the full lesson of mindfulness practices.
For this past week I have used the app called Calm. To be completely honest I did not enjoy using an app as much as using a mala. I am able to physically count my mantras and not have the pressure of being timed. However, I believe that Calm is a great app for people that are new to mindful practices. As someone that has had a plan implemented in their daily life already changing my atmosphere and procedure it was a big change. Overall, I would recommend this app for anyone starting mindful practices.
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I find it very interesting that you are proactive in mindfulness with Hindus. It is great to do something like that because it will help with everyday life, and you can teach students how you practice mindfulness. It is scary to see that 1 in 3 adolescents meet the criteria of an anxiety disorder. The mindful practice could decrease that rating. I agree with you that it doesn't have to focus on a religious basis, but mindfulness practice can include everyone. Teachers tend to react to students who misbehave but don't consider what they could be feeling on the inside. Room to breathe showed a great practice that, instead of responding and shutting students out, will teach them how to feel and control their emotions. I am new to mindful practice, and I used to hold all of my feelings in, and they would come out all at once. Since you said this app would suit beginners, I might have to check it out! Great blog post.
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