The Practice
It all comes back to the breath. As we sometimes point out to students, the breath is a great touchstone for practice since we are always breathing—if we weren’t we’d have much bigger issues to address!
Box breathing is a favorite tool of ours for all ages. All it takes is breathing in for a count of four seconds, holding one’s breath for four seconds, exhaling for four seconds, and holding again for a count of four. Rinse and repeat. Research shows that such breathing techniques can lower stress and trigger the body’s relaxation response.
Younger students can trace the shape of a square in the air in front of them as they breathe, or count on their fingers for each round of four. For older students, we like to point out that professional athletes and Navy SEALs use this technique to find calm in the midst of dynamic environments. It can even be offered as a stealth mindfulness opportunity for teens—no one knows that you’re doing it so you can maintain your cool while cooling down!
The Language
Try the following language to incorporate box breathing into your student’s day:
We are going to practice breathing in the shape of a box! That might sound kind of silly or strange, but breathing in this special way helps us calm our bodies down on a busy day. Follow my breathing and then we’ll talk about how it felt and what you noticed.
This is such an exciting time and it makes sense to have lots of energy! At the same time, we need to be able to quiet our bodies so we can focus on class/make sure we are being respectful in a silent environment. Let’s try a few rounds of box breathing to settle ourselves down.
This can be an intense time of year. It’s helpful to charge your battery proactively—in other words, well before it’s drained—during times you know can be stressful. So for the next week, we’re going to start each class with a couple of rounds of box-breathing to make sure we’re keeping our batteries topped up.
I understand that there are a lot of feelings and thoughts about this test. Let’s reset as a group by focusing on our breath. As you breathe, you will probably get distracted by thoughts and feelings over and over—that’s okay, just remember to keep coming back to your breath.
When pro athletes and Navy SEALs need to settle their nerves they often use a special breathing technique since it can relax your body and mind in seconds. Do you want to try it together? It’s called box breathing and science shows it can send calming signals to your brain.
Thanks for reading another edition of The Toolkit! Keep calm and breathe on...
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