Children 10 and Older
Learning from the “Container”
What’s the container? The container is the space that feels the space between one side to the other. To capitalize on this container, use what neuroscientists know about the brain and the container. Learning is not a one-way road from the outside in. It happens in the container.
Awareness of this “container” gives people the feeling of a space inside their bodies. When the sensation of the container is felt, one can feel the Sensory Body (SB). The feeling of the SB diffuses feelings of anxiety, frustration, or anger. How? Dual attention. Attention is both internal, within the body, and external, to what is going on around you. Dual attention helps balance incoming information conflicting one’s personal process. The container appears with dual attention. Together, inner and outer attention, the experience shares a wisdom on how to balance out reactions.
Learning The Sensory Body
Lesson 1. The Brain and the Sensory Body
Pick a child from the class and look at how big his/her head is, then use a water balloon to represent the size of the brain. Share with the children the brain is also full of water and drinks more water than any other organ. As a result, if students did not feel they needed water, they may not know why they have difficulty with attention, listening, or memory. And their muscles knew before their brains the brain isn’t hydrated. Ta-da! You just stimulated their curiosity to learn about the Sensory Body.
The older elementary school kids are in for a treat with the game Hula Relay“(p. 58), a more grown-up version of Personal Bubbles Freeze Dance. This relay game is not just any game, like Personal Bubbles Freeze Dance; it’s a fun-filled adventure that introduces the Sensory Body by first teaching spatial awareness around them and then inside their bodies.
In the Hula Relay game, participants run around an obstacle course of hula-hoops. What is tricky is not to step on a hula-hoop or bump into each other. The movement activity helps give participants the sensation of spatial awareness. The participants are then directed inside their bodies by introducing the Home Breath lesson. The inner attention of “Home” provides sensory feedback that opens awareness to the internal space of the self. This “internal self” then helps balance with the external environment. Participants get a chance to feel the differences between how they move with each other with and without internal awareness.
Introducing participants to the “who” that is learning, is like introducing them to their best friend, the Sensory Body. The uniqueness of who they are comes into awareness through the Sensory Body. No two Sensory Bodies function the same way. As their awareness grows, they learn not just from their minds but also from their hearts, sparking a curiosity that leads to a broader sense of exploration of learning.
Lesson 2. Writing from “Home,” the Sensory Body
a. Learn the Home Breath
The Sensory Body (SB) will become your students’ best friend. Help them feeling from “Home,” and the inner honesty, integrity, and character of who they are. In “Home” you find the wisdom of the Sensory Body.
The treasure lies in the ability to feel the differences: awareness inside the body to a situation. “Home” is the container, a treasure, that can feel both. Home is the spirit with how they think, feel, and act to their world. Home is the “who” they are and will become. Learn from “Home,” that container, and it will help guide each individual’s way of thinking and learning. Home will become a best friend, and as we age the treasure will become more and more valuable.
Fourth graders and older students often need a little encouragement to become interested in their bodies, so teach them about “Home” first with the Muscle Testing lesson. To get them curious about their Sensory Bodies, and what their bodies know their minds don’t, do a science lesson on the brain with the Muscle Testing (p. 34) lesson. The lesson uses the body’s muscle strength to relate to hydration and their ability to listen. Then teach them the feeling of “Home” from the lesson, Hula Relay Personal Bubbles (58). Both lessons are in the book A New SENSORY Self-Awareness.
How do the two, the body, listening, and the brain come together? The three come together with the ability to feel hydrated. The brain and nerves need water to think. Neurons need ions to travel across synapses. Ions develop when there is enough water for salts to dissolve in the blood stream. Ions are what helps you learn and relay new information. The SB feels hydration and cues you why you can’t listen.
b. Writing Weekly Prompts in and out of “Home”
The writing prompts below are suggested to be done once-a-week so for the rest of the week students can apply being in and out of Home, or the Sensory Body. The key is to help them compare the differences in perception and behavior during a day. And how circumstances change when Home is present. Becoming aware of the feeling in or out of “Home” is KEY!
The writing prompts are designed to help students sense the opportunities of learning from their bodies versus their brains. Whether playing from ‘Home’ during physical education activities or listening and sharing from Home in a classroom, the experiences will change while learning, in social conflicts, or emotional reactions. Don’t believe us. Watch it happen. (See Principal Garcia’s Testimonial)
Week 1. Finding Home
- Have you ever got in trouble and not know why? What was the circumstance? Was your reaction familiar?
- Have you ever not been able to hear someone when they are speaking? What did you feel? Could you feel anything inside your body, or was attention just “out there?” At the time, was “Home” present in your awareness?
