Presence & Intent in a Virtual World
One thing that saddened me during my years as a school counselor was how many students carried around negative stories about the world. They believed the world was full of bad guys; that people were out to get them. They also felt bad about themselves. Often, they...
How & Why to Keep Mindful Movement in the Virtual School Day
Not long after I’d begun work as a counselor in a high poverty, high trauma school, I played a social/emotional game with a group of students in which I’d ask questions to get them thinking. “What would you do if you found $10,000?” I asked the children. Having come...
Re-imagining Education in a COVID World
The 6th grade students at the Outdoor School were looking at the results of water samples they had just taken when a great blue heron landed in a tree above our heads. All the children turned to gaze at it, their eyes huge with excitement. What is that? they wanted to...
Time in Nature Is Important – Especially Now
If you followed the news at all over the 4th of July weekend, you likely saw beaches filled with an unsettling number of people, many ignoring the mask and social distancing guidelines for controlling the spread of COVID-19. Though plenty of folks were concerned about...
We Can Make a Better Post-Pandemic World, Part 3
Read Part 1 Read Part 2 Originally, our last post marked the end of this series, but the ongoing fight for justice that the death of George Floyd inspired has kept us thinking about what more we can do to create a healthier world for us all. Certainly, there’s a lot...
We Can Make a Better Post-Pandemic World, Part 2
Read Part 1 here Committing to Soft Skill Development & Emotional Support When the Great Recession hit in 2008, people had less money to buy things. The focus shifted from consumption to quality of life and experiences. We began to understand how true happiness...
We Can Make a Better Post-Pandemic World
One of the amazing things about a crisis is how it can jolt your perspective, laying bare the things that really matter and opportunities for future change. We’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, as states begin lifting at least some of the restrictions we’ve...
Tools to Keep Kids Moving & Learning as We All Stay Home & Stay Safe
One of the big challenges through these weeks of lockdown has been making sure our kids get the physical activity they need - not to mention that we get the activity we need, too. But it’s arguably even more important for children. Their bodies and brains are still...
Cultivating More Positive Emotions Through the COVID Crisis
It’s more than a little ironic that some key things that could most help us manage stress can seem hardest to come by during times like our current health and economic crisis: hope, gratitude, and joy. Or at least it is when you believe they depend on circumstances...
Nurturing Calm & Connection During the Coronavirus Crisis
Having spent many years as a teacher, I remember how challenging the week before spring break could be - everyone feeling the freedom of spring after the long months of winter and needing a break from each other. I can’t help but think how much harder it is right now...
The Beauty (& Importance) of Talking with Strangers
I was teaching in a 6th grade classroom one day when I was struck by the way some students were talking about what a dangerous world we live in, with “bad” people lurking everywhere in it. “How many bad people do you know?” I asked. “Oh, not many, really. But there...
“The Old Me Would Have Punched Him in the Face & Gone in the Hole”: Yoga Calm in the Prison System
When RN and Health and Wellness Coach Judy Black received the gift of a book from a colleague, she had no idea it would spin her life in a new direction. The book was Just Mercy by Equal Justice Initiative founder, Bryan Stevenson, in which he recounts an early case...