Teachers and school leaders create mindful, compassionate communities when they have the foundational knowledge in part I of this book; personal and classroom experience with the exercises in part II; and the deeper collaborative understanding and experience that we present in part III. We present a package to help grades preK–12 teachers, school leaders, and school communities practice the steps we recommend.
Mindfulness Practices: About the Book
While developing Mindfulness Practices, we relied on our collective experience leading schools and districts to consider what was essential to set the stage for cultivating more responsive and compassionate school communities through mindfulness. Our experiences facilitating systemic change, focusing on student self-determination and strengths, and collaborating with neuroscientists and educational leaders provided an important backdrop for our recommendations. Our work with rural and urban, including high-poverty, schools rounded out our practical experience, grounding us in the realities that teachers and principals face. Our experience teaching and practicing yoga, mindfulness, and meditation gave us confidence in the instructions we provide for incorporating these into your lives and into your classrooms through compassionate, heart centered action and instruction. The CEI (n.d.) says Heart Centered Learning™:
Equips students with the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, feel and show empathy for others, resolve conflicts nonviolently, think creatively, and overcome obstacles to succeed in the classroom and in life. Heart Centered Education is not overly dependent on rigid academic scheduling or expectations for academic growth—instead taking a holistic approach.
Note that the CEI is not alone in its connection of mindfulness to heart centeredness: many yogic and mindfulness traditions refer to listening to and acting from our hearts (Ruth, 2017). Hence, we use the term recognizing the importance of tuning into our hearts as we make decisions and help children heal from the trauma they have experienced. As a life-long student of metaphysics, mysticism, and spirituality Kiyanush Kamrani (2017) states that a “mindfulness practice is only complete when it includes the heart, as awareness is not limited to the mind; the heart is the center of our consciousness” (p. 1).
This book is grounded in research, input from exemplary principals, and practical experiences in schools. The research-based principles and activities that follow are universal, and you can easily adapt them across grades preK–12 or apply them to multiple settings. Whether you are concerned with a preschooler who seems withdrawn, a fourth grader who is missing too much school, or a ninth grader who bullies others, you will find that the mindfulness practices we recommend can help you restructure learning expectations, give you tools to help establish a sense of calmness, and turn around the lives of that student and teachers.
While there is an urgency to provide mindful instruction to help students mediate immediate and long-term trauma and stress impact, mindfulness is a simple and useful life tool for everyone (including our own selves, parents, families, and the larger community). With this book, you will learn steps and strategies for creating compassionate communities of students, teachers, staff, and school leaders to alleviate the impact of trauma and toxic, daily stress. In our approach, we make apparent the value of helping all students become more aware of the needs of self and others, as well as becoming more attuned to being compassionate.
The research conducted to date on mindfulness confirms its overall effectiveness (Schmalzl et al., 2015; Zenner et al., 2014). While the techniques are meant for all schools and all classrooms—not just those with the most serious needs—the results will be especially significant for those trauma and stress most highly impacted. The topics we discuss throughout this book—trauma, neuroscience, mindfulness, and compassionate community building—have not been part of undergraduate or graduate teacher preparation programs. They have not been part of the curriculum for preparation of school administrators. They have also not been popular topics for teacher or administrator professional development. So, by reading this book, most of you will gain new insights and understanding. As presented in this book, you achieve mindfulness through practice of a carefully sequenced range of activities and processes that will result in greater awareness of self and others. Mindfulness practice is most effective when naturally infused into the curriculum and fully integrated into the course of the school day. In this three-part book, you will learn practical ways to easily implement mindfulness practice into your school community and lives.
Part I provides foundational background information. Part I is the why. We set the stage in chapters 1–3, describing why there is a sense of urgency to move toward a more compassionate and supportive learning environment as a direct response to combat trauma and toxic stress. We also provide information on developmental trauma and neuroscience, as well as the interconnectivity of our brain, our emotions, and trauma.
Part II contains information and exercises for you to practice by yourself and with your students to learn the mindfulness strategies we recommend. Part II is the how—how to transform classrooms into nurturing, caring, and compassionate learning environments through mindfulness practice to create caring, compassionate communities. This part explains how we use mindfulness and compassionate activities, exercises, and practice to combat trauma and stress. While individual teachers can implement this book’s recommendations with good success, we believe that even greater and more long-term gains result with the consistency of schoolwide implementation. Principal leadership is key to creating heart centered school communities, as is consideration for schoolwide policies for discipline, celebrations of success, and welcoming families. Mindfulness is not something that you can read about and then just start implementing. With practice, you will become more mindful. Chapters 4–6 provide exercises to enhance breathing, practice yoga and meditation, and increase mindfulness. These mindfulness practices are mutually beneficial for students, teachers, staff, and leaders when they practice them individually or collectively with others. Because it is easy to forget to check in with yourself, we will remind you, at the end of most exercises, to ask yourself how you feel.
You will benefit the most by going beyond merely reading the material presented in part II to actually practicing the exercises. We recommend practicing a few of them yourself on a regular basis before bringing them to students. Students will also benefit the most if you implement these exercises routinely. Mindfulness is not a one-time event. You can practice the following exercises with one of three methods.
1. Having someone read them to you
2. Recording them and playing back the recording with your eyes closed
3. Reading them and then closing your eyes to go through the exercise
If you are using the third method, you can gain a lot by simply approximating the listed steps—you do not need to be exact. After you practice any of the breaths you are planning to introduce in the classroom, you can introduce them to your students. You will lead students through the exercises.
These chapters provide strategies for practical application of mindfulness, complete with teacher, staff, and student exercises and activities that help develop a greater consciousness and a compassionate mindset to combat trauma and stress.