Hello all - here today guest designing for the Scrapbook Nerds .... if you have not already come on over and join us on Facebook for some fun online crops and layout tags and of course contests for FREE STUFF from the amazing Joy!
Using their sketch as inspiration for my card base and layering of paper I chose to play with the Altenew Sentiment set Better Together and pairing it with the BFF My Tribe stamp set from Picket Fences0
I just love how these two stamp sets compliment each other! I know I am going to have lots of fun coloring the My Tribe stamp set with my Stampin' Blends markers! I think I might have to get my Zentangle pattern books out to create some funky clothing options!
Happy Stampin' Margaret Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much Be Totallyawake4-life *this post contains affiliate links
Margaret here guest designing with the Scrapbook Nerds! This week were are creating around the theme 'Relax'!
If you have not already joined make sure to come on over and join us in our group so you can play along too - the group is fun and Joy has great contests and prize giveaways!
For me relaxing is playing with mixed media and getting messy in the craftroom - so I am offering a few cards featuring mixed media background using Alcohol inks and metallic paints for a faux Mother of Pearl technique! I paired my mixed media with the My Favorite Things All About You Stamp and Die set to create some Missing and Thinking you inspired cards to send out to those whom I have not been able to see over the past few months to know I am thinking of them!
I am just loving this stamp set - so many fun options for it and perfect for lots of occasions!
Happy Stampin'
Margaret Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much Be Totallyawake4-life
My turn to play along with this weeks sketch by Milena - card edition! If you want to come play along you can join us on Facebook!
I had so much fun with this one I made two different takes on it!
This was the perfect sketch to use up some scraps from my stash along with some of the Vicki Boutin paper and stickers for this little whimsical 'love notes' card!
My second card instead of using scraps I did some stenciling with my Concord & 9th faceted gems stencil for the 'lines' ... make sure to check out the line over on the Nerds website.
If you have not gotten yourself some Picket Fences blending brushes from the shop - you must! They are perfect for stenciling!
Happy Stampin'
Margaret Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much Be Totallyawake4-life *this post contains affiliate links
Covid has really pushed educators all to be creative in how we present and engage in our work both with considering how we will return to our work with children but with our own professional development - I personally am loving this new 'Zoom' option that organizers like Strive and other industry leaders are creating where we can be engaging in professional development with colleagues in an interactive manner but in a way that creates more work life balance - being able to be 'home' but also connected is truly amazing! Zoom seems to offer a more interactive option that other 'webinars' I have engaged in!
The workshop tonight turned out to be a refresher I took in 2019 however it was still amazing and took away new things that I missed the first time plua gives me a chance to do up a blog post to share it for my CPL as well as I had not been doing the blogging of my CPL back in 2019.
The presenter Abe Giesbrecht shared the following with us:
Alan Watts a great mentor for mindfulness – click the link to go to Wikipedia entry to find out more about him.
Another favorite quote
3 skills working together
·Concentration
·Sensory
clarity
·Equanimity
– just recognize what it is do not accept or push away
For
children it is the basics of ‘what’s happening right now’.
It
is NOT
·About
being calm
·Absence
of thought – it is actually noticing what IS the thought
·About
discipline
·A
silver bullet – it won’t solve every problem
·Religious
– it is actually secular
Mindfulness
Exercise of sitting quiet listen to your body, what is happening how do your
head, stomach and legs ‘feel’ in the moment.
Mindfulness
allows you to access the prefrontal and hippocampus by quieting the Amygdala
(fight/flight/freeze instinct) when you are experiencing stress.
The
Importance of Breath – it is always THERE. It is that gas and break momentum
To
reduce anxiety or fight/flight/freeze state of mind you
·Anchor
Spot – where do you FEEL your anger/sadness/stress
·Anchor
words – how do you feel – label your feeling
·Activities
for breathing – blow out the candle and control your breaths
Chronic
Shallow Breathing is an issue in North America – and as a result of the lack of
deep breaths the brain does not get the message to tell the heart to ‘slow
down’ when it gets that ‘fight flight freeze’ feeling.
