The monsters are complete!

During this session of Mind Move Make we've been exploring different emotions and creating imaginary creatures to express the various emotions we experience on a daily or weekly basis.  By designing a creature that embodies an emotion, my hope is that it will become easier for students to relate to a specific emotion, explore it, and discuss their experiences with that emotion.

We played a game that I call Emotion Charades, continuing the work of exploring emotions in a unique way.  In our singing bowl, I placed many small pieces of paper with different emotions written on them.  First, I demonstrated the game by selecting one of the emotions and acting it out using my body language.  I got the emotion "frustrated", and I made a face, stamped my foot, and sighed a few times.  The students got it by the second or third guess.  Then it was their turn to try!  We have several theatrical students in both classes, so for some of the children the acting part came very naturally.  For others it was more challenging.  It is beneficial for elementary students to see, recognize, and name the signs of various emotions on different people's faces and bodies.  Anger doesn't look the same on everyone, and neither does happiness or feeling embarrassed.  It is imperative for children to understand that everyone both experiences and expresses emotions in ways that are unique.  It is up to us to learn another person's emotional language.   

The Emotion Monsters the students created are absolutely gorgeous, creative, and amazing (if I do say so myself)!  It was palpable in the room that the students were all extremely proud of their finished creations.  And everyone was extraordinarily industrious until the last moment of class in adding final details to their monsters.  Since we completed these artworks right before Halloween, many of them were hung on the walls, doors, and bedrooms of the artist.  Here are the completed creations!

Symmetry, Monsters, and Basquiat!

It is nourishing that most Mind Move Make classes start in a similar way.  At the beginning of class, have a Mind Move Make cheer that we chant together.  Then we pair breath and movement together as a student leads us in three volcano breaths.  We move our bodies through a few gentle seated stretches, then we either have a mindful minute together, or we use the breathing ball to find unity with the inhales and our exhales of our breath.  To start the class, I lead some of the activities, and some things are student-lead.  This empowers the children and transforms them into the teachers.  The consistency of our practice connects us during every class; it is comforting for students know what to expect, at least during the first part of class together.  After a busy day of school in which many mental demands have been placed on children, it is a wonderful way to re-center.

After gently moving our bodies, remembering our breath, and engaging in some mindful focus, we usually have a discussion!  Today during class I read the students a book called Life Doesn't Frighten Me.  The words in the book were written by the poet Maya Angelou, and the paintings were created by the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.  

Our central idea for this session is "all people experience different kinds of emotions", so I asked the students to reflect on the feelings shared within the book, both through the artwork and the words of the poem. We had a fantastic conversation about being brave, even in the face of scary things that might be happening around us. We also discussed how every single human has been afraid at some point during their life. I shared a time in my own life when I felt scared. The students could choose to share a time they felt afraid, or they could pass if they didn't feel comfortable. All the students really liked the paintings by Basquiat and some children shared their favorites with our group.

After our talk, we took the time to move our bodies through a few yoga shapes. Starting in child's pose I asked the students to think about their breath and also to focus on how they were feeling, emotionally, at that moment. Child's pose is a great time for children to check in with themselves and focus internally. After that, we laid on our backs and drew circles in the air with our knees. During many yoga classes I challenge the students to "rock and roll" in a circle on their mats while lying on their backs and grabbing the backs of their knees. It is a fun way to bring some energetic movement into the group. After spending some time in down dog, we came to standing and cycled through a few warrior poses. Lastly, we sat on the ground with the soles of our feet together. We imagined our legs were butterfly wings. Ofter during class, when we create the "butterfly" pose I ask students to imagine what their own butterfly wings might look like. Then we spent some calming time in savasana, laying on our backs and simply being still for a few moments.

After our movement practice, it was time to begin creating artwork! I showed the students Basquiat's work again for inspiration. We talked about the idea of symmetry in art, and I explained that they would be creating a symmetrical shape that would become the head of a GIANT monster that we'd complete over the next few classes. And instead of cutting our shape we'd be RIPPING and tearing the paper to get the symmetrical shape we wanted. After demonstrating how to tear the paper with a little more control, they got started on their own creation. We used oil pastels to draw the details of the eyes, nose, mouth, and any other features they wanted to add! Here are the creations in progress!

 

Movement and Art: Becoming Lines

A Kindergarten artist transformed his squiggle into a dragon!

