Resiliency Toolkit

Mindful movement means slowing down. Being present in what we are doing at any one time. By practicing mindful movement we can slow down to hear or discover what we are thinking and feeling. We can then allow that pause to help us decide what to do with the feelings or thoughts.

Practicing mindful movement can help us in our everyday lives. There are movements that calm, movements that energize, movements that help with sleep, movements that ignite gratitude, and movements that improve athletic performance.

Check out more Mindful Movements Here

In this mindful movement practice, we look to celebrate our physicality and better connect with our breath and our body. The goal of this practice is to invite a feeling of calm, stability and ease. Take a few minutes for yourself to move mindfully.

1. Standing up, place your feet hip-width distance apart. Get into a comfortable stance. We’re just finding the rhythm of our breath and our body here. Inhale and reach your arms forward and up. Spin your palms open, exhale, and move your arms out and down. Let’s do that two more times, synchronizing our movement with our breath.
     
2. I call this next move “synching body and mind.” Inhale, reaching forward and up again, and now on the exhale, reach over to your left as you lean left. Inhale and rise back up to centre. Then exhale and sway to your right. Inhale, reach up. We’re moving slowly on purpose, everyone. Let’s do that two more times.
    
3. Now let’s inhale and reach back up. Exhale to the left, and we’re going to hold here. Let’s bring a supporting hand to our hip. And now breathe in and reach. Now exhale—just following the breath here. Inhale, nice and deep, and go back up to centre. And when we exhale, we’re reaching to the side, pressing our hips to the opposite side and breathing in and out, focusing on our breath as we do so. This is a great side stretch.
    
4. Now let’s place our hands on our knees like we’re baseball players. Reaching arms straight back behind us while we’re in this crouch, pull your bum back, too. On your inhale, reach arms forward, up, rise and look up. Exhale arms back and down and go back into that crouch. Let’s do that two more times.
    
5. On the next inhale, reach your arms all the way up. When they’re up there this time, interlock your fingers behind your head. Root through your feet and send your hips forward. Can you really let your head go, really rest it on your hands? What does that feel like? Open your elbows up just a little wider. And let’s take one more big breath to stretch our lungs. Then exhale back down to baseball-player position.
    
6. Can you drop from your hands to put your elbows on your knees? If you have challenges with your lower back, stay right here with your hands supporting you. Otherwise, drop your elbows to your knees and look down—this is terrific forward flexion for the back. Let’s take three breaths here as we move dynamically: Inhale and straighten the legs, exhale bend the knees, matching movement and breath. This is what we mean by coherent breath. Let’s do that two more times.
    
7. Now from baseball-player position, let’s come all the way down to our belly on the floor. We’re going to do a gentle, dynamic back bend. So let’s reach our arms out to the sides and bring our legs together. On the inhale, lift up. And on the exhale, lower half way down. Inhale, lift back up, and exhale, lower down. This is extremely healthy for our spines. For this last inhale, lift up and hold. Hold and reach through your fingers, lift your chest, lift your leg. And now release down.
    
8. And now let’s roll on to our backs. Straighten both legs out and, again, we’ll work dynamically here. Pull your right knee in, give yourself a good hug here, a good squeeze. This is a wonderful hip stretch. Breathe in. Breathe out. Now switch legs.
    
9. While on your back bring both knees to a 90-degree angle above you now. Stretch your arms out to either side of your body. We’ll take our final spinal twist here—our final move of this practice. Let’s inhale and lower our knees to the right and look to the left. Now exhale and lift to centre. Your knees do not need to touch the floor. We’re just looking for a nice, easy stretch here and to synchronize our breath with this movement. Inhale and move the knees to the left, looking right, and exhale, bring the knees back to centre. Let’s do that two more times.
    
10. Now place feet back on the floor, then straighten the legs out. Separate your feet and spread arms out to your sides. Spin your palms upwards to the sky. You’re like a snow angel or a starfish now, big and wide. Let’s close our eyes here and allow ourselves these next few minutes to really connect with our body. While in this stillness, notice any sensations, any sense of coolness or heat. Maybe you can feel some tingling in spots? Our body speaks to us through the language of sensation. And by connecting body and mind, through breath and movement, our awareness is heightened. We start to become more fluent in that language of sensation. So what are you feeling in your body right now?
     
11. And now let’s direct our awareness to our breath. Just notice how your body is breathing, what it feels like to be inhaling. Note the changes in your ribs, around your back, and what happens when you exhale. Just notice your body, breath, any pulsing or sensations and use them as anchors for your awareness in this practice.
     
12. And finally, simply open your eyes and notice what it feels like to be you right now in this moment. Do you feel more clear and calm? More stable? More at ease? Maybe you feel more energized and ready for your day. Pull your knees to your chest and just roll over to one side. Then roll up and have a seat for one more moment.

Establishing a routine that recognizes the body’s natural response to light and dark can help keep your circadian rhythms in sync. Here are some expert-recommended strategies to move toward optimal circadian health.

1. Stick to a Sleep/Wake Schedule. Try to maintain a consistent sleepwake cycle (and thus a consistent dark-light cycle) by going to sleep and getting up at the same time every day. Try not to deviate more than an hour on weekdays, and more than two hours on weekends.

