Wholehearted (adjective) whole·heart·ed: completely and sincerely devoted, determined, or enthusiastic Heartfulness (noun) heart·ful·ness: a beneficial state of positive qualities-like kindness, gratitude, and generosity-leading to greater well-being. Heartfulness is a key support of mindfulness practice. In my opinion, this is where we can begin effective mindfulness practice with our youngest ones. Asking a two year old to practice “intentional sitting” can be tricky all in itself. They will likely just take off in the opposite direction on you -at least that is what my twins do! But that’s where we call in our creative side. Tap into our personal interests and the interests of our child(ren). I’m not suggesting that you have to go all out with this creativity, but rather just use things that you already have around the house. Keep it simple. ;-) Creating the Space: Imagine creating space in our week to explore all of the people that we love. We can do this in a special seated location, such as on a pillow, blanket or cushion that is made especially for our little one. To keep the toddler hands occupied, add in an object that is special to the child; a toy, stuffed animal, crystal rock, plant or picture. Join your child in the same fashion as you share a few intimate minutes together in this unique, special space made just for you. We will likely need to model the first few times, but once the habit is rolling, we may just find that it becomes the best part of the week as we savor the sweetness of a child’s heart. Listing the many people that we love, sending happy thoughts to someone that we miss, giving all of the reasons why we love someone on our list... these are the moments that can make our hearts FULL and get us through the more challenging ones. Ever wonder about the scientific side of things? Emotional regulation is a key benefit of mindfulness. By creating this space in your week for heartfulness practice, you are strengthening the developing amygdala part of the brain that is responsible for emotional responses, as well as the prefrontal cortex that is responsible for making decisions in response to emotions. SOOOO, we are essentially training our child’s brain to pause after getting stepped on by a sibling and swinging back in response. Stimulus-Pause-Response. That’s a win in this house!! Heartfully, Christy Lynn
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“There’s no waaaaay that I could ever be silent for an hour, let alone a day or three.” This was not only my response to the challenge presented by Mindful Schools, but the response of any one of my friends when briefing them of what I got myself into. As I embarked on this new adventure, my 6 day retreat in the Catskill Mountains to kick off the yearlong Mindful Schools Educator Certification Program, I did so with emotions all over the spectrum. Honestly, I thought the most difficult part would be driving five hours by myself (cars & sleep are like mac & cheese for me), but I found that to be surprisingly liberating.
Day 1 was welcoming, peaceful and HOT. The just accept the sweat and embrace the drip kind of hot. Day 2 we invited silence into our world. Silence in this particular environment meant no speaking, reading, writing, eye contact, body language or even holding doors. You are to be one with you, to explore within and your connection to nature. Basically, you are to ignore the 80 other adventurers around you, with the exception of the retreat guides who we had the pleasure to listen to from time to time. As much as I could go on and on with details of inquisitiveness, boredom, humor, insights and self-love that occurred over the consecutive days of silence, I’ll keep it simple and hopefully meaningful for others. Silence is completely misunderstood. It is underrated in my opinion. I have ALWAYS been a do-er. If I wasn’t doing something, then I wasn’t making the most of my life. Or so I once thought. I bet many feel the same way! Up until recently, if I wasn’t producing something after a string of moments, I felt I was wasting the time that I was barely scraping together. But really, what I learned is that I have actually been missing out on important moments that can so quickly pass by. And catching the lessons in the moments that we are privy to. From the grazing of leaves along the labyrinth, to the embracing shelter of 20 foot bamboo plants, swirling the most incredible locally grown produce in the mouth or listening with the heart to a powerful thunderstorm rock the mediation hall, insights were flowing. Was it a bit lonely at times? Of course. However, as electrifying as it was to come out of silence and connect with our tribe (the energy level was insane!), I found myself searching for a slice of silence within the first few hours. I yearned to create space in my mind; to create the intoxicating freedom that develops within silence. There is nothing like this addiction. With love, Christy Lynn P.S. Are you wondering if most of us were prepared for the silent experience? Nope, not so much! The best way I can summarize the experience to anyone is by comparing it to running. It was as though my daily 10 minutes of meditation compared to running a 5K and the silent retreat a marathon. For this experience, I was trained for a 5K, but ran a marathon...just barely crossing the finish line. But as with racing events, the community vibes get you through. We found the same at this retreat and because of such powerful connections, would we do it again? 100%. con·ta·gious /kənˈtājəs/ (of an emotion, feeling, or attitude) likely to spread to and affect others. June 1st brings a new meaning to chaotic schedules in the education setting. As we prepare to wind down a school year, we fill the days with energetic, end-of-the-year events and nerve-wracking assessments. This welcomes a slew of feelings that can spike or drop at any given time...both for the educators, students and even our families. If you don’t think that the stressful feelings of rush, rush, rush in our lives is being felt by our kiddos, think again. Dr. Dan Siegel (author of The Whole Brain Child, Mindful Brain and many more) has done extensive research to support the idea of emotional contagion-how one person’s emotional state impacts another. The end-of-year anxiety that we feel can be felt by our students and children. Their pops of relentless energy just may be a group response to the edginess that we feel as we scramble to fit everything in. (And we always do, don’t we? So what’s the use in worrying...) The essential question: How can we keep the flow of our classroom (and home) calm, cool and collected through the end of the year chaos?
Happy last days of school! Fondly, Christy Lynn |
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I'm obsessed. This is fabulous. LOVE that you are doing this. The new way of being a student forces us to think outside the box and approach how we teach more dynamically. ~Derek, Father of 2 and Elementary School Principal
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