Take any of the books: “Pearls of Proverbs”, “Thoughts of Majestic People”, “Aphorisms”.
Imagine that inside your head, at the top of it, a light beam appears, moving slowly and consistently from top to bottom, illuminating from within with warm, even and relaxing light all parts of the face, neck, shoulders, arms, and so on. As the beam moves, the tension in the back of the head disappears, wrinkles on the face are smoothed, the eyes see better, and the shoulders fall. The “inner ray” seems to form a new appearance of a calm person, satisfied with himself and his life, his profession and his students.
Imaginary movement of the “inner beam” from top to bottom, and then from bottom to top must be carried out several times. It is important to get inner pleasure, even pleasure, from performing the exercise. The exercise ends with the words: “I have become a new person! I became young and strong, calm and stable! I will do well now! “
Exercise 2 “Press”. This exercise helps to neutralize and suppress the emotions of anger, irritation, anxiety, aggression. It is recommended to perform it before working in a “difficult” class, talking to a “difficult” student or his parents, before a psychologically stressful situation that requires inner self-control, self-confidence and the ability to manage the situation. It is necessary to resort to the exercise at the very beginning of the emergence of negative emotions, otherwise there will be no psychotherapeutic result. Depending on their emotional state, the teacher may resort to undesirable ways to “dump” negative energy on a student or co-worker. Unfortunately, this often happens in the teacher’s family, where he weakens his inner self-control.
The essence of the exercise is as follows. The teacher mentally imagines inside himself, at chest level, a powerful press moving from top to bottom, suppressing the emerging negative emotion and the internal tension associated with it. When the exercise, it is important to achieve a feeling of physical weight of the internal press, which suppresses and seems to push down unwanted negative emotions and the tension it carries.
Exercise 3 “Tree”. The state of internal tension is characterized by a person’s overconcentration on their feelings, experiences, emotions.
A significant reduction in internal tension is achieved if a person is able to carry out decentralization, ie the center of the unpleasant situation to mentally transfer from himself to any object or external circumstance. In this case, the negative emotion is released into the environment and the person escapes from it.
The essence of the exercise is as follows. On the way home from work, in public transport, the teacher stands and imagines himself as a tree with which he can most easily identify. He must imagine in detail in his mind the image of this tree: its powerful or flexible trunk, branches that intertwine and sway in the wind, leaves, the circulation of nutritious sap along the trunk, the roots that are firmly rooted in the ground. It is necessary to imagine as realistically as possible the nutritious juices that the roots get from the ground. The tired teacher’s idea of the roots of a tree growing into the ground is, in fact, a symbol of his inner connection with reality, the strengthening of self-confidence.
Exercise 4 “Book”. You need to imagine yourself as a book lying on the table (or any other object in sight). It is necessary to construct in detail in the mind the inner “feeling” of the book – its calm, position on the table, protecting the cover from external influences, pages. In addition, try to mentally as if “on behalf of the book” to see the room and the objects located in it: pencils, pens, paper, notebooks, chair, bookcase and more. The exercise is performed for 3-5 minutes. and completely relieves the inner tension of the teacher, translating it into the world of objects.
Exercise 5 “Maria Ivanovna”. You had an unpleasant conversation, for example, with the head teacher, tentatively named by us Maria Ivanovna. She allowed herself to talk to you rude tone and unfair remarks. The working day is over, and on the way home you remember an unpleasant conversation, you have a feeling of resentment again. You try to forget the offender, but it doesn’t work. Against the background of fatigue you have mental stress.
Try to do so. Instead of erasing Maria Ivanovna from your memory, try, on the contrary, to bring her closer to you mentally. To do this, on the way home, play the role of Maria Ivanovna. Imitate her gait, her manner of behavior, imagine her reasoning, family situation, and finally, her attitude to talking to you. In a few minutes you will feel not only the easing of internal tensions, but also a change in your attitude to the conflict, to Maria Ivanovna. In fact, you got involved in Maria Ivanovna’s situation and were able to understand her. You will feel the results of this exercise the next day when you come to school: Maria Ivanovna will be surprised to feel that you are calm and friendly, and, in turn, will seek to resolve the conflict.
Exercise 6 “Head”. In addition to intellectual stress, the teacher is forced during the working day to constantly influence students, to suppress their excessive activity, to restrain and control something. Such intensive management of the educational situation causes him overexertion and, as a consequence, various physical ailments. Teachers often complain of headaches, heaviness in the back of the head.