2. Consider the Quality of Light. Get as much daylight exposure as possible during the daytime. If natural light is not available, you can use bright, blue-enriched white light bulbs indoors. Sleep in the dark, at night, or wear an eye mask to block light from reaching the eyes.

3. Create Natural Wind-Down Lighting Between Dusk and Dark. Just as the sun goes down, you can mimic that fading light by minimizing bright light and moving toward a warmer orange light, which promotes sleep, ideally three hours before going to bed.

4. Pay Attention to Your Nighttime Light. Any light tells the brain it’s daytime, encouraging alertness, and suppresses melatonin, the hormone that tells the brain that it’s night. If needed, use a dim red-orange night light in the hall or bathroom.

5. Sleep at Night. Focus on getting all the sleep you need at night, so you don’t need a nap during the day. If you need to nap, make it short—no more than 20 minutes.

6. Eat Smarter. Avoid eating three hours before bedtime. Ideally, you want to consume more of your calories in the daytime when your metabolism is most active.

7. Practice Screen Hygiene. Dim the lights and don’t use screens within two hours of bedtime. The blue light emitted from TV, tablets, phones, and computers can have a delayed, negative effect on your sleep, even with the use of apps or eyeglasses that block blue light.

8. Establish a Wind-Down Routine. Create a transition time that separates day from night. Do something relaxing before bed, such as breathing exercises or yoga. This is a good way to calm the mind and body.

1. Take some belly breaths: A few long, deep belly breaths coupled with calming sounds provide rhythmic healing to a worn-out nervous system. Before you go to sleep or first thing when you awaken, step outside and just listen to the night or morning sounds. Sit comfortably, and for two or three minutes take a few deep breaths, exhaling a few seconds longer than you inhale. Listen to the rhythm of the crickets, katydids, or morning birds.

2. Try a yoga pose: There is growing research on the benefits of certain yoga poses to relieve anxiety and calm the nervous system. One of the most powerful ways to feel immediate relief from the overwhelming sensations of the day is to lie on your back with your legs straight up at a 90-degree angle against a wall. You can place a pillow under your head, but with your legs elevated, take a few minutes and breathe all the way down to your belly, feeling it rise and fall with each inhale and exhale. This pose produces a release of anxiety in the body.

3. Talk to yourself: Talking out loud to yourself, especially in the third person, can be extremely helpful in stressful moments. If you’re by yourself, say what you need to say about a problem and then talk about options or outcomes. Validate and soothe yourself. If you’re not alone, take a minute to write down your concerns and challenges until you can speak them aloud later. Try adding soothing and comforting words you need to hear, and say those out loud whenever you need them.

4. Control what you can control: When we’re feeling anxious, overwhelmed, and worried, we can lose perspective on what is realistic and in our control, so it can be helpful to create a short list of the experiences, events, or situations that we can control and those we cannot. Sometimes when we’re feeling dysregulated, we forget to pause, step back, and try to find a deeper perspective. As educators, we tend to want to fix problems, soothe troubled student feelings, and quickly find a solution. Often, we need to let go and observe, allowing the experience to unfold. Follow the quiet. Allow the quiet of contemplation to enter, and to leave when its work is completed.

5. Hum or sing: Humming and singing activate the vagus nerve, a critical nerve that flows from the brain stem throughout most of our body. It is associated with functions of the body that are automatic, like swallowing, digesting, and the heart’s beating, and it relays signals to the brain that all is well or not. Activating this nerve basically tells your brain that you are calm and relaxed, while stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system to slow your heart rate and respiration and lower your blood pressure. Our voice box is connected to the vagus nerve, so when we hum or sing, we activate this nerve and initiate a calm nervous system response in the brain and body.

Journaling is an exercise often used as a means of pursuing mental health and well being. Here is some information on how journaling works and why it works. Creating a written or typed narration of your thoughts, experiences, and feelings provides you with an opportunity to make internal experiences tangible. 

Establishing a tangible narrative through journaling allows you: 

1. Sift through your cognitions (or thoughts) 

2. Shift your perspective(s) when necessary 

3. Unpack/explore and/or process thoughts, feelings, and experiences 

The above enables you to determine how to move forward in a manner that facilitates your mental health and wellbeing and is consistent with your life goals. While having an ongoing practice of journaling may be a component of your regular mental health care regimen (you’ve got one of those right? If not establish one ASAP!), at this time, when our day-to-day lives have been disrupted due to the coronavirus pandemic, it is particularly important for us to make sure that we’re attending to our mental health. 

Below are some journal prompts for you to try: 

Journal Promps Reflecting on the New (Temporary) Normal:

• What has changed in your day-to-day life since COVID-19 became “a thing”? 
• Which changes have caused the greatest imposition(s)? 
• Which changes have led to the most distress? 
• Which changes, if any, have been pleasantly surprising? 
• Which changes have led to some relief of distress? 