It is exciting to start another year of teaching with Mind Move Make!  I feel tremendous gratitude that I am able to bring mindfulness, movement, and art to children and adults in the Portland area.  I am thankful to spend my time working on and thinking about how to incorporate these three beautiful elements into a program that benefits others by offering skills and techniques in mindfulness and developing social-emotional learning.  So many of my passions get to interact and play together, all in the hopes of helping individuals find calm, develop self-regulation, cultivate creativity, explore emotions, and encourage a sense of community.  I am fortunate to engage in this work everyday.

During my first class of the school year at Alameda, we started by getting used to the space and getting to know one another.  All students sat in a circle eating their snacks as we went around the room sharing our favorite foods and our names.  This sharing activity allows the students to start to cultivate a sense of community.  After that, I asked them to define the three components of our class: mindfulness, movement, and art.  I also elaborated about each idea, adding on to what was already shared.  In terms of mindfulness, I explained that it was paying attention to what is happening RIGHT NOW!

Then, I asked the returning students if any of them would like to demonstrate what a "mindful body" looks like and talk about what a mindful body is.  One student raised her hand and showed us what her body looks like in the "mindful" position.  Everyone got the chance to try on their own versions of a mindful body, with an upright spine, criss-crossed legs, and hands either resting on knees or on the belly.  After taking a few big, beautiful breaths in this position I asked everyone to try to take a nourishing breath sitting in their most slumped posture.  Everyone agreed that this did not feel good in their bodies and recognized that it was very hard to take a deep breath.

 With everyone inhabiting their mindful bodies, we started our first Mindful Minute practice together.  This is something we will practice every time we come together as a group.  I invited everyone to either close their eyes or gaze down towards the floor.  At first, I asked the students to pay attention to the sound of the singing bowl; to listen to that sound until they could not hear it anymore.  When they could no longer hear the singing bowl sound, they were to put one thumb up.  Then they were supposed to listen closely to other sounds happening all around them.  I explained that at the end of this practice everyone would have a chance to share what they heard.

After that we got the wiggles out with a little movement.  I taught the students Tadasana, or Mountain Pose.  Asking them to become their strongest mountain, I went around and tried to gently knock each student over.  With their feet firmly planted, they created a very sturdy base that is difficult to topple.  Next, the students were invited to dance, move, and shake anywhere in any way that felt good in their own bodies.  And when I rang the singing bowl, they were to once again find their Mountain Pose and follow their breath.  Everyone did a great job, and no mountains were crumbled as everyone remained strong and steady!

This is the second year that Mind Move Make has offered classes at Alameda Elementary.  This year, the students in the class are mostly Kindergarteners with a few returning first graders also participating.  For our first class I wanted to see where they were skill-wise in terms of art.  This would tell me where I could go with them this session in creating art.  To do this I brought back a project I did with first graders for many years while I was an art educator.

First, we read the book The Squiggle by Carole Lexa Schaefer.  In the book, a class of young children are walking with their teacher through a park in a straight line.  One imaginative little girl picks up a red string and proceeds to imagine that it is everything from a dragon, to the moon, to the Great Wall of China.  In terms of art elements, it is a great way to introduce the concept of line.  After reading the book and talking about it, we became many types of lines with our bodies.  Some children worked with partners to become lines, and some chose to work alone.  Together we became wavy, diagonal, horizontal, vertical, scalloped, and many more.  

These students are working together to create a zig-zag line!

Here are some of the different lines we transformed our bodies into!

After engaging in the movement work of becoming lines, I explained the art portion of our class.  For each student I created a "squiggle" line.  As artists, their job was to transform this squiggle into something from their imagination, just as the little girl from the book used her imagination to transform the red string.  Well, I was blown away by the imaginations of the students, their art skills, and the difference between everyone's drawings!  If this first class is any indication, we will be able to do a lot of fantastic artwork this session in Mind Move Make!  Here are some examples of the different drawings:

Mindfulness: A Foundational Workshop

Thank you to this mystery artist who got very creative
with the agenda!  It looks beautiful.

This is the story of how I provided a mindfulness workshop for 170 Portland-based Catholic School teachers.....

In late May I was contacted by Reyni Racklin, the Academic Support Coordinator for St. John Fisher, to see if I was interested in facilitating a mindfulness training for the teachers and staff at her school.  At first it was going to be a training for around 30-40 teachers and staff members from one Southwest Portland Catholic school.  I was interested in the opportunity; Reyni and I talked about the possibilities.  A few weeks later, she said that two more schools were interested and it would be more like 75-100 teachers participating in the training.  That is a lot of people to provide the intimacy required to truly experience mindfulness.  In the end, when I agreed to organize the workshop, nine Portland metro area Catholic schools were participating, meaning there would be 170 teachers and staff members attending the inservice.  I was told the workshop would take place in a church that seated 700 people.  After I said I would do it, I thought, "What did I get myself into?  How am I going to offer an authentic experience of mindfulness to 170 people?"

