Mindfulness and Yoga in Schools A Guide for Teachers and Practitioners

336 • Part IV: MINDFUL SELF-CarE FOr StUDENtS aND tEaCHErS

It is exactly these practices that can keep us going when we experience failure and setbacks.
They help organize our emotional and cognitive selves so we can stay in the bigger game of
being present and engaged in our lives.
The scales that address the needs of the external self are Supportive Structure and
Supportive Relationships. First, Supportive Structure included keeping your work area
organized, maintaining a manageable schedule, balancing the demands of others and
what is important to you, and maintaining a comfortable living environment. Second, the
Supportive Relationships scale includes items that help you evaluate your relationships in
terms of support, encouragement, and reliability. Also, items evaluate your relationships for
good boundaries (i.e., “I felt confident people in my life would respect my choice if I said,
‘no.’” These two scales help you look carefully at your immediate environment and relation-
ships as a source of support and comfort for your own self-care.
Last, Mindful Awareness and Mindful Relaxation scales support attunement between
the inner and outer selves. They are embodied as you engage in your world in a way that
helps you stay internally attuned. The Mindful Awareness scale includes four items that
get to the essence of mindful awareness. They ask you if you had a calm awareness of your
thoughts, feelings, and body and if you carefully selected which thoughts and feelings you
used to guide your actions in your world and with others. The Mindful Relaxation sub-
scale assesses the ways you engaged in the world and with your self to relax. For example,
did you read a book, connect with friends, listen to soothing text or music, or find nature
(Harper, 2013)? Each of the items requires an interface between your awareness and the
outside world in a calm and engaged manner.

CONCLUSION

Mindful self-care is a foundational self-regulating practice (Cook-Cottone, 2015). It is a
constant practice of bringing awareness to self-care, assessing self-care practices, setting
self-care goals, and actively engaging in self-care practices (Cook-Cottone, 2015). This
chapter reviewed self-care and mindful self-care and provided a domain-by-domain review,

EXTERNAL

PRACTICES

♦

Supportive

Structure

♦

Supportive

Relationships

EMBODIED

ATTUNEMENT

♦

Mindful

Awareness

♦

Mindful

Relaxation

INTERNAL

PRACTICES

♦

Self-

Compassion/

Purpose

♦

Physical Care

FIGUrE 14.5 Embodied self-care practices–short form.