Photo by Joshua Ness on Unsplash
I had to pull out one of my favorite mindful moves the other day for when the room gets away from me and I feel like I’m going to pull my hair out:
Find the middle of the room. Walk there. Take a breath. Observe what is happening out loud. Then ask for what you need.
I hate raising my voice over kids, so I find I have to do something attention-grabbing to reign them in. Moving my body into a different place in the room weirds them out just enough to track me. Naming what is happening, without judgement, lets them tune into what is not working without me having to freak out. (Hey, your classmates are talking and when you talk over them, they can’t be heard by me or you.) Asking for what I need helps reset the room back to a state of relative normalcy. (I’d like us all to be listening to one another so everyone has a chance to share and be heard.) You know, as close as you can get in a room full of teenagers.