Well, I found out as the workshop took place on August 30th.  I was fortunate to be supported by several amazing individuals at St. John Fisher who welcomed me and made sure everything went smoothly.  First, Reyni was amazing to collaborate with and bounce ideas off of.  Merrit, the principal at St. John Fisher, is extremely forward-thinking as she is the person who spearheaded a mindfulness initiative at her school; she is warm, personable, and quick to flash a beautiful smile.  Jan, our tech guru, made sure everything was in working order.  And Deacon Scott helped set up the space, procured a cordless microphone, and assisted with the tricky sound situation in the church.  Many thanks to all of you for your help and assistance!!!

I began the workshop by telling the teachers that I was one of their kids all grown up!  I attended Catholic schools from 4th grade through high school, and on through college.  Simultaneously, I am one of them: a fellow teacher who has almost 20 years of experience as an art educator in K-8 schools.  When I found out there would be 9 schools participating, I contacted each principal and asked about the goals and needs of their community in connection to mindfulness training.  The email message I received from one principal in particular truly spoke to me and communicated beautifully our purpose for coming together to learn about and practice mindfulness. During the start of the workshop I read the thoughtful and compassionate response of this principal (who will remain anonymous!):

          "My goal as principal is simply to enable all of my staff members-both faculty and support staff-to be introduced to the concept mindfulness and how it can help them on a personal level to be the best that they can be throughout this coming school year.  My hope is that the philosophy, practices and strategies that you share will help all of us walk away from the session with new 'tools' in our educator's tool belt as to how to take good care of ourselves and to nourish our souls a bit-all with the ultimate goal of serving well the needs of the children in our care."

This lovely response communicates that the principals of these nine schools see their teachers as multi-dimensional human beings who deserve support and self-care.  All teachers take on a career that is tremendously rewarding, but  also emotionally, physically, and mentally draining.  Educators are considered responsible for the academic success of the children in their care, along with facilitating the social and emotional relationships of the 25-30 students present in the room.   They must challenge the highest achieving students in their classroom while meeting the needs of children who are struggling.  Communication and relationships must be fostered between the teacher and all of the children's parents, along with collaboration between their colleagues.  The principals recognize the daunting, never-ending nature of a job as a teacher.  They see that mindfulness has the potential to replenish depleted resources.

I explained to the teachers that I wanted our time together to feel more like a retreat than a typical workshop.  I know from experience that the beginning of the year is a stressful time.  It seems impossible to get everything accomplished before the new students are standing in the doorway waiting to enter the classroom.  Through mindfulness, I wanted to give teachers time to connect with themselves and with each other before the first day of school.  My hope was that the mindfulness techniques and practices offered during the inservice would help teachers cope with stress, cultivate compassion for self and others, and bring more resilience into their lives. 

After reviewing our agenda for the day, the first practice we started with was a Mindful Minute.  We spent one minute together in silence settling into the space, getting in touch with our breath and our bodies, and giving ourselves permission to listen to our own experience in the present moment.  The sound of the singing bowl acted as a container for the beginning and end of the practice.  It was beautiful and powerful to watch the teachers in the space, eyes closed, breathing together.  I also took the time to check in with myself and realized that I felt confident and excited to share mindfulness with so many individuals who touch the lives of children in our community.

After starting with that grounding practice, I went on to share one of the ways that mindfulness impacts my life in a positive way.  As an educator and the mother of two young children, one of the most important ways my practice helps me is in allowing me to work with reactivity.  Mindfulness helps me to more skillfully respond to the things happening in my life, both externally and internally.  I used the words of Viktor Frankl, a neurologist, psychiatrist, and a Holocaust survivor, to better convey this message:

"Between stimulus and response there is a space.  In that space is our power to choose our response.  In our response lies our growth and our freedom."  

Then, we launched into a mindful movement practice as I lead everyone in Volcano Breath!  Smiles spread across many faces as we stood up and spread out in the church, taking five nourishing breaths while pairing that with the movement of our arms.  Everyone seemed happy for the chance to stand and stretch, an opportunity to connect with the body through movement.  Such a good reminder that our students, who are still children, also gladly welcome the opportunity to move their bodies throughout the school day.  A short movement break such as this can lead them to feel more prepared and willing to learn.

