Every month, NAGT will send a question to a Specialist within NISD to be answered by one of their students and themselves to provide advice, insight, or recommendations to other Gifted Learners.
Question of the Month:
What is one activity you suggest for learners when they are feeling overwhelmed to help them calm or refocus?
"We’re living in unsettled times where one of our most powerful and influential brain systems: our attention can be impacted and thus, create an overwhelmed feeling within us. Therefore, incorporating mindfulness during this time can help each of us, kids and adults, to survive, and even thrive.
Mindfulness practice helps restore attention so you can regulate your emotions. In as little as 8-10 minutes a day 3 to 5 times a week, you can see evidence of lower levels of overwhelming stress.
With your child, try this 5-minute mindfulness by Dr. Mark Bertin:
1. Lie down somewhere comfortable. Close your eyes..
2. Start to notice how your body changes with each breath you take. Put a hand on your belly. Or if you want, put a stuffed animal there.
3. Each time you breathe, your belly moves. Breathing in, one, breathing out, one. (Repeat for nine more inhales, and nine more exhales.)
4. Now, shift your attention to your day. Breathing in, focus on your breath as your belly goes up. Breathing out, focus on something that went well today.
5. Now, picture something about yourself that makes you proud. Breathing in, focus on your belly moving. Breathing out, picture something that makes you proud about yourself. If nothing comes to mind, that sometimes happens. If that’s how you feel, picture what you’d wish for yourself instead.
6. Finally, bring someone to mind who makes you happy. Breathing in, notice your belly move. And now, breathing out, picture someone who makes you happy.
7. As you come to the end of this practice, take a few deep breaths, and start to wiggle your arms and legs. Pause and decide what you’d like to do next in your day.
8. It’s normal to have thoughts that make us feel scared or bad. We should never ignore anything important, but it’s useful to focus on the rest of our lives too. Take a few minutes every day to notice what has gone well.
Read more and listen to the audio practice on mindful.org."
--Kelly Barrett, the GT specialist from Justin Elementary
"Mindful Monday:
1. Close your eyes. Take a big, deep breath in. Wait 3 seconds. Now take a deep breath out. Do that 5 times.
2. Now think of a person that matters to you. List 5 things about him or her in your brain.
3. Now stop. Let’s take 3 deep breaths in and out.1...2….3…..
4. Open your eyes and see the beautiful world around you for 10 seconds. And now, you are done!”
--Nathan, 5th grade, Justin Elementary
