April 10, 2025 • 28 mins
In today's rapidly changing educational landscape, where classroom challenges like lockdown drills, information overload, and teacher burnout are increasingly common, one question arises: Why isn't mindfulness a mandatory part of our educational curriculum?
Our guest, Annamarie Fernyak, founder of MindBodyAlign, shares her journey of introducing mindfulness practices in schools and what she learned along the way. It’s not just about teaching kids to breathe; it’s about helping them—through their teachers—handle the emotional rollercoaster of school life and beyond. Annamarie's insights reveal that when we equip educators to be more mindful, they can create a supportive environment where kids feel less stressed and more in control of their emotions.
Check out the shownotes for resources and more!
Takeaways:
- Mindfulness is crucial for students, helping them manage stress and emotions effectively in an increasingly challenging educational environment.
- The introduction of mindfulness in schools can significantly empower both students and teachers, creating a more resilient and focused atmosphere.
- Teachers often feel overwhelmed by their responsibilities, leading to burnout, which negatively impacts their students' learning experiences.
- Annamarie's journey into teaching mindfulness in schools highlights the urgent need for emotional support systems in education today.
- Children naturally possess mindfulness skills, but puberty complicates their emotional regulation, making mindfulness education even more essential.
- Mindfulness practices not only help students cope with anxiety but also foster kindness and gratitude, improving overall classroom dynamics.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
In a world where lockdowndrills, information overload, and
teacher burnout are on therise, one question lingers.
Why aren't we teachingmindfulness in the classroom?
Welcome to another episode ofthe Global Health Pursuit podcast.
(00:22):
The podcast where we explorethe world's most pressing health
challenges through abeginner's lens.
My name is Hetal Daman.
I'm a biomedical engineerturned social impact podcaster, and
I'm your host.
Schools are meant to preparestudents for the future, but are
they equipping them with thetools to handle stress and uncertainty?
(00:42):
Anna Marie Ferniak, founder ofMindBody Align, asks herself the
same question.
What started as a singleinvitation to teach mindfulness in
a middle school became amission to transform how students
and their teachers manageemotions, focus, and resilience.
But bringing mindfulness intoeducation isn't as simple as it sounds.
(01:08):
The idea came about when shewas asked to teach mindfulness to
middle schoolers in her community.
This was probably four or fiveyears ago.
I was teaching mindfulness andmeditation to adult women and to
veterans.
The purpose really at thatpoint was to bring alternative wellness
practices to our community,which is a Rust Belt community that
(01:31):
is maybe a little bit behindwhen it comes to health and wellness
in this community.
Anna Marie was invited by awoman into her health classroom to
teach mindfulness to seventhand eighth graders, an age group
that she was most definitelynot used to.
I am not.
I'm not really verycomfortable in that environment with
(01:54):
children.
Like, adults are my sweet spot.
And even actually today, Idon't teach the Littles.
So I was invited by thisteacher to teach her in her health
class.
I did a bunch of preparationabout middle school children.
You know, what is going toappeal to them.
Annamarie admits that she wasa bit naive about what was going
to happen in these schoolswhen she arrived.
(02:14):
She says that she had thissort of idealistic view of what it
was going to be like.
Yeah, you know, I put thestudents all in a circle and, you
know, they would just listenperfectly and it would be this amazing
meditative, mindful experiencefor the kids that would be transformative,
you know, and.
(02:35):
And it's not that it was sodifferent from that necessarily.
Like, what I found was thatthese kids were just beautiful and
brilliant and that they.
That they really wanted tolearn, and they were blossoming from
the attention that thatmindfulness environment gives you.
While she spent time at theschool, she discovered that the environment
(02:58):
was quite toxic and toxic in away that she would never have imagined.
During the three days that sheWas there.
There were three lockdowns ofthe classroom.
She had no idea what washappening until a school bell sounded
and an announcement from theprincipal came booming through the
school PA system that said,teachers, look at your email.
(03:23):
I didn't know what was goingon, but what I saw happen with the
students, particularly thisbeautiful young girl who was sitting
next to me.
