Originally published April 11, 2022
Life moves fast. Like, it's already the end of the school year and Ezra is almost 4 fast. We are getting ready to move to a home that I will be renting with my brother. I am still knee deep in grad school work. My allergies are crazy.
But, I still need to remember to breathe.
For my action research project for grad school, I taught my kindergarteners how to take belly breaths, which is the kid way of saying deep breathing. In a way, I also re-taught myself. I did the exercise of deep breathing and buzzing out like a bee, hissing like a snake, and exhaling up like a whale.
And, let me tell you I changed too. It's funny how we do something to help others and it ends up helping us too in a way we didn't even realize we needed. I strayed away from my daily practices of mindfulness. In my search for a way to calm my classroom after lunch and teach the little bodies how to handle big emotions, I reminded my big body how to handle big emotions too. Emotions that I had been sweeping under the rug. All the daily stress is now being tackled with breathing and writing, not being thrown into a pile for another day.
Sometimes us adults need to go back to the basics. Breathing is fundamental. Opening your eyes and just saying "I am." is brave and bold, especially in the storms of life. But, we can't forget the day to day too. Don't save your mindfulness for a rainy day. Take this reminder from my classroom and breathe.
Place your hand on your heart and belly. Breathe in and feel your belly balloon fill up. Breathe out and buzz like a bee.
Buzzzzzz,
Angela Pena
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