Acknowledge Alliance is committed to creating more resilient school communities. We support teachers and students by fostering healthy relationships and educating on the direct connection between emotions and learning. Our social emotional learning lessons and professional development for educators recognize the importance of managing emotions, demonstrating care for others, making responsible decisions, and building positive relationships.
One practice that can help with strengthening resilience is mindfulness: paying close attention to one thing at a time in the present moment in a nonjudgmental way. By tuning into the here and now, we can notice and become aware of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment through a kind, nurturing lens of acceptance.
As the pandemic continues to unfold, the uncertainty of the future and the disruption to stability, routine, and interaction with others bring many stressors and emotions. It is normal to feel anxious, sad, angry, fearful, and frustrated during this abnormal time. Practicing mindfulness can help students, teachers, families, and each of us cope with these changes and the stress we are experiencing. Not only does mindfulness make us more resilient, it also enhances interconnectedness and increases positive emotions, empathy, compassion, and self-esteem.
The elementary and middle school students we serve echo the value of mindfulness and report that mindfulness is the most useful social emotional learning topic from our Project Resilience curriculum:
"When I feel stressed, mindfulness helps calm me down.”
"Mindfulness helps me get in a positive mindset."
"Mindfulness helps me think about myself and center myself.”
"Mindfulness is useful because it gets me prepared and ready for class.”
When students become aware of the connection between their thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations, they are better able to manage their emotions, control their impulses, and make good choices. This in turn impacts their behavior, relationships, stress level, communication skills, and ability to focus. Although we have moved our social emotional learning curriculum online, our team of mental health professionals continues to virtually guide students and their teachers through a mindfulness practice in each lesson.
An essential component to understanding how and why mindfulness helps us, is to understand how our brains work. The amygdala is described as the “alarm system,” the part of the brain that gets triggered by emotions such as fear, anxiety, and anger. When the amygdala perceives threats as danger, it takes charge of our emotional reactions and prompts an immediate fight-flight-freeze response without thinking. In these impulsive moments of emotional distress, it is easy to say or do something irrational that we may regret later. Mindfulness makes a huge impact because it gives us an awareness of our emotional reaction and builds in a momentary pause, which can help calm the amygdala and reconnect us to the prefrontal cortex. We can then make thoughtful decisions for how to respond.
Our staff encourages students to use S.T.O.P. as a calming technique to resolve conflict in challenging situations. Anyone can benefit from using this mindfulness practice:
Stop what you’re doing and pause after an initial reaction
Take a few deep breaths and be aware that you’re breathing
Observe your thoughts, feelings, what’s happening in your body, what’s going on around you, and others’ facial expressions or body language
Proceed with responding after taking time to reflect
There are many different ways to practice mindfulness – from focusing on deep breaths, to paying attention to each of your five senses, to repeating a loving and gentle phrase to yourself. One of the keys to mindfulness is to be kind to yourself. As a thank you to our wonderful community of supporters, Tracy Lyons, our Resilience Consultation Program Director, shared a mindfulness practice emphasizing gratitude at our virtual “Sweet Appreciation Break” event last week. May this boost your day with feel-good energy.