Mindfulness and Yoga in Schools A Guide for Teachers and Practitioners

(Ben Green) #1

212 • PART III: YOGA FOR EDUCATING FOR SELF-REGULATION AND ENGAGEMENT


relaxation, breathing, and yoga activity to help them relax, focus, and concentrate. Often
discounted, a student who can intentionally breathe, cultivate awareness, stay physically
present, and manage feelings has a substantial advantage in being the architect of his or her
destiny (see Figure 10.1).
There is a critical shift in focus away from student self-control or an inhibition of
impulses, toward a mindful and embodied self-regulation (Shanker, 2016). In mindfulness
and embodied self-regulation, students are aware of their impulses and stresses (Shanker
2016). They explore what triggers their impulses and what might be keeping them chroni-
cally stressed or wound-up. They work with school personnel independently to create an
environment and way of being that is conducive to mindfulness, engagement, and calm yet
alert states. They know what calm feels like and have tools to get themselves there (Shanker,
2016). This chapter conceptualizes yoga as embodied learning of these tools and offers you
the context and guidance to create supports and structure for yoga-based learning in your
classroom and/or school. To do this, the concepts of neurological integration, intentional
engagement, stress, and trauma are covered. Next, specific guidance for your classroom
and school on how to bring yoga to various age groups, create a space for your tools and the
accessories needed, as well as how to structure a lesson are given. Figures, case examples,
and instructional stories are used to illustrate points.


YOGA AS EMBODIED LEARNING

We ask a lot of our students—we ask them to learn math, language arts, sciences, social and
world studies, and the arts. We show them exactly how to do the math; construct a sentence,
paragraph, and essay; ways to memorize the countries, cities, landscapes, and biospheres;
and how to hold a paintbrush or make a musical instrument sing. We ask them to pay
attention, to manage their emotions and behavior, and to be good friends to their classmates,
but we often fall well short of teaching them how to do this (Harper, 2013).
Harper (2013) suggests that we don’t always have a clear idea of what we are actually
asking of students. She gives the example of asking students to pay attention. To pay atten-
tion our students must stop thinking about all the things that seem very important and
interesting to them, no matter how they are feeling about them. Those other things might be
scary, worrisome, exciting, and very compelling (e.g., a provocative text from a peer, mom’s
panic attack this morning, pizza for lunch, the kid that keeps flicking your head with a pen-
cil and taunting you, or the guy flirting with the student you like). Still, we ask them to focus
exclusively on what we are teaching, saying, or doing, no matter how complicated, diffi-
cult, lackluster, or frustrating. We ask them to focus and do so in a “way that is productive


LEARNERS

Teach them
tools for self-
regulation
and
engagement
ACTIVE ARCHITECTS

Support
practice of
self-
regulation
skills
PROBLEM SOL

VERS

Students are
independent
as they work
to solve
ongoing
world
challenges

FIGURE 10.1 From learner to architect of the future.
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