There are techniques that can help you maintain a calm disposition throughout each teaching day.
Even if chaos is swirling around you.
We’ve covered several in the past, both in our books and here on the website.
But today I want to share with you a super easy method that is scientifically proven to put you in a more relaxed state.
And keep you there.
It’s used by archers, golfers, surgeons, yoga teachers, and others whose performance is so directly linked to their ability to keep their composure.
So what is it?
It’s called nasal breathing, and it’s exactly what it sounds like.
The way it works is from morning bell to dismissal, unless you’re talking or eating, you’re going to practice breathing through your nose.
The benefits are many.
1. The narrow passages of the nose force you to slow down your breathing, filling the lower half of your lungs and stimulating parasympathetic nerves that automatically calm the body.
2. It causes you to be aware of your breathing. It keeps you attuned to the present moment without having to remind yourself again and again to focus on what’s in front of you.
3. It improves your energy level. A full day of deep, nasal breathing will circulate more oxygen throughout the body and allow you to feel refreshed at the end of a long day of teaching.
4. It lowers blood pressure and heart rate, which sends calming signals to the brain, allowing you to be naturally and effortlessly more pleasant and likable.
5. It increases respiratory function and fitness, filters out millions of particles of foreign matter per day, and more effectively expels carbon dioxide waste from the cells.
6. It’s easier to stay disciplined verbalizing only what your students need to succeed. It keeps you from reminding, narrating, and micromanaging them through every little this and that.
7. You’ll move more efficiently. Slowing your breath naturally through nasal breathing will slow your body as well. Your movements will become graceful and economical.
8. It very effectively removes excitability from your classroom, which is one of the biggest causes of misbehavior. Students take their cue from you, and if you’re calm, they will be too.
One Easy Change
Although it may take a few days to develop the habit of nasal breathing, you’ll find it delivering blessed relief within your first hour of practice.
The stressors themselves may still be there, but your ability to handle them and avoid your physiology from being negatively impacted will greatly improve.
In time, your days may even take on a meditative quality.
This one easy change will not only make you feel, and even look, a lot better, but it will open your eyes to how much stress you’ve been experiencing.
It will show you just how profoundly a naturally calm demeanor positively influences those around you.
Your students. Your colleagues. Even the loved ones you go home to.
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I teach 4th grade. I have 3 different classes throughout the day – each for 90 minutes of language arts. My homeroom class is respectful and follows the management plan. When I get the 2nd & 3rd classes, they come in noisy and take about 5 minutes to settle down. I have tried taking them outside and coming in again but they always seem to need to go back out and come back in. They never do it the first time. They are focused most of the time, but some kids have their heads down and when we discuss the book some kids can’t get back on track. They keep talking and then eventually settle down. It just seems like more of a chore with these last two classes and it is getting on my nerves. Why is this not happening with my homeroom class ? Is it because I have my homeroom from the beginning of the day and we start on track from the get go. What am I doing wrong?
Hi Mary, I just wanted to message as I teach at a school where 80% of the kids are in the lowest socioeconomic income bracket. They can be unruly and I sympathise with your frustration.
It sounds like you are doing some great modelling of how you would like them to enter the room. If you have access to Michael’s classroom rules the first one is listen and follow instructions. It sounds like they aren’t doing that, so you should be enforcing consequences. I carry around a clipboard with student’s names on and keep a note of all bad behaviours and follow them through on my classroom management plan. They are also quite young, so maybe you need to start the lesson with some kind of brain break to get rid of the wiggles. Those that are still misbehaving after that then remind them that they are not listening and following instructions and enforce consequences. Good Luck!
Simple yet very effective technique
Thank you
Thank you for sharing! I am a specials instructor who teaches karate for grades KG – 5th and I incorporate breathing exercises into our class time. I did a “stillness challenge” where they were learning to focus on their breathing and started teaching them how to use a small Hoberman sphere. Seeing them connect with their breathe reminds me to do the same:)
Great tip!
Thanks for this easy tip! Implementing asap
Thank you for this! I’ve been waiting over a year for your e-guide for students with ADHD. I have a student who is out of control. He makes me exhausted every day. I read and try to practice everything you write. Please, please please will you publish your e-guide for students with ADHD?
Hi Bonnie,
We’ve published two books in 2019, so as of now nothing is imminent.
Yeah it really help me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great, thanks for sharing the article
Thanks for the article Michael.
However, how do other people normally breathe? Do I breathe through my mouth when I don’t realize it? How do -most- people breathe normally?
Knowing what -not- to do will help me a lot in trying this out.
This is a big deal for anxiety about testing (for the students, but same applies to all.)
“In through nose, out through mouth” is the traditional approach. Likewise, some folks have learned that when the exhale is longer than the inhale, that’s the trigger for the autonomic nervous system to slow our hearts and lower blood pressure (and as a consequence, internal cranial pressure, the major cause of ‘brain fog.’)
You might recognize it from Karate Kid. And guess which lesson was repeated the most times (4!) by Mr. Miagi in that movie, proving he considered it the most important:
“Don’t forget to breathe.”
Most folks watching that movie start thinking “What? How could I forget? I always breathe!”
But when stress hits, when the class begins, when the test paper is plunked down on the desk, when the clock is running out … anxiety often causes us to breathe fast, shallow, up in our tightened shoulders instead of slow and down in our bellies. (Most students of woodwind and brass instruments have learned this already.)
But Mr. Miagi showed us the way 40 years ago!