Journal Prompts with Movement Towards Joy:

• What are things that bring me joy (e.g. activities, hobbies, experiences)? 
• Why do these things increase my joyfulness? 
• What is it about these things and what is it about me that leads to interaction (between myself and these things)-based joy? 
• Which people/relationships increase my joy? 
• What is it about these people and what is it about me that leads to interaction-based (between myself and these people) joy? 
• What may I do to maintain my connections to people and things adding to my joyfulness during the pandemic?

Journal Prompts for Gaining Perspective: 

• What are you learning about yourself as a result of the coronavirus-related shifts in your life? How have you come to learn these things? 
• What are you learning about other people (both close others and not-so-close others) as a result of our present situation? How have you come to learn these things? 
• What are you learning about institutions (colleges & universities, the government, etc.) related to these shifts? How have you come to learn these things?
• What are you learning about your home, local, and global communities? How have you come to learn these things? 
• How may you integrate this new learning and related perspectives gained into your life moving forward.

Journal Prompts with Movement Toward Joy 2: 

•  Who in my immediate present circle seems most in need of joy?
• What may I do to increase their joy? 
• What may I do to add to the joyfulness of all others around me? 
• How may I add joy to the lives of the people from whom I am physically distanced at present? 

Sheltering in place and the new routines that come with it can be disorienting. Here's a list of questions that will help you check in with yourself every day. 

1. What am I grateful for today? What are you grateful for today? Take two minutes every day to make a list. Add to it throughout the day.

2. Who am I checking in on, or connecting with, today? Pick three people each day to check in on. Call your grandma. FaceTime your mom. Text your friends. Check on the neighbors. 

3. What expectations of “normal” am I letting go today? It’s okay if you don’t get to inbox zero by the end of the day. Figure out what is actually important to you in this moment and focus on that. Science fiction novelist Octavia Butler, who wrote about resilience and adaptation in dystopian times, tells us, “The only lasting truth is Change.” The faster we let go of expectations of “normal,” the faster we adapt.

4. How am I getting outside today? Nature, fresh air, and sunshine are good for our nervous systems. Simply leaving the house is helpful. Can you sit in the sun for 10 minutes? Step outside briefly to see the moon as it rises? Even if you cannot physically get outside, can you open a window for fresh air? Or bring flowers inside?

5. How am I moving my body today? Take a 10-minute walk around the block. Run the stairs in your building. Do five push-ups. If you have limited mobility or fitness, can you roll your ankles in a circle while seated? Massage the tension out of your jaw? Put a hand on your heart to feel its beat?

6. What beauty and I creating, cultivating, or invite in today? Beauty is a powerful antidote to despair. Recognizing the beauty in the world and bringing it into our lives is an affirmation of the life that still exists and is worth fighting for. Becoming creators, not just consumers, of culture gives us agency and power. So, let’s write about our lives, draw our dreams, sing our sorrows, plant gardens, cook for our neighbors, repair our clothes, and create culture to survive the hard times wherever and however we can. 

Today we face the virtual world as well as the real one.  There’s much research to show that social media can encourage a comparison culture that undermines our self-confidence.  In a recent study, half the participants reported that they compare their accomplishments unfavorably with those of their friends when they go online.  Mindfulness can help us to engage with social media in a more real and honest way so we can maintain a positive sense of self. 

1. Before you log on, take a moment to relax your body and breathe.  Check in with yourself:  What are you feeling?  Are you looking forward to seeing what your contacts are doing, or are you simply logging on out of habit?  Observe how you feel. 

2. Be real.  Many people feel that they have to adapt a certain character online, but confidence means being your true self.  If you can’t be authentic, ask yourself what is the point of communicating online?

3. Join groups that make you feel good and give you something worthwhile.  Disconnect from people who make you feel bad, just as you do in your everyday life. 

4. The online world can be fun, but it is rarely something that you need to be in touch with constantly. Beware the feeling that you are missing out if you don’t log on and consider the fact that logging on will likely make you miss out on real life.

5. Avoid neediness.  If others do not signal approval of your posts or comments, how do you feel?  If you long for a response that you are not getting, consider whether your online interactions are undermining your confidence. 

6. When you log off, check in with how you feel again - do you feel happier or grumpier?  More confident or less?  Social media can be a light relief, but it can also damage our feelings of self-worth.  If it does for you, consider why you are doing it.  

7. Set yourself limits - for example, avoid using social media first thing in the morning or last thing at night.  Take a break to reset your thinking.  In fact, give yourself at least an hour’s window to engage with the reality of the moment and spend your time in the real world.

8. Device-Free Zones: The easiest way to stop yourself accessing social media at bedtime and when you wake up is to make a point of keeping your devices out of the bedroom.  Keep them away from the dinner table, too.

**These are points to bear in mind every time you use social media.  It’s a good idea to refer to them at least once a week, 

to consider whether your online habits are helping or hindering you.

• Why Your Friends Are More Important Than You Think 

• 3 Ways to Nurture Positivity During Difficult Times 

• 4 Ingredients for Human Well-Being 

• Stress: What Brings It On? 

• Feeling Disconnected? Connect with Kindness 

• 3 Simple Ways to Cultivate Joy Everyday 

• Change to Chill - Staying Calm During Uncertainty