She had been, you know,sitting with her feet on the floor,
her hands kind of relaxed.
And as soon as thatannouncement was made, she curled
up.
Literally her whole bodycurled up into a fetal position.
The bottoms of her feet wentup onto the seat of her chair, and
(03:48):
she kind of curled intoherself and brought her head down.
The students were now startingto get really anxious.
The teacher then came over toAnna Marie and whispered in her ear,
there's a lockdown.
There's a student with somekind of weapon.
So I find out later, muchlater, hours later, that it was pepper
spray.
But what I saw with the kidswas this developing trauma.
(04:13):
And I could see it building inthe students.
And some of them were moreadvanced than others in the way that
they were expressing it intheir body language.
And then after that, at thatpoint, there was no really bringing
the children back.
So what we know is that whenany of us are in fight or flight,
that the certain things happenin your body.
(04:33):
Physiologically.
Adrenaline gets secreted,cortisol gets secreted.
Your brain kind of goes alittle bit silent because all of
the energy of your body isgoing into your limbs, right, to
fight or to flee.
And so what happened was thenjust this.
This anxiousness among thekids and no way to actually calm
(04:56):
them.
At that point, it was closeenough to the end of the class that
the bell rang.
Once they unlocked all thedoors, the kids just left.
At this point, Anna Marieherself felt like she was in fight
or flight mode.
When she left the classroom,the student's teacher was crying.
And she told Anna Marie thatshe just couldn't handle it anymore,
(05:17):
that she was going to retireat the end of the year.
There was all of thisdesperation about the teacher, about
the children.
And so when Annemarie wentback to her office around 2 or 3
in the afternoon, her teamcould see that she was also quite
visibly shaken by theincidents at the school.
(05:38):
So then she and her teamstarted to wonder if there was anything
she could do to support theschools during these times of stress.
And at that point, I was onlyworking with adults, and they said,
well, let's see what we can do.
So coincidentally, my sister,who is an elementary school teacher,
and had been an elementaryschool teacher for many years.
(05:58):
I invited her to do afeasibility study to really look
at the schools in our area,Talk to all the leadership teams
in the schools, theadministrators, the supervisors,
the teachers, and find out ifthere one was a need for the work
that we do and if they wouldbe willing to bring a program like
ours into the school.
(06:18):
And after six or eight monthsof researching, she came back to
me and she said, yes, they'rereally excited about what we can
do for them.
And so we ended up selling apilot program through our local foundation
called the Richland County Foundation.
And in just the first year,Annamarie's team implemented her
(06:40):
mindfulness program in 21classrooms within the Mansfield school
system.
And it was in that first yearof teaching that Covid hit.
And as you can imagine, thatonly accelerated the amount of anxiety
and stress that everyone, thestudents, the staff and the teachers
were feeling.
(07:00):
So that first time that youstepped into this classroom, do you
think that these kids everreally had an understanding of what
mindfulness practices were?
Or was this like the firsttime that they were being introduced
to it?
My experience is that it's thefirst time that they've been introduced
(07:21):
to it.
I do think that children aremore naturally mindful.
Yeah, they live more in thepresent moment.
You know, they're not asrooted in the past and as much set
on what's happening, you know,what they want to see happen in the
future.
So teaching childrenmindfulness skills is not as heavy
(07:42):
a lift as it is with adults.
And they just naturally pickup the skills, the deep breathing,
the body scan, the noticingtheir surroundings.
But once middle school hits,Anna Marie says that there is a lot
more rumination that takes place.
She says that there's all ofthese hormones surging in their bodies
(08:03):
that they don't understandwell, you know, puberty.
So all of these emotions,happiness, sadness, rage that they
can't control or evenunderstand, all of these emotions
that they still haven't hadthe skills yet to control.
But the thing that took me bysurprise is the connection that Annamarie
(08:25):
made between puberty and menopause.
I have to say, as a middleaged woman, I'm re.
I'm re experiencing a lot ofthose same things that middle school
kids go through, which is allof the variety of hormones that just
make you make you feel alittle bit out of control at times.