During our three hours together many ideas were introduced, and mindfulness techniques were sprinkled in throughout the course of the day.  We touched on the history and research associated with secular mindfulness, briefly looked at interpersonal neurobiology, analyzed the ever-evolving definition of "mindfulness", addressed some common misconceptions around the practice, worked with interpersonal mindfulness, and ended with sharing practical ways of making mindfulness a part of everyday life.  It was a lot of information to cover in three hours.  In continuing with this article, I will expand on three of the most powerful parts of our day together.

During one part of the training I discussed toxic stress.  The organization Mindful Schools defines toxic stress as feeling that "...life's demands consistently outpace our ability to cope with those demands".  In order for the teachers to identify where stress manifests in their own bodies, I asked them to close their eyes and think of a stressful situation they were currently working with. While allowing the mind to focus on that stressful occurrence, I asked them to concentrate on what they were feeling in their bodies.  In my own body, stress causes my shoulders to tighten, and sometimes I experience a knot in my stomach.  Recognizing where stress impacts our bodies allows us to know when it is creeping into our lives.  That way we can see it coming and more effectively work with it, possibly using mindfulness as a tool to counteract that stress.

After asking the teachers to bring stress into the space and into their bodies, we spent some time in movement to decompress and get rid of it.  I invited everyone to stand up, stretch, and shake out the parts of their bodies that experienced stress.  Then I lead everyone in a body scan, starting with the crown of the head and moving progressively down to the feet.  The body scan was one of the many mindfulness tools I shared with the teachers to work with stress in a positive way.

During another part of the workshop I showed a Ted Talk by the group Holistic Life Foundation.  This organization works with children in inner-city Baltimore.  The teachers were able to see first-had how mindfulness and yoga have the power to positively transform not only the school where the practices were introduced, but the entire neighborhood and community.  Here is a link to the video if you want to take a look yourself.

Another powerful part of the workshop centered around interpersonal mindfulness, which is bringing mindfulness into the way we relate and connect to others around us.  Before having the opportunity to share and interact with another person in the room, I asked the teachers to explore their ideas around three questions through writing in their journals.  Here are the questions:

1. What are the qualities of a good listener
2. Recall the last time you felt truly listened to by another person.
3. How does it feel to be authentically listened to?

After reflecting on these questions individually, they had the opportunity to share with another person, but we did this in a very specific way.

First, I introduced the idea of compassionate listening.  As a compassionate listener, your only job is to be fully present with the person in front of you, focusing on every word the other person is saying.  The listener is not supposed to interrupt, interject, or ask questions while their partner is talking, giving their partner the gift of undivided attention.  After a few minutes, the roles change and the listener becomes the one sharing.

We also found partners in a specific way.  Earlier in the day I introduced the practice of mindful walking.  We used this practice to slowly and intentionally wander through the church space to find a partner.  After spending a few minutes mindfully walking through the space, I rang the singing bowl. Upon hearing that sound, all participants were asked to partner with the person standing closest to them.  Each individual would stand back-to-back with their partner as I reminded everyone in the group of their common humanity.  "Your partner was once an infant, completely dependent on the care of others" I said; "Your partner was once the same age as the children you currently teach," I reminded them.  My hope was that compassion would develop for the person with whom they were about to experience interpersonal mindfulness,  thinking of the individual not only as a fellow teacher but seeing them as a human who has experienced an entire life up until this moment.  After standing back to back for a few minutes, I rang the singing bowl again and the participants turned to face their partners and began to share their thoughts about the three questions I asked them to reflect on earlier in their journals.  Each person had the opportunity to be both the compassionate listener and the person being listened to.

In closing, I shared some practical ways that the teachers could bring mindfulness into their everyday lives.  It can be difficult to carve out large amounts of time to practice, but finding two to five minutes several times throughout the day seems more manageable.  For children, practicing mindfulness many times throughout the day for short one to five minute intervals is more effective than spending one long chunk of time on the practice.  It brings them back to this focused place in several small bursts rather than for one long, extended period of time.  I invited the teachers to try this in their own lives.

In the end, the workshop went better than I could have imagined.  There was an intimacy contained in the space and in the time we shared together, though the group was large.  I am thankful for the experience of bringing mindfulness to 170 teachers and would love to offer this training again to another group.  Fortunately, I will have the opportunity to offer a follow-up mindfulness workshop to the same teachers in February.

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss developing a mindfulness workshop for your organization or school.  My email is julie@mindmovemake.com.

Here are a couple pictures from the workshop:

Teachers practicing Volcano Breath, one form of mindful movement that I introduced.

