What benefits might be gained from learning to attend to one’s body sensations? (pp. 30-33)
Emotional states, such as anxiety, excessive anger, and lethargy, are typically accompanied by changes within the body, involving heart rate, tightness or relaxation of muscles, feelings of heat or coolness, feelings of expansion or contraction, and so on. If Students learn to directly recognize emotional aspects in their own experience by attending to their bodies, which makes for increasingly powerful ‘self-awareness’. And also, By learning to attend to their nervous systems through awareness of the sensations in their bodies, students will gradually learn to detect the signs of stress and well-being. Consequently, students would pay attention to what is happening to their bodies on the inside, at the level of sensations, It allows one to better control one’s impulses. It calms the body and mind in ways that promote physical and psychological health.
What characterizes a trauma- and resilience-informed approach in SEE Learning? (pp. 29-37)
SEE Learning applies a holistic, body-mind understanding to trauma and offers a resilience-based approach. This takes a strengths-building approach, rather than one that focuses on remedying deficits. The individual skills in the SEE Learning curriculum not just can help students who have experienced trauma develop a sense of control and competence, but also can prepare students who have been less impacted by trauma to be more prepared to face challenges that lie ahead.
How is self-compassion defined in SEE Learning? What does realistic self-acceptance have to do with self-compassion? (pp. 34-37)
Dr. Thupten Jinpa points out that self-compassion is not self-pity, indulgent self-gratification, or merely high self-esteem, which is based on evaluations of self and others. In SEE Learning, self-compassion refers to the process of genuine self-care, particularly of one’s inner life. The component of self-compassion centers around a further vital aspect to the development of emotional literacy, which is the ability to understand emotions in a wider context that includes one’s own needs. This additional layer of emotional literacy also allows for self-acceptance, because understanding why emotions arise and how they relate to their needs allows students to relate to their emotions with less self-judgment.
4A: What are the capabilities involved in self-regulation, and how can those capabilities be developed? (pp. 38)
Self-Regulation refers to the practices and behaviors that are consonant with and reinforce the insights and awareness gained with regard to body, mind, and emotions. The three topics for this component are balancing the body, cognitive and impulse control, and navigating emotions. Each of these connects to a corresponding topic in the Attention and Self-Awareness component.
4B: What impact can self-regulation have on you and your students’ abilities to engage in ethical behavior?
It is essential to cultivate a deeper level of emotional awareness along with the tools to discern and regulate potentially destructive emotions. Since the purpose of successfully navigating one’s world of emotions is to live a healthy, happy life, developing emotional literacy can also be described by using the metaphor of cultivating good emotional hygiene.
Define resourcing, grounding, and tracking and explain how they relate to balancing the body. (pp. 39-43)
To support the cultivation of cognitive and impulse control, students will benefit from practices that help them to balance the body. Without a basic level of physical regulation, it is difficult to bring about stability and clarity of mind. Three fundamental skills in SEE Learning that balance the body and regulate the nervous system are resourcing, grounding, and tracking. These skills are informed by trauma care, but they are applicable to all individuals, whether or not they have suffered from serious trauma.
What is the role of self-awareness in SEE Learning and how does balancing the body (pg. 39)
A level of energy in the body and mind that is too high or too low will prevent stability and clarity and will make it hard for children to examine and navigate the inner landscape of their thoughts and emotions. This is especially important when dealing with children who themselves (or whose parents) have suffered from trauma, who live in less than desirable conditions, or who have suffered adverse childhood experiences. In such situations, the practices of learning to attend to and developing emotional awareness may be hindered if students do not first learn to calm and balance their bodies and minds. As students develop emotional discernment, they will also recognize that certain attitudes and perceptions affect how emotions arise. This is because they have already learned to see the relationship between emotions and underlying needs. The more that students recognize the causal chains that give rise to certain emotions, the greater their emotional literacy.
and the cultivation of sustained attention support this (pg. 46)?
Cognitive and impulse control in SEE Learning is based on specific strategies to enhance attention. Students learn first to attend to and track sensations in the body. Later, they practice maintaining attention during activities, such as mindful walking, listening, and eating. Following that, they practice focusing on specific objects of attention, such as the breath. Lastly, they cultivate attention with regard to mental experience itself, witnessing their thoughts and emotions as they arise and pass. These formal practices support learning to be “fully present” and help children develop attentional stability, impulse control, and the ability to delay gratification.
How is mindfulness defined in SEE Learning? How does this definition differentiate from some popular definitions of mindfulness? (pg. 112)
In some mindfulness programs, mindfulness is described as present-moment non-judgmental awareness. In SEE Learning, mindfulness refers to the ability to remain mindful of something of value, to keep it in mind, and to not forget it or be distracted from it. It is similar to the idea of retention.