Mindful in the Chaos

 This week I listened to a podcast and Ted Talk that featured Dr. Amishi Jha, a mindfulness expert. Dr. Jha has spend a large part of her career focused on attention and mindfulness. She spends time utilizing her knowledge to aid the US military with mindfulness training.

In the podcast Dr. Jha shared a mindfulness she practiced which came about from an irritation. I wanted to reflect on this idea for our mindfulness this week.

Dr. Jha was in a hotel room, ruminating and worrying about the upcoming podcast she was set to be on. In the hotel the air conditioner kicked on (lucky lady was in California). The sound of the air started irritate her. When she noticed this feel arise she quickly went into mindful mode.

Dr. Jha shared that she could have continued to ruminate and be irritated or she could be mindful. Mindfulness, as we all know by now, is being present and aware of the moment you are in.

At that moment she simply stated to herself, the air is on in my room. She went on to restate this over and over until she no longer heard the air but heard herself. She chose to embrace instead of fight. 

Is there something that your child does that irritates you? Instead of yelling and fixating on this behavior try to embrace it and accept it. The more you are able to do this the more mindful you will feel in your life.

Accepting things as they are can help us release and reduce anxiety.

Microaggressions can lead to Bullying

 

This month as we have been exploring what IS and IS NOT BULLYING, middle school has focused on Microaggressions. 

It is important as the adults shaping the lives of children, that we acknowledge the implicit bias that we have and pass on to the children. 

Psychologist Derald W. Sue defines microaggressions as: "The everyday slights, indignities, put downs, and insults that people of color, woman, LGBT populations or those who are marginalized experiences in their day-to-day interactions with people."

I shared with the students that there is a great book for their age group which explores this topic. Author Jerry Craft wrote the book New Kid to explore the experiences of a young black male switching schools and learning his own implicit bias while handling the biases of others. 

When we think about how to mindfully address this topic it is important to remember that we are not working toward creating division but unity. We want to explore experiences, observations, and the ideas that we need to challenge or change.

Dr. Sue when exploring and defining microaggressions created three categories. 

1. Microassaults

2. Microinsults

3. Microinvalidation 

Microaggression Discussion Video

The above link is a great discussion with college students regarding microaggressions. The instructor reviews the three types and talks with the students regarding their own experiences. 

Unfortunately most in a marginalized group will at one time experience a microaggression. 

Taking time to educate on what they are can help us overcome our implicit bias and help us notice any microaggressions we have used. 

Examples of Microaggressions are:

*Failing to learn how to pronounce someone's name after they have corrected several times

*Assuming a gender

*Using sexist language

*Expecting a single person to represent an entire group of people

*Using inappropriate humor toward: woman, people of color, based on gender identify, or sexual orientation.  

October is Bullying Awareness and Prevention Month

 October is Bullying Awareness and Prevention Month.

We would like to take this month to help our students understand what is and isn't bullying.

This chart is a great way to break down interactions with others. Just because someone calls a child a name, once, does not make it bullying. When a child chooses to not play with another child, this is not bullying.

Bullying is: Repeated, Hurts the Target Only, Is an effort to Control the other person.

This year our theme for October is: Know Better. Do Better. 

This comes from a Maya Angelou quote.

Our hope is that during the month of October, as we focus on bullying awareness education, we can teach our students to know better and then they can do better.