Sitting – it is important to spend
time with children sitting still for extended periods of time as
developmentally appropriate as it is linked to improvement in executive
functioning and self-control!
Body
ScanEngage
your Five Senses
Wiggle
start top head move down to toes Listening
what do you hear
Are
you slouching or sitting straight? Find
something new to see/notice
Are
you clenching your jaw – relaxWhat
do you smell / taste
Moving – Mindful Movement ideas for
kids
Go
Slow motion – pretend in glue and feet are stick and slowing you right down
Go
Light - Feather on the Head
Go
Heavy - Be a Rock – walk heavy slow footed
Go
with purpose – walk glass of water very full and hold it while walking
Eating
Pay
attention to the response to your food, learning hunger cues and thirsty cues
Pickle
or Raisin game (goggle this)
Pretend
you are tasting something for first time – describe and really focus on the
food properties
Sleeping
The
harder you think about trying to sleep the harder it is to fall asleep
Muscle relaxation
·Do
the tension exercise do the body scan start head and move down relaxing tension
·What’s
going on in your mind just ‘notice’ the thoughts without judgement or trying to
change them
·Focus
on breathing
·Gravity
perspective exercise picture yourself in bed and then getting lighter and float
about your body, out of your bed, out of your room, out of your house, above
city and up into outer space and then relax and feel your body sink back into
the bed the pull of gravity pulling you back.
“To
think in the terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplies the truth. The
problem is to see reality as it IS”. Feelings are actually sensations from
visceral organs and over the years of evolution humans have given those
sensations ‘names’.
Relationships between Social
Emotional Learning and Mindfulness
Power
of THOUGHT – how you look at it is how you will SEE it!
Practice
scenarios of
·Gratefulness
·Generosity
and kindness
Notice
how you feel and how long it took to feel that way between action and feeling
Strengthen
physical connections to positive thoughts in your body.
Visualize
than before difficult moments how you can choose to feel positive and remember
that you can return to those feelings despite the difficult moment about to
happen.
Define
the Past, Present and Future of your mindset or thoughts.
So
Past thinking is guilt/regret/anger emotions in body and future is
anxiety/worry/stress emotions in the body and both have negative effects on the
body and are things you cannot control anyway – keep thoughts in the present
where your action and control on how to handle a situation actually lays.
Label
your thoughts as they appear and try to detach the thought from the feeling
from your visceral organs … let the tension go in those organs.
Hearftulness
Mindfulness without
heartfulness is not complete
Heartfulness without
Mindfulness is not complete
Role of Educators
Personal Practice
·Our
internal state is determining factor in a child’s internal state
·In
many our Nervous system attunement has atrophied – we have lost our sense of
‘self’ that ‘gut feeling’ of intuition and attachment to our body.
Disembodiment verse Embodiment
or the Doing verses Being
·Intrinsic
Memory – stop and smell the roes more ‘delight’ in your children and the small
moments because they are all ‘small moments’ in the larger picture of day.
·Understanding
mindfulness
·Be
PRESENT – your presence is the best gift you can give children!
Activity Training / Teaching mindfulness to
others
·Understand
then can express
·Explain
the WHY
·Give
them ab active role in practicing
·Keep
it VERY quick, simple and positive and OFTEN and with Intention
·Vocalize
the positive changes you see in their mindful practices
·Progression
·Adjust
Expectations – it is not a silver bullet and what works for some will not work
for others
Model
Our
past experiences should not negatively affect our children’s current
experiences (do not share your own fears/anxieties/dislikes’ with children)
Adjust
your external dialogue and change your internal dialogue to keep it positive
when having to do things with children that may have been challenges in your
own life (aka dislike of spiders or foods or other experiences)
Success
at anything comes from the following equation
Seeing
Value in it + Setting Goals + Honing Skills = Positive Meaning and Energy for
it to see success at it