(08:45):
So I have an even greaterunderstanding now than I did when
I was even 10 years ago aboutwhat middle school kids are experiencing.
I think this is the first timethat I've ever heard someone compare
the experience of goingthrough menopause and like the, all
the hormone changes to likethe beginnings of puberty.
(09:09):
It makes a lot of sense.
And then the other thing thatyou'd mentioned, you had mentioned
that the teacher in thatclassroom that you went to teach
mindfulness to, that teacherwas like, I'm done, I want to leave.
I saw that you had posted astatistic on your LinkedIn which
(09:30):
is 44% of new teachers willleave their professions.
And I wanted you to maybeexplain a little bit why you think
that is so.
I think there are twoprofessions that I come into contact
with frequently that are themost undervalued, underappreciated
professions, and that isteaching and nursing.
(09:52):
And I think coincidentally,not that I want to get into any political
topics, but maybe this willget us there.
Coincidentally, those careerpaths have been chosen by women.
So I have to say that myexperience in the educational world
is that teachers, they have togo through a four year degree and
(10:13):
oftentimes they have to dopostgraduate studies to continue
to advance in their career.
And yet they are paid astipend essentially for the work
they do.
I just read a book, I thinkit's called Teachers and it describes
the life of a teacher.
(10:35):
And teachers are expected tocreate curriculums in their classroom.
Anna Marie paints a picture ofa classroom.
Imagine being a teacher andyou have 25 students.
Imagine having to create a newcurriculum for each student because
each student has a differentset of needs.
(10:56):
You could have a teacher whohas created curriculums for a class
before the class year starts.
And then all of a sudden youhave three new students that are
coming into the classroom alsowith special needs.
Those students need threeseparate new curriculums.
So there's that anxiety thatteachers have of really wanting their
(11:19):
students to do well andwanting to be the best teacher that
they can be.
And yet being in thisenvironment that's really making
it very difficult for them todo that.
And in some cases teachersfeel helplessness about it.
From what they talk to us about.
There'S an anxiety thatteachers have of really truly wanting
(11:41):
their students to do well andwanting to be the best teacher that
they can be.
But at the same time, being inan environment that really makes
it very difficult for them todo that, they feel a sense of helplessness
about it.
Teachers not only areunderpaid, but they also have these
expectations placed on themthat are simply not attainable.
(12:06):
They almost have to be working24 hours a day.
One of my Friends was askingme about education and about the
work we do.
And she was telling me her boyis in first grade.
And she was saying that theyhave been given an app that they
use, the parents have beengiven an app that they use where
(12:27):
they can directly message theteacher and that there are people
in her son's classroom thatwill message the teacher at 9 o'clock
at night, 10 o'clock at night,saying that their child is sick and
can't come to class, or thattheir child didn't understand the
homework, or expressing somediscontent or some upset about something
(12:51):
that the teacher did or isplanning to do, maybe tomorrow.
And I'm thinking, when do youturn it off?
How do you turn it off?
And there's an expectationthat these teachers are going to
be available.
Now I, I have to say it's upto the school to set boundaries around
that for the parents and forthe teachers.
(13:12):
And it's also up to a teacherto set the boundary.
But there is this kind ofgrowing expectation about how the
teacher is expected to be as ateacher in the educational community
that is very stress inducing.
I was curious how Annamarie'swork within these schools was different
(13:34):
from having a child go totherapy or take mindfulness classes
outside of the school.
And she says that the mostimportant work that they do is actually
not to teach the children, butteach the teacher instead.
And the reason is, is if theteacher is self regulated in the
classroom, if the teacher isbeing mindful with how they are perceiving
(13:57):
and interacting with thechildren, then they are teaching
the children through their own behaviors.
And that's way more powerfulthan the work that we do teaching
the children the exercises.
It's the same at home.
You know, if you have parentsthat are behaving mindfully with
their children, those childrenare going to become more mindful
(14:19):
children because they arelearning from their parents.
Children are learning fromtheir teachers and from other leaders
in their life.
And through these teachings,Annamarie has seen a real difference
in how children feel when itcomes to mindfulness.
Overall, she's found that 98%of children say that they feel less
(14:39):
stress and more in controlover their emotions.
