Thursday, 2/14
We met today and introduced ourselves with sounds and movement. We discussed how we all feel anxious and worried from time to time. We established it is okay to feel uncomfortable feelings. It doesn't feel okay, but it's normal, and we learn how to work through the unpleasant feelings in healthy ways. Our techniques this week included the singing bowl, crocodile breath and turtle hands.
Wednesday, 2/27
We met today in the library and then shifted to an empty Kindergarten classroom (while they were out at lunch). Boy, do we need a dedicated space to work . . . not easy to come by at Pleasant Hill Elementary! We read about "Worried Watermelons" in the book Shy Spaghetti and Excited Eggs. One strategy for moving anxious to awesome is to take a deep breath in and then pretend to blow your worries into a balloon. When you fill the balloon with five breaths, "tie it off," and let the balloon float away! Our second strategy was moving like the sun! Here's is on old video of Mrs. Broam teaching this skill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5POltBH6Jo . Our third strategy was sequencing color tiles in order of darkest shade of color to lightest. You could do this with paint chip samples! The idea is to move the unpleasant feeling one shade of color at a time~baby steps. One deep breath, move to a lighter shade of color. One deep breath, move to a lighter shade of color. I will keep presenting tools and hopefully your child with fill her toolbox with the ones that are a good fit for her! We're excited to start the week next week with our group time! Please let me know if you have any questions.
Monday, 3/4
We discussed our favorite strategies so far, ones we remember or shared with mom or have tried at home. We used "listening bells" and peacock feathers to practice mindfulness. We moved like the sun to invite balance into our bodies! We talked about how the amygdala (upstairs brain) grows too big in an overactive, anxious mind. Breathing and sitting still and quietly calms the upstairs brain and helps the downstairs brain go to work. The downstairs brain is the "wise leader" or prefrontal cortex. This is where we make our best decisions and do our best learning. We want to spend more time downstairs than upstairs. We practiced four breathing strategies: ferris wheel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKoC7QDTn5U), breathing bellows (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOpP5s4g6-0), bunny breath (https://sites.google.com/site/mrsbroam/home/breathing/bunny), and flower (https://sites.google.com/site/mrsbroam/home/breathing/candleflower, https://sites.google.com/site/mrsbroam/home/breathing/flowerbreath, and https://sites.google.com/site/mrsbroam/home/breathing/handorbody ). We shared a story about the worry woman who can take worries and make beautiful blankets with the worries we share with her. Have a good week! Hope you see some of these skills applied or practiced!
Wednesday, 3/13
We learned the water mudra (yoga for your hand) today! You can do this sitting on the floor, at your desk, standing in line, ANYWHERE! It is a movement like listening to the singing bowl or listening chimes, like balancing a peacock feather. You have to be in the moment as you tune in to the touch of the pinky on the thumb. We pretended to be a river and sang the sounds of the water traveling over the rocks: "Witchita Do-Ya." We worked a 3 pose flow: river, boat, and plow. If you brain freezes with your anxiety, "move like the sun" to "melt" your "frozen brain" -- Let it Go!, like Elsa and Anna!!
Wednesday, 3/20
Today we made a Worry Box! We glammed it up with glitter, stickers and brightly colored markers. We decided to let these dry and take them home next week. The idea is to write down your worries and tuck them in the box. The writing process is therapeutic and helps you "move" the feeling out of your body and brain, so you can create calm and be better able to do what you need to do next. We also talked a little about the glitter in a snow globe. If you shake up a snow globe, that's how it feels when worries overwhelm you! You can take good breaths, watch the glitter fall, and you'll feel calm like the snow globe when it's at rest. We didn't get to practice with this (creating worry boxes was too much fun), but we'll begin our time together with this idea next week.
Wednesday, 3/27
Today was wrap up day! We practiced everybody's favorite tool in the "anxious to awesome" toolbox: singing bowl, peacock feathers, moving like the sun, and worry box. We created a spider web with yarn as we shared how we would use what we have learned when we are worried in the future. We practiced not getting tangled up in the worry by physically moving through it, stepping over or sliding under. Please remind your child about her circle of control: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CncHPlChNkk . We can't be in charge of tornados or what other people say or do, but we can take a deep breath, draw a picture or talk to someone we trust to sort through a worry in a healthy way. Everybody brought home a mandala. It's a circular, symmetrical coloring exercise to encourage calm and confidence from a resource called Mind Designs by Angela Troppa. I hope some of these ideas will be helpful when discussing at home how to move from anxious to awesome. I've enjoyed the opportunity to introduce these tools! I look forward to encouraging and supporting the use of them as your children live life and grow!