- Can you feel where in your body Home rests? Can you put your hand there and feel that area of the body and think of another person? Don’t let go of the feeling inside. Think of someone that upset you or got you involved with getting in trouble? What happens to your Home?
- Close your eyes and do the Home Breath again. Drop everything in your head down into the area you feel the exhalation end, the place of Home. Keep feeling inside where Home rests and ask yourself what changes in your attitude? Write about it. For example: what happened to your emotion, character, or frustration? In Home, what changed? What was important you really need to express?
- How can you use the experience of Home in other situations? How can you remember to be the “who” you are in Home at school, home, or work? (Notice any shifts in your attitude, patience, are perception of others.)
Learning from the Sensory Body can only happen by experience. Feeling the changes between where attention is from inside your body to just with the teacher. What will make the difference to help you enjoy learning?
Try this: Repeat the Home Breath and feel where your exhalations end in your body. With attention there inside (at the end of the exhalation) does your attitude or perception change? Don’t let your attention let go of Home when you answer this question.
Week 2. The “You” Inside and the “You” Outside
- What do you feel in your body when you want to get away and take time out? For example, where do you feel tight? Are you breathing naturally?
- What does the tightness say? How does the breath share how you feel?
- Be honest with yourself; this is just for you to write. You don’t have to share it.
Week 3. How Does the “You” Change in Home?
- What do you do when you are mad at someone and don’t want to talk with them?
- Were you in or out of “Home” when you got mad?
- Do the Home Breath again and see if you can keep your attention where the exhalations end inside. As you write, feel from Home and share what made you mad. Important: If you lose the feeling of Home, stop writing and pause. When you can find Home again, write from there.
- Do you notice when you go out of Home? How can you remember? Ask others to help? Share how to find home with others? Ask your teacher to remind you? Wear a string around your wrist?
- Who do you like better, the person in Home or out of Home? Why?
Note: Each student’s end of their exhalation will differ in their bodies because muscle tension (relates to behavior) changes according to character.
Lesson 3. Teaching Through the Body
If you need more physical activities with your students, contact us to get a notice of when Part II, WTM physical education is posted. For now, you can look at the section called “Lesson Sequences” (pages 36 and 37) in the book below to get a sense of how motion helps change behavior.
Lesson 4. Learn How Your Student’s Body Thinks
Lesson sequences in the book are designed to serve as building blocks for developing an extraordinary sense of the body-mind. It is the identity of the self in form. This “I” can be felt in form through the Sensory Body (SB). You will learn, just as in nature, in the sequence of lessons that the SB is first introduced through space and time. “Space” refers to both spatial awareness around the body and the perception of a three-dimensional space within the body. “Time” means the movement through space.
An essential aspect of teaching about the SB is to reflect on how the feelings generated by each lesson build upon one another. The sense of union between attention directed outside the body and attention focused inside the body is what fosters SB awareness. This type of dual attention is the ultimate goal for healthier functioning.
The manner of breathing is the primary indicator of internal conflict. Once students can experience a type of dual awareness, the breath can alert them, long before the brain is aware. For example, if a student feels stiff-chested and is unable to breathe due to anger, frustration, or a lack of understanding, it is easier to notice the change in breath than the emotion. The Sensory Body tells the person, “Hey, my chest is tight. Oh, I am not breathing! Something must be wrong.”
At this point, the student is directed to slow down and find Home. The difference in feeling between listening from a stiff ribcage and not breathing, versus feeling a soft ribcage and the natural flow of the breath, is an amazingly simple way to adjust one’s attitude.
For example, sensing the Sensory Body with anger: Students who are angry, frustrated, or confused stop breathing. As a result, either attention or listening becomes confused, and fidgetiness returns. The goal is to help the student realize that their attention is solely focused on the “outer world,” and their inner presence is removed from the situation.
If a behavior reoccurs, they’re in a pattern and out of control. If the behavior is familiar, the student has to slow down. They need to pause. A pattern cannot change without taking the time to slow down and reflect. One effective way to slow down is by focusing again on breathing. Please encourage them to wait and notice where their exhalations end or what breathes them. From this place of awareness with the breath, ask them to listen without letting go of their breath. This state of being is what we refer to as the person being in “Home.”
The union of mind and body is what listening to the Sensory Body through the breath reveals. Insights and inspirations come from learning what the body is saying the mind doesn’t know. Now, in awareness, the student has a choice and the ability to share with the teacher what is happening for them. The teacher can then guide them into the process of doing the Home Breath lesson.
The treasure of the whole process is to get the student to notice how a situation is handled differently in or out of the Home. If they are always connected to their breathing and recognize inner challenges earlier on without reactions, choices in how their life unfolds will change for the better.
Want more?
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