Have you sought out your marigolds? Are you a marigold for someone else?
Over the last few years, we have learned much about the social-emotional well-being of our children and families and clients. We've learned why it's important to address those needs and have been trained in some of the many ways to do that in our work. We've learned how SEL affects learning; terms like "trauma response" and "amygdala" have become commonplace in our conversations. But what about US? Don't we need and deserve to calm our own central nervous systems first before taking on the challenges of the children, families and providers we serve? The definitive answer is YES.
Stress and trauma trigger the same type of fight, flight, or freeze response in the adult amygdala. This response hijacks the rest of the brain so it becomes focused solely on responding to or fleeing from the perceived threat. When this happens, and you know it will, we need to have a collection of go-to, rapid resets at the ready. We need to be able to tap into a quick-and-easy strategy that helps us snap ourselves out of the stress response and into a more calm and focused way of being. An Edutopia article focused on just this idea. Explore the suggestions for rapid resets below. Each one encourages us to lean on one of our senses until we are back in a space where we can find our voice.