Looking For Calm

I made a short presentation to the PTA last night at the request my principal. Liz was discussing a couple of school-wide initiatives for this coming school year, one of which is Mindfulness. Six weeks ago after completing the Mindful Schools Curriculum Training, I began to teach the curriculum in one of our first grade classes. I have been going into Ms. Iger’s class two times per week for 15 minutes. I explained briefly to the parents more about Mindful Schools and about my brief work with the first graders. I was a bit surprised at the response because I am finding, being very new and inexperienced in this world of mindfulness and meditation, that there are some who hear what you are doing and dismiss with out another thought. Others, however, and this was the case last night with several of the parents, seem to identify with the reasons we are considering doing this work with the students. One mom who is in the field of medicine spoke briefly about the physical benefits: lower stress, blood pressure, better sleep to name only a couple. Another parent told me about the benefits of this work with veterans and treating PTSD. The general consensus was that this small group of parents wanted to learn more- to bring it into their home or re-establish an old practice that had fallen by the wayside. There is such opportunity here that is so exciting to me. I am a believer in partnerships. If we can bring these tools to teachers, parents, and students, we can have a common language and framework from which to move forward. I am thankful that my principal is committed to this work. I am also profoundly grateful for the experiences thus far, both professionally and personally, that have energized me to learn and share with others about Mindfulness and its potential impact on our school community and beyond.