Tag: Breathing

Mindfulness Breathing…

We breathe all day, every day without thinking about it—but something truly transformative can happen when the breath becomes something we do think about.” – Maggie Seaver.

In addition to my previous post, I wanted to stay on the topic of breathing and how it contributes to mindfulness and wellbeing. I came across an awesome blog style website called realsimple.com, they have a bunch of helpful resources ranging from saving money to recipes, but of course the category that stood out to me most was the “health” tab, category “mental health”. Clicking this “mental health” category opened me up to a World of self-care and mental wellness articles. And of course, I found a post strictly on breathing exercises!! 

The article is named “5 Mindfulness Breathing Exercises You Can Do Anywhere, Anytime”, and Maggie Seaver (author) lays out each mindfulness breathing exercise, the benefits of each and the ways in which you should complete them.  

The last five days I have practiced each of them once a day and found the ones I felt best suited me and the ones that I am whiling to give more time to. The two I found most helpful in taking me to a state of calmness were, “deep breathing” and “2-4 breathing”, I am excited to further use these techniques and share them with others in the hope they too help bring calmness to their lives! Give them a try! 🙂

www.realsimple.com
www.realsimple.com

Breathing in the classroom:

In addition, I feel that trying these five breathing techniques each week in a classroom would be a great way to introduce the benefits of using our own breath to calm our nervous system to students. You could introduce them individually, then once the students are familiar with each technique you could give them the option of using the one that best suits them. 

Resources for Teachers (Mindfulness)

Photo by Amanda Jones on Unsplash

For this week’s mindfulness practice, I wanted to switch it up a bit! Instead of choosing a mindfulness practice I could do, I decided to take a look into the “teacher” side of mindfulness and search for ways you can implement it into your classroom on an educational level (activities, cross curricular lesson, etc.) I came across an awesome website called Education.com, this website has tons of resources for teachers, covers all grades and topics, AND most of the resources are FREE!  

The lesson plan that stuck out to me most was “Paying Attention with Animal Breaths”. The reason it stuck out to me was most was because of its focus on using your breath. I feel that teaching breathing techniques early on could be a beneficial lesson for students as they can revert back to it in hard situations, explain it to others that are experiencing a hard time and it does not need any exterior materials, just yourself! Plus, from personal experiences I have noticed it calms the nervous system and takes your mind to a place of calmness and being in the present moment. Lastly, I love how the students can create their own “animal breath” that they can use forever and it is a cross curricular lesson as it incorporates literacy and art skills.

I strongly encourage you to check this website out and maybe create an “animal breath” of your own! 🙂

“Paying Attention with Animal Breaths” Lesson Plan PDF.