They even say that they feellike they can be more kind and more
grateful.
We have one young boy who hashigh anxiety and his mother was related
to our company.
She was working in our company.
So she would tell us theseanecdotes about him.
(15:01):
And one of the things was thatone year, one season, we happened
to be in his classroom and shewould tell me Stories then of how
he utilized what he was learning.
And she told one story abouthim going to the doctor's office
and he's sitting in thedoctor's office and he's super anxious
(15:22):
about this experience.
We have this Hoberman sphere,which is a ball that we use to teach
the kids belly breathing,which is when you inhale, your belly
expands.
When you exhale, your bellycontracts, right?
So he was sitting on thedoctor's table and he's doing this.
(15:43):
For those of you not watchingthe video, Annamarie is demonstrating
belly breathing with her handsexpanding and contracting.
And the doctor comes in andsays to his mother, what is he doing?
And she says, he's practicinghis belly breathing because he's
feeling very anxious.
(16:04):
And the doctor said, I wishall of the kids would learn these
techniques.
And so that's kind of oneanecdotal story about some of the
benefits.
But I hear from parents andfrom teachers all the time about
how children are using thesetechniques in the classroom.
And we have these statisticsthat also indicate the success that
(16:28):
these techniques are having inthe classroom and how it's benefiting
the children.
At Mindbody Align, Annamariehas introduced a curriculum with
children's books that arefully equipped with a handbook of
12 lessons for the teacher,which can even be purchased if you're
homeschooling as well.
One of these books is calledTIA Takes a Pause, which is all about
(16:51):
learning to take a moment, totake a few deep breaths, to pay attention
to how you are feeling intimes of stress.
These books are part of aseries called the Labyrinth Adventures
and can even be purchased on Amazon.
And if you're interested, alink will be in the show.
Notes.
The most important aspect ofmindfulness is this non judgmental
(17:13):
pause.
And what I mean by that is youpause for a moment.
Often the pause is initiatedby taking a deep breath, which is
why we'll use belly breathingor we'll use hugging breath.
And hugging breath is simple.
You literally just hugyourself and you feel the inhale
and the exhale.
(17:34):
So you feel your bodyexpanding into your arms when you
inhale.
We're just doing it on cameraright now.
And then you feel your bodykind of contracting or relaxing during
the exhale.
And that is enough of a pausethat it can stop the rumination or
(17:58):
whatever is happening in thethought process because you're focusing
now your thoughts, your mindis focusing on the sensation of breathing.
And then wrapping your armsaround yourself is actually activating
the parasympathetic nervoussystem, just like Somebody hugging
you, if you've ever heardabout the 22nd hug.
(18:20):
So all of the exercises thatwe do with the kids are some variation
of pause, breathe, notice, andthen this resistance to judging something
as bad or good, right orwrong, good or bad.
And the reason that you resistthe judgment, or if you notice there's
(18:40):
a judgment and you gently putit aside for a moment, is because
the judgment filters how youperceive the world around you.
So, for instance, as a middleaged woman, I'm having hot flashes
all the time.
My first instinct when I havea hot flash is I, I hate this.
(19:02):
This is bad.
I wish it would go away.
When is this gonna end?
And the moment that I pauseand invite myself to simply notice
what it's like to have a hotflash, it's actually somewhat awe
inspiring because the hotflash itself is not quite a hot flash.
(19:23):
It's actually the sensation ofhot and cold at the same time.
And it's actually a reallycool sensation.
Really interesting, really.
It has a lot of depth andnuances to it.
So if I stop and I payattention to it without this judgment
that it is bad and I hate it,I can actually see it as something
(19:44):
else, something other thansomething I don't like.
So the mindfulness practice isabout paying attention without the
judgment.
And the judgment is so thatyou have the potential of seeing
something else in what'shappening rather than what your habits
(20:07):
or your beliefs are going tobring to it.
It's not about saying that anaction is okay or that it's acceptable.
Right.
Some people have criticizedmindfulness, saying that, well, we're
mindfulness people are just passive.
