Well Being with Graham Watts

Graham Watts MA, BA (HONS) PGCE, COGE

From the highest achieving school in New Zealand to being selected as part of the leadership team to turn around England’s lowest achieving secondary school, Graham has successfully led change, pushed boundaries and achieved tangible outcomes. His abilities in educational leadership has led Graham to become an international thought-leader on educational matters such as:

• Thinking Skills and Critical Thinking Character Education with the Habits of Mind

• More Able and Talented Education

• Mindfulness, Wellbeing and Resilience

Nick Meissel is currently on a Teacher Well Being course run by Graham Watts. He shares his learning below:

So I guess it is with some level of apprehension that I start into this course. I'm guilty of being a 'do as I say, not as I do' kinda person, so signing up to take a course that directly challenges me to practise what I preach is scary! I know that my life as a teacher is one filled with joy, wonderful relationships and rewards, but the flip side is that it's often filled with deadlines, reports, stress, marking, building/fostering relationships, school trips, stress, meetings, productions, out of school rehearsals, oh, and did I mention... STRESS!

In saying all of that I guess I am, like so many of us, a sucker for punishment. However I justify it because, after all, I'm doing it for the kids! Like those of us who are parents, we want our children and students to have positive experiences and outcomes and for them to achieve success where perhaps we didn't. Isn't that the reason why we try to help them avoid the pitfalls we may have experienced throughout our lives and why we work so hard to steer them in positive directions?

I work pretty hard and I know that there are millions of teachers out there working harder than I do! However if I was to look carefully at my practice there are many areas where I push myself too hard and eventually pay the consequence for doing so. I'm just coming off the back of a full on month where I've been directing a production, helping out with ShowQuest, preparing for The Big Sing and squeezing in a trip to Auckland this week for my work with Drama New Zealand. And, of course, this is on top of all the other things we do as teachers on a daily basis. It's no surprise that I spent four days in bed recently, absolutely run down and full of a head cold! Now I don't share this with you to garner offers of chicken soup or sympathy cards - I share this with you because I bet you share similar circumstances like this yourself!

This is the beginning of my Well Being journey. I can't guarantee success, but I will promise to share my journey with you, if you're interested. I'm no saint, but I am honest. I'll share my successes and my failures with you along the way. I'll share some of my own life experiences too, as these play a major part in the shaping of who I am today. The course with Graham is over four sessions, but I understand that my journey will be longer than that!

I hope that my experiences may give you some tools, some ideas, or just a good laugh and that they, in turn, help you to develop better Wellbeing.

SESSION 1 - A User’s Guide to the human brain, the mind and how to find focus, calm and balance

• A Super Short History of Secular Mindfulness and what it offers us

• The Brain, Emotional Hijacking and Self-Regulation

• The Mindful Breath & Practice

• Benefits of a mindful practice

• Using our senses to be present and feel grounded

How to focus, be calm and find balance.

The Brain - I'm sure you all know heaps about the brain so I won't bore you to tears with this. One thing I found REALLY interesting about this discussion is what I discovered about the AMYGDALA. Aside from being the little almonds in the centre of your brain that produce the 'fight, flight, freeze' responses, these little areas also control the emotional responses like anxiety and fears. When the amygdalae are hyperactive we experience that uncomfortable feeling of anxiety. Graham shared with us his thoughts and experiences with 'The Mindful Breath and Practice'.

Now I don't want to lose you here. I'm with ya. I almost eye-rolled on the spot thinking about breathing and it providing all the answers to my well being! However, I made the commitment to this course and that means giving everything a go, no matter what my initial reaction.

BREATHING - the toughest thing about the breathing is applying these three things:

1) Be on purpose (responsive rather than reactive)

2) Be in the present (be in the moment rather than dwelling on the past or the future)

3) Be non-judgemental (Pause before judgement)

Process - find somewhere comfortable to sit and be centred. Sometimes this is hard to do, but that's okay too. When I first did this exercise I was interrupted at least three times, but that's all part of the learning! At this early stage we were encouraged to take three deep breaths. In through the nose and out through the mouth. Make sure you focus on the breath and not the other things outside of your control. I found my mind would often wander and I'd focus on the noise of students around me, doors opening and closing, people coming into the space. These things are bound to happen - acknowledge them in your mind as distractions and refocus on the breathing.

Now, like I say, I am skeptical about soooo many things in life and this was no different. I'll admit to feeling a lot calmer after trying the exercise and I continued for several days after practising the breathing, each time helping me to feel more calm and centred. However I have since become less committed to the exercise, but do use it from time to time when feeling a little overwhelmed. Try it for yourself and see how if it works for you!

Apparently doing this exercise for 3 minutes per day helps to promote deeper sleeping.

One last interesting point. Now I haven't checked the science on this but I found this interesting none-the-less. I wonder if it applies to any of you?

Cortisol is the stress hormone. Healthy levels of cortisol in your system usually peak in the morning and drop throughout the day. The purpose of this is that it helps you rise for the day, motivates, and then eases off later in the day to help promote restful sleep. Unhealthy levels of cortisol manifests itself with a flattening of the levels. It becomes harder to rise in the mornings and one becomes more hyperactive at nighttime which makes it harder to sleep. Sound familiar to any of you? It certainly rings a few bells with me. High levels of exposure to raised cortisol levels can be bad for your health. Check out the Healthline link below.