We offer an exercise that helps relieve these painful sensations. Stand up straight, shoulders straight, and tilt your head back slightly. Try to understand in which part of the head you feel heaviness. Imagine that you are wearing a bulky hat that presses on your head in the place where you feel heaviness. Mentally remove this hat with your hand, clearly, emotionally throw it on the floor. Shake your head, straighten the hair on your head with your hand, and then throw your hands down, as if escaping a headache.
Exercise 7 “Hands”. You have a lesson. Students solve buy a compare and contrast essay problems. There is silence in the classroom and you can take a few minutes. This is your fifth lesson today, and of course you are tired. Sit in a chair with your legs slightly outstretched and your arms hanging down. Try to imagine that fatigue “flows” from head to shoulders, then forearms, reaches the elbows, then the palms of the hands and “flows” through the fingertips. You physically feel a heaviness sliding down your arms. Sit like this for 1.5-2 minutes, and then shake lightly with your hands, finally escaping from fatigue. Get up easily, resiliently, walk around the class. Rejoice in the questions asked by children, try to answer them in detail and in detail.
This exercise relieves fatigue, helps to establish mental balance.
Exercise 8 “Mood”. A few minutes ago you had an unpleasant conversation with the mother of a student who constantly misses lessons, violates discipline in the classroom, is rude to you. You encouraged the mother to regularly monitor her son’s attendance and homework. Unexpectedly for you, the student’s mother refused to follow your recommendations, stating that the school should educate the student. You could not restrain yourself and started making threats: you promised to call the student to the pedagogical council, to leave him for the second year. The student’s mother left with full confidence that her child was not liked at school.
How to remove the unpleasant sediment after such a conversation? There are a few more lessons ahead, and it is necessary to maintain inner peace and efficiency. During the break, sit in the teacher’s room, take colored pencils or chalks and a blank sheet of paper. Relaxed, draw lines, colorful spots, shapes with your left hand. Try to imagine that you are transferring to paper your anxious mood, as if materializing it. It is important to choose a color in full accordance with your mood. Now turn the paper over and write 5-7 words on the other side of the sheet that reflect your mood. Do not think for a long time, it is necessary that the words appear spontaneously, without special control on your part.
After that, look at your picture again, as if reliving your condition, re-read the words and with pleasure, emotionally tear the sheet, throw it in the ballot box.
Your emotionally unpleasant state will disappear, it will go into the picture and will be destroyed by you.
And now, calm down, go to class!
Exercise 9 “Proverbs”. We offer an exercise that relieves depression and bad mood. Take any of the books: “Pearls of Proverbs”, “Thoughts of Majestic People”, “Aphorisms”. They are in almost every school library. Read proverbs or aphorisms for 25-30 minutes until you feel inner relief. Perhaps, in addition to reassurance, this or that proverb will push you to the right decision.
Exercise 10 “Memory”. One of the professional shortcomings of a teacher is his adulthood. Paradoxically, but it is so. The teacher comes to children from an incomprehensible and somewhat distant world of adults, in which at every step – restrictions, rules, norms. Because of this, he seems to “move away” from the child, becomes incomprehensible to her, causes her or depression, or aggression, rebellion.
The alienation and opposition that the teacher causes in the child can be significantly mitigated or removed altogether. This can be achieved if the teacher tries to “revive” his memories of what he was like as a child. In this way he will be able to get closer to his students psychologically, it will be better to understand them.
We offer several exercises for teachers. Ask your parents, if they are alive, what you were like as a child, what pranks and wrongdoings you did, whether your parents came to school when called by a teacher. During the story, try to vividly imagine yourself as a child and how to relive your childhood experiences. The main thing is to remember what internal motives made you do this or that action then.
For example, you missed a lesson with the whole class. In your opinion, it was a heroic act. For the first time in your life, you have shown independence. And how you neglected those students who came to the lesson!
Or another situation. Your class was on duty at the school, and you were required to monitor discipline during breaks. Fascinated by this, you are late for class. The stern teacher took a diary to write down the remarks. You described her request as unfair (“I was on duty!”) And said that you forgot your diary at home. An angry teacher ordered you to leave the class. Remember your experiences when you went out into the empty hallway.
Remember your school childhood regularly. Based on your childhood experience, try to understand your students, the motives of their actions, sympathize with them, inspire their trust. Ask students what, for example, they did when they missed a lesson.