You know, they're watching theworld go by in a passive way.
It's not the way it is.
(20:28):
It's about having a reallydeeper understanding of the world
and providing an opportunityto see the world from a perspective
that as an individual, I'venever seen it before.
So it's about really rootingyourself in the full 360 view of
what the world is like, whatit is to be alive.
(20:49):
Annamarie is the author of thebest selling book the Right side
of A Practical guide forembracing mindfulness and living
your best Life, A book inwhich asks the question, are you
sitting still or living fully?
It explains how mindfulness isso much more than sitting still for
a set amount of time.
(21:09):
Find the right side ofhappiness on Amazon or by clicking
the link in the show notes.
As Annamarie and I werechatting, a very simple question
came up.
Why was she so passionateabout this work and why did she create
Mind Body Align in the first place?
Well, so I started out incommunity development.
(21:31):
My husband and I.
I was an interior designer bytrade and I owned a retail store
in a revitalizing downtown.
I'm in.
I live in a Rust Beltcommunity which pretty much lost
all of its major industry inthe 70s and really had a crisis of
opinion about itself.
There was kind of this notgood enough attitude that the community
(21:52):
had about itself.
Right.
So at one point the communitystarted revitalizing, late 80s, early
90s.
And I wanted to be a part of that.
And I was an interior designer.
I opened an interior designstore in the community, got involved
in the urban planning, the revitalization.
And then I married my husbandand we bought old buildings and we
(22:16):
revitalized old buildings.
And what I saw was, or what Irealized is that you can do all this
great stuff in the community.
You can change the streets totwo way.
You can make the buildingslook beautiful, you can bring in
new businesses.
But if your schools aresuffering and your children are suffering,
(22:38):
how is that sustainable longterm for the community?
You're investing all of thismoney in revitalizing a community
that the next generation andthen the generation after that isn't
going to have the skills to support.
So after I was in that school,I realized this had been after a
number of years of schoollevies not passing.
(23:01):
Our school was in financial distress.
And there's a large populationin our school system of foster children,
children of parents who are inthe prison system because we have
two major prisons here.
Anna Marie then realizes thatshe was looking at the situation
in the completely wrong perspective.
(23:23):
She relates it to the idea ofa beautiful house.
When she was doing a lot ofinterior design work, she would work
for clients that would buythese big, grand, beautiful houses.
And then when you walk inside,they were so cash poor with high
mortgages that there wasnothing at all inside the house.
(23:45):
So I kind of relate what's.
What was happening in thecommunity to that.
It's like we're going to havethis beautiful revitalized downtown,
but there's nothing inside.
There's no, there's no guts tosupport that long term.
And that moment I was in theschool, teaching in that middle school
classroom was the moment thatI kind of had that epiphany that
(24:08):
this community is never goingto be a strong community unless we
focus our energy on our children.
I feel it's the same globally.
What I see happening inschools in the United States, it's
not unusual.
It's happening all over.
Children working in the mines,children working in sweatshops.
(24:31):
We need to really focus on ourchildren globally.
And the only way I know to dothat is in my own community.
And so that's my approach isjust to focus on community development,
community revitalizationthrough the children.
(24:53):
I just love that you said thatbecause it is so true.
You're investing in thestudents and the children so that
the next generation reallymakes a difference.
You know, my last question toyou, it's really like all the advice
that you would give parents ofyoung ones who might be developing
(25:16):
early signs of stress or lackof focus in school, where, you know,
maybe they're in a school thatdoesn't have the privilege of having
a program like yours.
You know, what do you, whatadvice would you give these parents?
I think the biggest gift aparent can give to their children
is to pay attention to them.
I mean, I think we're in asociety now where there's a lot of
(25:38):
busy people, you know, workingand making ends meet and providing
a quote unquote better futurefor the next generation.
However, I think the childrenare suffering from lack of attention.
The parents.
I would love to see parentsspending time with their children,
(25:59):
playing softball in thebackyard, going for a walk, taking
a hike, just being with theirchildren and showing their children
love and affection.
That's the best gift that theycan give them.
