Mindfulness and Yoga in Schools A Guide for Teachers and Practitioners

272 • PART iii: YogA foR EduCATing foR SElf-REgulATion And EngAgEmEnT

BRoAdEn And Build THE PoSiTiVE

Positive emotions are the basis for the motivation to learn, the development of a sense of
security and the sense of community needed to build a rich and effective learning community
(Jennings, 2015). Jennings (2015) explains that negative emotions (e.g., fear, sadness, anger)
can inhibit the learning process and do little to cultivate community. Mastering emotions
and learning to cultivate the emotions that serve learning and connections will allow you
to orchestrate the promotion of positive engagement and academic success (Jennings, 2015).
The broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson, 2013) aligns nicely with the MY-SEL model,
suggesting that positive attunement and integration support students’ self-regulation and
intentional reflective engagement (see Chapter 1). It is built on the premise that individu-
als must begin with cultivating positive emotions, via intentional experiences, to trigger a
positive growth trajectory (Fredrickson, 2013). It can be explained this way: First, research
suggests that negative emotions narrow the scope of people’s attention and thinking and
support the enactment of specific action urges associated with the human survival instinct
(e.g., fight, flight, freeze, experience disgust; Garland et al., 2010). An action urge is the
automatic urge that we feel when we are experiencing an emotion. When an individual
experiences negative emotions, the action urges are constricted by the negative mood state
to urges that do not tend to potentiate active problem solving and connection (e.g., wanting
to give someone a piece of your mind, e-mailing angry thoughts and accusations, becoming
stuck and not able to move or act, an urge to quit or leave a project, or a feeling of disgust).
Conversely, research suggests that positive emotions broaden individuals’ thought-
action repertoires (Fredrickson, 2009, 2013; Garland et al., 2010). From a positive emotional
state, individuals can draw flexibly on higher-level cognitive connections and wider-than-
usual ranges of perceptions, ideas, and action urges. This positive emotion-cognition-
behavioral influence is called an upward spiral (Fredrickson, 2009, 2013). Garland et al.
(2010) explain that positive emotions and consequent broadened cognition create a base for

Behavioral,

Academic, and

Relationship Choices

Effective

Choices

Present Moment

Emotion Skills

(Mindful Embodiment

Tools)

Physical Pillars of Self-Regulation

(Nutrition/Hydration, Exercise, and Rest)

Broaden-and-Build Practices

(Formal and Informal Practices;

Equanimity, Joy, Loving-Kindness,

and Compassion)

figuRE 12.1 Building behavioral, academic, and relational

competence.