One Minute of Classroom Calm

You are teaching; the phone rings for Grayson to go to speech; Alison blurts out, “Can I go to the bathroom?” not following your carefully set up procedure for bathroom breaks; the SMART board malfunctions; you have to stop your lesson ten minutes early for students to wash their hands before lunch so those COVID germs are contained….

Sound familiar? Do you feel your anxiety creeping up just thinking about your day?

Teachers face interruptions all day long and have to make split second decisions.

On average, a teacher makes 1,500 decisions in a day.

The amount of decisions and interruptions just seem to increase year after year, which increases the stress teachers feel. This stress in turn has serious effects on your body. Cortisol, our stress hormone increases, causing symptoms such as restless sleep, anxiety and weight gain, to name a few.

Our goal is to return to our Parasympathetic State or PPS. This is when our parasympathetic nervous system, our rest and digest state, is activated. The longer we’re in that state, the better it is for our health.

Benefits of PSS:

• Slows heart rate

• Lowers blood pressure

• Promotes digestion

• Stress hormones decrease

• Respiration slows

PSS can be activated after a good meal or a pleasurable experience. You might be wondering how this applies to being an educator. Who has time for a good meal whilst at school? The great news is there is a simple way to combat the ill effects of this heightened stress on your body and help your body return to PSS.

DEEP BELLY BREATHING.

Yup. It’s as easy as this 4 count breath technique. Intentionally slowing down our breathing lets our body know everything is okay and activates PSS.

Here’s the 4 Count Breath technique:

• Deep Belly Breath Inhale for a count of 4.

• Hold the breath for a count of 4.

• Fully Exhale for a count of 4.

• Repeat up to 10 breaths.

You might be thinking….but I’m in school….how does this work?

Make this deep belly breathing work for you by attaching this technique to regular features in your day such as

• when students are gathering on the carpet or transitioning

• after your students go to specials or in between class periods

• before you eat your lunch

• before you head out for home

Or better yet, teach your students this technique and do it together!

Pretty simple, right? And it can be done anywhere. Give it a try and feel the calm.