Integrating emotion and sensation
In the previous entry, we noted that the emotional state of the adult in charge becomes the dominant emotion in the room
As teachers about to begin a new school year, it’s helpful to be aware of the emotions and the sensations that arise as we look toward the first days in the fall. Although it’s common to gloss over the stress and anticipation that come with a new school year, most of us are keenly aware of those emotions. In fact, we may not be able to stop thinking about them!
There is another important modality with which we react to stimuli around us: sensation; sometimes referred to as our “feeling brain”.
When you find yourself reacting to stressors with your thinking brain, take a moment to check in with your body. Without judging or telling yourself the story of “why”, what can you notice about the signals it may be sending? Is your breathing fast or slow? Shallow or deep? What’s happening with your stomach? Your neck and shoulders? The muscles in your face? Perhaps you noticed that your stomach is growling, your shoulders feel tight, and your jaw is clenched a little as you simultaneously set up your room and try to tease out a solution to a new issue that cropped up in today’s planning meeting.
By switching our focus to our feeling brain, we tap into a channel that we often push so far into the background of our consciousness that we learn not to acknowledge it at all. The practice of noticing what is happening in the moment and responding with non-judgmental friendliness is a resource to keep in your “toolbox” of pedagogy and classroom management techniques. It is the essence of mindfulness.
Even a brief guided body scan demonstrates how a short period of friendly attention to our physical sensations can help us to deal with discomfort, even pain. When we practice checking in with our sensations throughout the day, we allow ourselves time to choose a response to whatever is arising in the moment. That brief interlude to take inventory of our sensations and emotions is a mindful moment, a little chance to re-boot if we find things are heading off in an unskilled or unhelpful direction. This practice reminds me of the tag line in a magazine ad for cola from the forties: The pause that refreshes.
So, if we necessarily spend time in our thinking brains, and we practice checking in with our feeling brains, how do we keep our school day running? Can we just stop and be still with closed eyes in the middle of teaching a lesson on exponential growth? Not unless we want to run the risk of inviting disruptive behavior during math period! It may seem counter-intuitive, but we have to plan. And like a football coach with a newly formed team, we have to practice making the plays. To create a mindful classroom, we must have a mindful grounding of our own. Our next few entries will present some techniques for creating a mindful classroom, with yourself as the guiding participant.