Our guest today, AnnamarieFerniak, is the founder of the mindful
(26:19):
education company Mind Body Align.
She is an award winningcommunity leader who lives and works
to make life better indowntown Mansfield, Ohio.
She is the author of the Rightside of Happiness and is an educator,
speaker and writer on buildingresilience and living mindfully in
the present moment as the pathto a life of true happiness and contentment.
(26:44):
MindBody Align teacheshundreds of students and educators
each year how to pay focusedattention, practice kindness, and
share gratitude.
Annamarie is also the coauthor of a 16 book series for children
and is the vision behind themain character, Tia, a butterfly
and Dwight, a grasshopper,among other delightful inhabitants
(27:08):
of a special garden labyrinth.
These books teach childrenskills of self regulation, how to
navigate disagreement, tomanage anxiety, and much more.
The series is set in a reallife labyrinth at Anna Marie's farm
in Lucas, Ohio.
A big thanks to Annamarie forher time in sharing her expertise
(27:29):
in this podcast episode.
If you're an educator, parentor someone curious to learn more
about Annamarie's mindfulprograms and curriculums, go to mindbody
online.com and if you resonatewith anything that was said in this
week's episode.
Please comment below if you'rewatching or listening on YouTube
or Spotify.
If you're listening anywhereelse, feel free Free to email me
(27:52):
at hetallobalhealthpursuit.comI welcome any questions, comments
or even concerns.
I'll link all of the resourcesmentioned in the show.
Notes this episode was hosted,produced and edited by me, Hetal
Bauman, and as always, a bigthanks to my coach Anna Xavier of
the Podcast space forcontinuing to push me to create a
(28:14):
show that is meaningful,educational and entertaining all
at the same time.
If you'd like to support theproduction of this podcast, there
are a few ways to do it.
As an independent podcaster, Iwould love to give you a shout out
on the show.
All you have to do is become apatron by donating as little as $3
a month.
Please follow this podcastwherever you're listening.
(28:36):
Write me a review on ApplePodcasts or rate me on Spotify and
I'll see you next week.
In a world where lockdowndrills, information overload, and
teacher burnout are on therise, one question lingers.
Why aren't we teachingmindfulness in the classroom?
Welcome to another episode ofthe Global Health Pursuit podcast.
(00:22):
The podcast where we explorethe world's most pressing health
challenges through abeginner's lens.
My name is Hetal Daman.
I'm a biomedical engineerturned social impact podcaster, and
I'm your host.
Schools are meant to preparestudents for the future, but are
they equipping them with thetools to handle stress and uncertainty?
(00:42):
Anna Marie Ferniak, founder ofMindBody Align, asks herself the
same question.
What started as a singleinvitation to teach mindfulness in
a middle school became amission to transform how students
and their teachers manageemotions, focus, and resilience.
But bringing mindfulness intoeducation isn't as simple as it sounds.
(01:08):
The idea came about when shewas asked to teach mindfulness to
middle schoolers in her community.
This was probably four or fiveyears ago.
I was teaching mindfulness andmeditation to adult women and to
veterans.
The purpose really at thatpoint was to bring alternative wellness
practices to our community,which is a Rust Belt community that
(01:31):
is maybe a little bit behindwhen it comes to health and wellness
in this community.
Anna Marie was invited by awoman into her health classroom to
teach mindfulness to seventhand eighth graders, an age group
that she was most definitelynot used to.
I am not.
I'm not really verycomfortable in that environment with
(01:54):
children.
Like, adults are my sweet spot.
And even actually today, Idon't teach the Littles.
So I was invited by thisteacher to teach her in her health
class.
I did a bunch of preparationabout middle school children.
You know, what is going toappeal to them.
Annamarie admits that she wasa bit naive about what was going
to happen in these schoolswhen she arrived.
(02:14):
She says that she had thissort of idealistic view of what it
was going to be like.
Yeah, you know, I put thestudents all in a circle and, you
know, they would just listenperfectly and it would be this amazing
meditative, mindful experiencefor the kids that would be transformative,
you know, and.
(02:35):
And it's not that it was sodifferent from that necessarily.
