This particular year 6 class was challenging due to a request from the headmistress to help support disciplining this year group.
I covered emotions, what they look like, what they feel like and how to deal with them in a competent efficient manner. So we started off on how Confrontation can begin, is it visual or is it sound, is it a combination of both. Then how does this manifest in the body, that gut feeling and then mentally, what are the thought processes that support those feelings and gut sensations that you would wish to engage in the physical. we discussed the awareness of where this starts where the Confrontation begins and how you deal with it mentally with intelligent use of emotions. They all understood the term of gut feeling, gut sensation, butterflies in the belly. We talked about the animal kingdom and how they avoid fighting unless it is for survival, why would they fight for survival, when they actually thought it was necessary to fight. We communicated about the strength and what type of strength it takes to walk away from confrontation and how it emotionally creates well-being mentally and physically. what those feelings are and to give them a name/ labels so that they are easily identified then the right course of action can follow.
Not letting the negative emotions take control and to let the mind the prefrontal cortex influence the outcome, by explaining some simple neuroscience of the reptilian brain the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex, helping them to undearstand how to control negative emotions mentally and then the benefits physically.
The drill we did was the Embrace the tree challenge, face-to-face, focusing and looking each other’s eyes. I have used this for all the years I’ve been teaching in primary schools and this was taught to me many many years ago from my taiji teacher Nigel Sutton and recently from my positive psychology teacher Sue Langley. taiji we have to be focused, staying clam under physical pressures so we can apply the postural principals and controlling mentally, unwavering, dealing with it. Mentally alert so it does not get physical, full awearnes so it does not happen in the first place.
From positive psychology this interaction, face to face eye to eye process, evokes emotions and is how we deal with those emotions when facing a fellow human being. believe it or not 2 or 3 of the children started to shed some tears, saying their eyes hurt, we are talking about 10 year olds here. Understanding those emotions they were feeling they could then apply the focus of breathing awareness so the emotions do not dominate mentally and physically. They could use the prefrontal cortex to make the right decision in the right situation and not let, let’s say, blind anger take control. Just one of the ways how we share the beauty of Tai Chi but remembering for us we have put the years in and we don’t always have the years for our children. But believing it is planting positive seeds of progress for humanity.
One of the children brought up the subject of a fight between a hedgehog and a lion and how the lion would win. On a positive note I said my money would be with the Hedgehog because it would yield to the Lion and roll up in a ball for self defence this in turn would cause a problem to the lion with the sharpness of the spikes along with the fleas it would take onboard. The hedgehogs defence mechanisms could become a longer-term irritant to Lyon which I personally would not enjoy.
I thank you for reading this for the experiences and knowledge that I’m gaining from teaching childrens curriculum taiji, deep down, find astonishing and very blessed to be doing so.