Reyni, me, and Merrit together before the workshop

Strength

STRENGTH: "What does it meant to you to be strong?" I asked the students in Mind Move Make classes.  There were many fantastic responses.  We talked about physical, mental, and emotional strength, and I gave them an example of each type of strength from my own life.   During our discussion of emotional strength, a student named Isabel compared feeling emotionally strong to when cartoon characters feel something so intensely that there is a burst of color or a visual representation of the emotion.  I love that image.

The students learned three physical motions to describe each type of strength.  For physical strength we made muscles with our arms, for mental strength we pointed to our brains, and for emotional strength we crossed our hands over our hearts.  Then we read a book called Super Manny Stands Up! by Kelly DiPucchio.  I asked the students to identify when Manny, the main character, showed the three different types of strength by silently making the gestures I taught them.  The book tells the story of a boy who has a very large imagination and a collection of many different colored capes.  He takes on a new superhero persona when wearing each different colored cape.  At school he wears his "invisible cape" but remaines a superhero throughout the day.  During lunch, a bully is picking on a child who is much smaller than he is.  At first Manny is too scared to do anything, but he ends up telling the bully to stop even though it is difficult.  His emotional strength inspires courage in many of the student around him, and they all stand up to the bully.  In the end, Manny becomes good friends with the child he defends from the bully.  Mind Move Make students were excellent at identifying the times Manny showed the three different types of strength; I was impressed by their recognition and their explanations for how Manny was showing strength.  The book really helped them understand the idea of strength in a more robust way.

After discussing the book a bit after reading it, we settled down and engaged on a more direct mindfulness experience.  The students had the opportunity to lay on their backs in a circle.  I invited each student to place one hand on their heart and one hand on their stomach.  After taking three deep, delicious breaths I asked three questions, giving space between each so that the students had time to answer within their own minds.  I asked, "What have you done recently that made you feel strong?  Can you figure out if you were showing physical, mental, or emotional strength?  Who is a person in your life that shows strength?"

Then I gave my students their treasure to symbolize strength.  Over the corse of several outings I collected many different rocks, with the help of my two children.  I placed all the rocks in the center of our circle and gave each student the chance to choose the rock that spoke most to them.  They were very excited to select their own rock!  Then we held our rocks while breathing in and out and           focusing on our times of strength.

Yoga is a wonderful practice for building all three areas strength.  Together we practiced many poses that strengthen the body.  Upon moving into each pose we recited a different phrase that Manny would chant in the book.  Some of the phrases are, "I am strong!  I am powerful!  I am peaceful!"  Then I had students share their own phrases that make them feel strong and confident.  It was beautiful to hear them saying these words of strength out loud, and to see how much they embodied the words through their physical stature and the smiles on their faces.

During the art part of our class today, each student brainstormed ideas for their symbol of strength in their sketchbooks.  Here are a few examples of what they came up with:

Happiness

HAPPINESS: What makes you feel happy, joyful, playful?  These were the questions Mind Move Make students focused on during two classes for Session 3.  Happiness was the first idea we worked with; there will be four ideas in total.  We are collecting four objects in a bag created by the students, and each object will represent the idea that we are currently looking at.  It is important to recognize the things we do in life that bring happiness so that we can observe and celebrate these experiences.  From a neuroscience perspective, our brains are hard-wired to notice the negative things that happen.  Focusing on happiness can work to change the neural pathways of our brains so that we see clearly the joy that exists in life.

Sitting in a circle during the beginning of our class together, I asked the students to close their eyes and find their mindful bodies.  When everyone was ready,  I placed a special object into each child's open palm.  The object was a smooth, clear glass stone.  Before opening their eyes I asked them to explore the object using only their sense of touch, then they could open their eyes and really look at it.  We had a discussion about happiness and I asked them to call to mind what brought them happiness.  After talking about and sharing a few things that bring joy to the students, I asked them to close their eyes and put all their happiest thoughts, ideas, and memories into the stone.  We focused on our breathing as we explored happiness in our own minds.

During the movement part of our class, the students spent time bouncing and shaking in all sorts of ways focusing on bringing energy into the body.  After some boisterous movement paired with cat/cow and down dog I asked the students to come into their favorite yoga pose and focus on why they like this pose.

Art-wise, I explained to the students that they would develop a symbol for themselves that represented happiness.  This class was devoted to brainstorming images that could become this symbol.  I asked them to think about the actions, people, and places that bring them joy and perhaps transform one of these into their symbol.  As usual, the students surprised me with their creativity.

A second grader's bag with her happiness stone sitting inside.

This fourth grader's ideas of happiness involve music, nature, and sunshine.

This Kindergartner is happy in nature.