Welcome to Week 17. Now is a good time to remember to listen to your heart. Connecting to the rhythm of your heart by controlling your breathing and then your thoughts is a great way to begin the new week. Let’s Go (calmly)!

The emotions of most middle schoolers’ are strong and everything seems really, really, really important. I know there are students who look like that do not care one little bit about anything, and maybe there are some that work on a very low emotional level, but more often than not, it’s all just a thin facade covering an ever growing caldron of strong emotions. It can be very difficult to not be driven by these emotions and feelings. It can seem like it’s everything. 

That would be why using something like meditation might be useful, not to “control” ones emotions as much as to not be driven by them, much like our own heartbeats. We don’t control our heartbeats directly, but we can better communicate with our heartbeats in a way that helps us maintain our health and be aware of the stresses or challenges we are facing. Just like our emotions, there is a time when our heartbeats are racing and they may need to be for whatever challenge we are engaged in. But if we aren’t running a mile and climbing hundreds of stairs but our heart is beating as if we are, that’s something that needs to be understood. Our heart is experiencing something that is possibly damaging or dangerous. So, learning how to listen to our hearts is more than a cute metaphor about our inner thoughts, but also good ol’ creature biology. And if one can practice listening to ones heart as a form of meditation on a regular basis, the body/person balance could be greatly strengthened. How are you at listening to your heart’s rhythms?

Source: Heartbeat: A Mindfulness Exercise to Calm Your Emotions by The Partnership in Education, https://youtu.be/3iUf73v92lI