Being Here, Now: A New Perspective of Social-Emotional Learning
An online mindfulness guide book focused on bringing children fun, accessible, mindful exercises into any learning environment.
School systems across the country have become increasingly aware that effective education includes strengthening emotional literacy in tandem with the acquisition of academic knowledge. We intuitively know that learning comes from, and is facilitated by, collaboration with teachers, in the company of peers, and with the encouragement of the support system around the student. Children who have strong social and emotional skills preform better in school, have a more positive relationship with adults and peers, and have more positive emotional adjustment and mental health. The bulk of social emotional learning (SEL) curricula helps students manage negative emotions, be calm and focused, follow directions, and effectively navigate relationships with peers and adults. The integration and focus of SEL programs highlights a vested interest in , and believe that, teaching future generations self regulatory skills will greatly improve their future. Pertaining to my capstone project, mindfulness-based curricula has been added to such SEL programs with positive results. My e-book “Mindfulness Guide For Children” is an easy to follow, accessible, and fun way to bring mindfulness into your classroom or home.
The seamless addition of mindfulness exercises to SEL programs can be attributed to the overlap in goals and results we have seen from both practices. John Kabat-Zinn, one of the leaders of the modern mindfulness movement, describes the practice as “the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment”. In an every day sense the idea behind engaging with mindfulness is, if we can truly be with the moment, we gain a new-found awareness that comes in tandem with the capacity to intimately engage with ourselves, other people, and the world around us. Deeply embedded within the tradition ethos of mindfulness is the idea that by seeing your experience at the moment it occurs, and processing it with clarity, compassion and discernment we are able to free ourselves from emotional suffering.
In other terms, by reducing attachment to our conception of how things “should” be, we can appreciate and partake in how they are. Rather than, for example, feeling detached during a slightly lackluster family picnic described by the over cast weather and the water mellow left behind; we transcend our mental image of bright sun and juicy fruit, and choose to appreciate all of the other joys that are present in that moment. This is the real-world application of mindfulness; Brining awareness to where our attention is being focused, sitting in that moment, and consciously adjusting our attention to where we intentionally see fit.
S.C.A.M, an acronym created by Trudy Goodman and Suan Kasier brings a clear idea of what mindfulness aims to bring to the emotional lives of children; Stop or slowdown; Calm your body; Remember to look at what is happening inside and out; and only after completing the first three steps, take mindful Action with kindness or Metta (Pali for friendly). The introduction of mindfulness in the classroom is aimed to build skills and competencies that help build emotional literacy and the future development authentic awareness; which will transition into a greater understanding of what it means to engage with their own internal emotional world, and the world of their peers. The hope and result of this introduction is that these mindfulness programs will foster skills that the future generations can use to consciously, ethically and, well, mindfully interact and impact the world around them.
The Art of Calming Down
Introduced at a particularly painful time of my life, I started interacting with mindfulness about a year ago in hopes to find a new way of compartmentalizing long term and daily stressors. Though throughout my practice I have found so much more than compartmentalization: this self-regulatory practice has brought powerful transformations surrounding how I engage with the space I am in, the people around me, and my own interior reality. By exercising the skill of non-judgmentally noticing, assessing and interacting with my own thoughts and emotions I have been able to meaningfully connect with the world around me in a way that I didn’t know was possible. This lens has given me a new-found view of my emotional reality that allows for me to intentionally focus my attention, rather than the other way around.
When it came time to pick a capstone project, I knew I wanted to find a way to bring mindfulness to children. I started working at a local elementary after school program where the idea of me creating and teaching mindfulness program was fully embraced. As I was conducting my research, talking with experts in the field, and doing some self reflection, it become increasingly apparent that teaching children how to “calm them selves” in a respectful way that takes into account how they feel, and how they should authentically proceed after feeling distress is a fairly new practice. I was unbelievably excited, and honestly proud, to be part of the aforementioned movement of brining mindfulness into early childhood education. Unfortunately with the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the closure of Vermont school systems I had to switch gears.
I decided that the best way to move forward was creating a mindfulness e-book aimed at giving parents and instructors easy and fun actives to bring mindfulness into the lives of their children. I felt that the slight modification of my “product” should be aimed at making this material more accessible. Rather than focusing on language geared toward teachers to instruct children, I have created a package that is easy for anyone to pick up. This book is comprised of fourteen actives geared to make mindful practice practical, kinesthetic, and engaging. Along with being able to link a verity of articles and resources to deepen parental understanding of mindfulness; This e-book platform includes real-time audio dictation of twenty-seven different english accents, ranging from Spanish to Indonesian, to allow for greater understanding among children who hear english in their respected accents.
While I wholehearted believe that introducing mindfulness to your children as a parent or teacher is always a good idea, this seems to be a particularly great time to think about the integration. With adults working from home, and children learning from home; Our personal and familial systems have went through an enormous change. This change, as I’m sure we are all aware of by now, effects everyone in a ways that are hard to predict; this is a time where I feel like I can personally promise you that integrating mindfulness into your new routine will have profound effects in how you and your family connect with each other in this new, liminal space.
As you continue to engage remember, Mindfulness is a practice not a perfect.
