Mindfulness for Teachers

Check out our brand new ‘Mindfulness for Teachers’ vlog from our office manager, Steph! She’ll be taking you through some great activities to help you to be more mindful this summer.

Mindfulness for Teachers Vlog

Mindfulness for Teachers – Video Transcript

A big hello to all the teachers, TAs, catering staff and anybody who works in a school.

I hope that you’re having a great summer holiday. I know for some of you, it’s already begun, some have been on holiday for a couple of weeks and others are still in school. I bet towards the end of term you looked like these guys here stressed, anxious, overwhelmed, and angry at times.

Well, there is hope, and there’s a something that can help you calm down, something that I practise myself, and I want to share that with you. So, let’s get ready for September. Let’s be really calm.

I’m Steph, and I’m the office manager at PTS and being calm is one of my superpowers. It’s taken me a few years to master, and I’m not perfect all the time. I want to let you know that being calm, could be your superpower too.

There are so many ways out there to help you keep calm. There are so many books that you can read and audio books as well, which are a really good tool.

Today, I’m going to talk to you about mindfulness and some really, really easy mindfulness techniques. So, the benefits I would say, are that it reduces your stress, reduces anxiety, it can make you less angry, it can also regulate your emotions and it’s been known to help your immune system as well.

Plus, it gives you more brain power. I mean, I don’t know about you, but brain fog sometimes is a thing. So, if that can help then let’s try it out.

What even is mindfulness? Well, it’s so easy, it’s basically just being in the now and being present. You do this a lot during the day and you don’t even realise it.

So, if you’re doing something new today like you going, I don’t know, you’re on your school holidays, you might be going on a paddle boarding lesson, or a class that you’ve never been to before. You will be very mindful because you’ll be very aware of your surroundings, you’ll be able to feel all the different sensations in your body if you’re doing yoga and even paddle boarding, the smell, you’ll notice a new smell and everything is new and that’s when you’re being mindful.

The times, you’re not being mindful and when you drive to work in a mad rush, you brush your teeth or your thinking of the next thing to do. And, if you live your life thinking of the next thing, you’re not enjoying the now.

Another great time to practise mindfulness is when you’re eating. So, I can imagine that at times you’re just eating on the run as it was, why don’t you just spend some time, just it takes 10 minutes to eat a sandwich and all you need to do is like, you have your sandwich on the table and you’ve just got to think, where’s that bread come from? Who made that? Where’s the filling come from and who made my sandwich? And then be grateful for that person and the fact that we have ready made sandwiches in supermarkets, I mean, that was not a thing back in my mum’s day. So be really grateful that we have this and you’re being mindful then if the people that were involved in, making your sandwich and putting it on that table and then when you actually eating it, you can be sort of mindful of the taste and do you like it and could it be better?

What’s the texture like and it will really slow your eating down and the theory is that this can actually make you or help you lose weight in the long run.

Have you ever been out for a walk and just basically walked from A to B and not even noticed what’s around you? Well, why don’t you try this? Take your shoes and socks off, and I’m not being mad and it’s a really great way of connecting with the earth.

Please do a risk assessment. Check that floor. We don’t want any cut feet but walking barefoot on grass or on the beach is a really great way of actually stretching those muscles out and on your legs and feet too. It’s really good for the head. And when you’re walking in nature or on the beach, you can actually start to think about what does the ground feel like, what can I hear, what can I smell? And then what do you see? What do you notice? And really slow it down and really take that in.

Okay, so we’ve gone through some techniques for mindfulness, and I just want to go through one more with you. It’s dead easy.

Go and get a hula hoop. If you have one, if you haven’t, just imagine you stood in a hula hoop. What does the ground feel like what do your ankles feel like, what do you knees feel like, basically go up your body scanning, all the different joints in your body and just notice how they feel. How do you feel and you’ll get up to your head? How does it feel in here? Feel what’s going on? And just really notice everything that’s going on and I just want you to concentrate on you in that circle and nothing else. You’re okay. You’re in the now and you’re okay. You’re in your circle. You’re okay. Everything is fine.

Thank you so much for watching. I hope you have a great holiday and a great new term.