Pause - Breath - Smile

In 2021 we had some professional developmental around mindfulness.   We were introduced to pause, breath smile to have all teachers upskilled in mindfulness in the classroom.  The techniques taught were based on science and had been proven to have a calming effect on students.  Lots of the workshop lesson were based around an approach called straight backs soft bellies to calm students by using breathing techniques from the bottom of the belly.   The ideas is for students to become more self aware of how they are breathing and what their bodies are doing in that exact moment.  It helped us to become more aware of being present in that exact moment in time.  It taught me alot about "name the feeling, tame the feeling" and srategies around moving from the red zone (anxiety, anger, rage, frustration) into the green zone (calm, content, restful) by using a dong to settle the class and to talk in a softer voice than normal.  Most likely we will all have children in the classroom that are heavily in the red zone on a daily bases so equipping them with positive strategies and mindfulness can help them over come some emotional barriers.