Can your students regulate their emotions?
Dear Applied EQ-ers,
How are your students?
Are they feeling sad? Happy? Frustrated? Angry? Content?
Can they regulate all of their emotions?
Do you think they could add a strategy to their self-regulation toolbox?
If so, we have a pre-Halloween treat for you: two videos, one in Spanish and one in English, on box breathing.
Spanish Version
English Version
If you aren’t familiar with box breathing, it is a super easy technique that is both kid and adult friendly.
I say “super easy,” but in ten years of teaching, I don’t think I ever once helped a student regulate their emotions by teaching them to breathe. I didn’t know these techniques myself and didn’t know any colleagues who were using breathing to help regulate their own emotions or to instruct students on how to regulate theirs.
So if this is outside your comfort zone and feels vulnerable to share with students, I feel you. When you’re introducing something new to kids, there is never any telling which way it’s going to go.
Same with adults.
This summer, my fellow team member Melissa was teaching box breathing to a group of a hundred elementary teachers in Indiana.
We did the exercise together, rows of teachers sitting shoulder to shoulder on those plastic cafeteria seats, and you could feel the energy in the room shift.
A large group of adults,
being still,
and quiet,
and breathing together.
It is a powerful thing, and it was a moving moment.
When we were done breathing together, Melissa gently asked the quiet and calm room,
“How are you feeling?”
A teacher in the front of the room shared loudly,
“Dizzy!”
And the room burst into laughter.
The calm and quiet moment was gone, but it was replaced with a new playfulness.
Did that exercise go perfectly? Nope! But we tried something together as a group. We tried something new. We tried.
Melissa didn’t get flustered when this exercise didn’t unfold as planned because when she asks educators and students how they feel, she really asks. Even if it’s not the answer she’s expecting, she has space for the truth.
So is showing a video on box breathing going to result in a perfect reaction from students?
Will you show the video, ask the students how they feel, and they’ll respond with:
“I feel calm and in control. I’m ready to focus and learn. Thank you for teaching me!”
Probably not.
But for a couple of seconds there will be calm. And maybe those couple of seconds will turn into a couple of minutes, then hours, then more regularly as students learn how to tune in and tend to the storms within.
Who knows what the experience of seeing a trusted adult and a group of their peers breathe together could do for a kid. They may have never felt or seen anything like that before. They may have never experienced an intentional pause just to be and breathe ever before.
So let’s try it! I can’t wait to see what happens. :)
Your Homework Assignment:
Try box breathing for yourself and write down how you feel afterwards in one word.
Bonus Points:
If it feels right to you, try the EQ-uipped Classroom box breathing video with your students.
Gold Star:
Share your students’ reactions to the Box Breathing Video in the blog or youtube comments.
Where does this land for you today?
How are you? What are you feeling?
You’re halfway through October! Through grading and events and upcoming holidays, you’re still doing it and being it for all your kiddos.
And you’re showing up here each week to grow for yourself and your students. What a hopeful and life-giving thing. I’m so happy you’re here with me.
See you next week. :)
Applying EQ with you, Elizabeth Eason Martin
