The Story of Harmony In Schools

IT ALL BEGAN IN MY HIGH SCHOOL HEALTH CLASS IN 2008

This was the year of the economic downturn and the stress level of the students that year had skyrocketed (as measured by their life events, or stress scale numbers).  Many students were struggling, and I wanted to do something to help them. I proposed a class called “Controlling Stress” and in 2010 began teaching yoga, meditation, journaling, and effective communication.

They learned healthy ways of processing and releasing their emotions and began opening up to one another in ways I had never seen. They were more relaxed, and their self-confidence began to rise.

IT WAS WORKING!

The students were healing, and I could see it right before my eyes.  But it wasn’t until I read their reflective essays that I realized the full impact of this class.  (Read the results on the data page).

Starting in 2013, I began attending every mindfulness conference I could. I wanted to learn more and share the techniques with my students. I continued to grow my program through research and experimentation.  I had firsthand feedback on which techniques worked and which didn’t and saw their lives continually improving. 

The students were getting so much healthier and mentioned sharing some mindfulness with the rest of the school. So, in 2017 we initiated a daily schoolwide “Mindful Minute” after the morning announcements. It was helping many, but not everyone was on board. I later realized that it would have been helpful to offer a bit of training and an introduction to the techniques, before we introduced the Mindful Minute.

Then something happened to get everyone’s attention!!!!!!!

ENTER THE PANDEMIC!!

This program grew out of a need to help students, but I saw an even greater need to help educational professionals who were suffering. Teachers, counselors, administrators, and mental health specialists were stretched to the limit, and on top of it, some were now responsible for the mental and emotional needs of students.

But from my past experience, when I shared resources with other educators who were interested in this work (but didn’t have a daily practice in place), the efforts were less than desirable. If we truly want to help our students, we need to develop our own daily mindfulness practice first!!!!!

That is why I developed the Restoring Peace and Calm video series. The Restoring Peace and Calm video series is a condensed version of the Controlling Stress curriculum designed first and foremost for us. We must put on our oxygen mask before we can best serve others. “Our grounded presence is equally as important as the curriculum we teach.” - Mindful Schools

The Restoring Peace and Calm video series is a 6 module “best practices” toolbox that can be implemented into your daily life in as little as 15 minutes. (Visit the offerings page for details).

We have all been through a lot these last few years. I realize we are all busy; I get that (we are raising our granddaughter), but we need some daily practices in place to help stress from accumulating. Let’s start with ourselves and begin to unload the stress and get our lives back on track. Then we will be better able to serve others.

STRESS IS NOT GOING AWAY ANY TIME SOON

My dream is that by providing a systematic method and a toolbox of proven techniques to all school personnel, that the effects will reach far and wide, so that we can begin to bring HARMONY back IN SCHOOLS.