I may not be the queen of multi-tasking, but I sure am close to being one of the princesses of it. Like many of you, my mind feeds off of stimulation, new ideas, and challenges. I’m not sure if I was born this way, if it was acquired through my upbringing, or maybe it’s a combination of the two. But however it shakes out, anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that my hands are always in about 52 different things. I see life as a blank canvas, one where any colors and ideas can be used. It’s how I’m wired; learn, try, GO...try some more. This mentality fit my life until I had my twins. While on 18 months of maternity leave from teaching, I had much more “quiet mind time” (yes, even with twins!) than ever before. You would think that this would be an incredible time of peace, but this was actually when my mind became my worst nightmare. It drove me CRAZY. Working three businesses from home, while taking care of my young family, apparently wasn’t enough to keep my mind satisfied. I felt like I was always just searching (in my head and online) for that perfect fit. And while all of this searching was going on, I would miss out on what was right in front of me. I was biting off more than I could chew to “work from home” and despite being physically present, emotionally I missed out on many special moments. Sad, but true. I would have conversations with myself to try and just let things be. I acknowledged the problem but couldn’t fix it. Despite the attempts, somehow I’d literally end up thinking about new ideas to explore. It became a vicious cycle-one of which almost had me to turn to medication. It wasn’t until I forced myself to slow this hot mess down that I discovered the power of simplicity that can be found within yourself. This was the missing piece. I had lost my grounding after having the minis. As busy as life had become with work and tots on the move, I finally learned the importance of taking care of my own well being first-before anyone else. It seemed selfish to me. But I sucked it up and started with five minute meditations and have grown from there. I saw the powerful difference it made in resurfacing my ability to be physically and emotionally present, both at home and in the classroom. Time for me is now a non-negotiable because it has the power to transform one’s life journey, which impacts the journey of others. The quest for a mindful future for our children starts with us. With that in mind, I challenge you to treat yourself to five minutes today, tomorrow and the next day to engage in whatever makes YOU happy. Just five minutes. Your life is your masterpiece. It can be anything that you want it to be, as long as you make time for yourself first. Everything else will then fall into it’s beautiful place...even as a princess multi-tasker. #5minFridayChallenge For your listening pleasure and inspiration, Masterpiece by Andy Grammer:
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Kindness given is kindness returnedSnowball Effect: descriptive of an entity or situation where something once small and relatively insignificant grows exponentially at a swift pace, engulfing everything in its path. As it descends down a snowy hill, it gathers more snow and whatever leaves, sticks, etc. are in its way. ~urbandictionary.com Is this not something that we live for as parents? As educators? Moments when we realize that our children are empowering one another and creating a positive impact. If only were as easy it sounds! ;-) As a pre-kindergarten teacher, we try our best to model acts of kindness and recognize them publicly when we witness tender actions being taken by children in our school community. However, often it comes primarily from the staff members recognizing the students, not necessarily the students recognizing each other. This was the path that my TA & I were on until December of this year when I came across an old picture. It was a photo of six of my fourth grade students speaking in front of a school-wide PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports) assembly. They held up a self-designed “SNI” logo, surrounded themselves with stacks of sticky notes and showcased smiles filled with pride and hope. *SNI: Sticky Notes Incorporated. The idea that the kids were empowered to present to the school was one of student to student recognition. If you witnessed or experienced a random act of kindness, you were to jot it down on a sticky note and plop it onto the hallway walls. The goal being to cover the walls with kindness from end to end. And boy, did we do just that...and ensured a custodial nightmare for two weeks! That memory challenged me. Yes, they were 10 year olds mindfully recognizing one another, but why couldn’t my 4 & 5 year olds try that, too? So we did. Shifting the ownership to the kiddos to cheerfully give and receive compliments took on a world of its own. Are they sometimes literal, such as “L told me that she likes my shirt,” and her pants, her shoes and her book bag...LOL. Of course they are! But they still make each other smile and they are purposeful moments created by being aware of the present. As the days go on, the compliments and acts of kindness are gaining depth. Realizing that we were witnessing a true “snowball effect,” as new children joined in on creating moments of kindness each day, we don’t want to stop the descension on the snowy hill. There are still people to pick up along the way! With some basic white copy paper cut into circles and a bulletin board, our Mountain of Kindness is taking on an incredible slope of its own. In Kindness, Christy Lynn “Make an effort to live in cheerful kindness. When you are kind to others, you receive kindness in return.” ~Dr. Wayne W. Dyer Rumor has it that it takes 30 days of consistent, focused behavior to create a habit. Our inspirational school leader loves to challenge us with new ideas. Tomorrow “The Principal’s 30 Day Challenge” begins. Our UPK classroom has chosen to be consistent with practicing whole group mindfulness for 3-5 minutes a day. It is 10:45am and I grab my phone. After a handful of expectations and several prompts, the kids are ready for their first experience. I click on the Headspace App for Kids and choose “Focus” as our 3 minute mindful practice of the day. We close our eyes. “Andy” begins to walk us through a visualization journey with different animals of various sizes. Frogs, monkeys, chickens, elephants and fish make up the experience. “Mrs. N?” I peek through one eye and see a pair of brown eyes staring up at me on top of a big beautiful smile. I smile back, send the quiet signal, and gesture to close the eyes. “Shhh,” I hear from across the room. “Close your eyes!” another voice mumbles. “Hey, move into your space,” a whisper calls. I pause the mindful journey. It has been 23 seconds. Twenty-THREE!! Do I abandon and start over tomorrow or continue on? I mean, technically the challenge hasn’t started yet... Nope. Continue on we must. I take a deep breath to refocus, share a few reminders and then we close our eyes again. I hear rustling. It is coming from every angle. I take a look. Legs are moving, bodies are shifting, booties are scooting, heads are wobbling….only 2 minutes to go. We can make it. We really can! I pause to give a prompt and we start again. Once the lengthy stretch to the finish line was up, we took a minute to reflect. “What animals did you picture?” I asked. And the first answer to be shared is “A pink polar bear!” I chuckled and wrapped up Day "0's" session. It can only grow from here...haha! With love, Christy Lynn Lessons Learned by Day 2:
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I'm obsessed. This is fabulous. LOVE that you are doing this. The new way of being a student forces us to think outside the box and approach how we teach more dynamically. ~Derek, Father of 2 and Elementary School Principal
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Just a girl with a dream to collectively build a healthy mind space for children, while creating a healthier mind space for ourselves. Archives
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