Like, what I found was thatthese kids were just beautiful and
brilliant and that they.
That they really wanted tolearn, and they were blossoming from
the attention that thatmindfulness environment gives you.
While she spent time at theschool, she discovered that the environment
(02:58):
was quite toxic and toxic in away that she would never have imagined.
During the three days that sheWas there.
There were three lockdowns ofthe classroom.
She had no idea what washappening until a school bell sounded
and an announcement from theprincipal came booming through the
school PA system that said,teachers, look at your email.
(03:23):
I didn't know what was goingon, but what I saw happen with the
students, particularly thisbeautiful young girl who was sitting
next to me.
She had been, you know,sitting with her feet on the floor,
her hands kind of relaxed.
And as soon as thatannouncement was made, she curled
up.
Literally her whole bodycurled up into a fetal position.
The bottoms of her feet wentup onto the seat of her chair, and
(03:48):
she kind of curled intoherself and brought her head down.
The students were now startingto get really anxious.
The teacher then came over toAnna Marie and whispered in her ear,
there's a lockdown.
There's a student with somekind of weapon.
So I find out later, muchlater, hours later, that it was pepper
spray.
But what I saw with the kidswas this developing trauma.
(04:13):
And I could see it building inthe students.
And some of them were moreadvanced than others in the way that
they were expressing it intheir body language.
And then after that, at thatpoint, there was no really bringing
the children back.
So what we know is that whenany of us are in fight or flight,
that the certain things happenin your body.
(04:33):
Physiologically.
Adrenaline gets secreted,cortisol gets secreted.
Your brain kind of goes alittle bit silent because all of
the energy of your body isgoing into your limbs, right, to
fight or to flee.
And so what happened was thenjust this.
This anxiousness among thekids and no way to actually calm
(04:56):
them.
At that point, it was closeenough to the end of the class that
the bell rang.
Once they unlocked all thedoors, the kids just left.
At this point, Anna Marieherself felt like she was in fight
or flight mode.
When she left the classroom,the student's teacher was crying.
And she told Anna Marie thatshe just couldn't handle it anymore,
(05:17):
that she was going to retireat the end of the year.
There was all of thisdesperation about the teacher, about
the children.
And so when Annemarie wentback to her office around 2 or 3
in the afternoon, her teamcould see that she was also quite
visibly shaken by theincidents at the school.
(05:38):
So then she and her teamstarted to wonder if there was anything
she could do to support theschools during these times of stress.
And at that point, I was onlyworking with adults, and they said,
well, let's see what we can do.
So coincidentally, my sister,who is an elementary school teacher,
and had been an elementaryschool teacher for many years.
(05:58):
I invited her to do afeasibility study to really look
at the schools in our area,Talk to all the leadership teams
in the schools, theadministrators, the supervisors,
the teachers, and find out ifthere one was a need for the work
that we do and if they wouldbe willing to bring a program like
ours into the school.
(06:18):
And after six or eight monthsof researching, she came back to
me and she said, yes, they'rereally excited about what we can
do for them.
And so we ended up selling apilot program through our local foundation
called the Richland County Foundation.
And in just the first year,Annamarie's team implemented her
(06:40):
mindfulness program in 21classrooms within the Mansfield school
system.
And it was in that first yearof teaching that Covid hit.
And as you can imagine, thatonly accelerated the amount of anxiety
and stress that everyone, thestudents, the staff and the teachers
were feeling.
(07:00):
So that first time that youstepped into this classroom, do you
think that these kids everreally had an understanding of what
mindfulness practices were?
Or was this like the firsttime that they were being introduced
to it?
My experience is that it's thefirst time that they've been introduced
(07:21):
to it.
I do think that children aremore naturally mindful.
Yeah, they live more in thepresent moment.
You know, they're not asrooted in the past and as much set
on what's happening, you know,what they want to see happen in the
future.
So teaching childrenmindfulness skills is not as heavy
(07:42):
a lift as it is with adults.
And they just naturally pickup the skills, the deep breathing,
the body scan, the noticingtheir surroundings.
But once middle school hits,Anna Marie says that there is a lot
more rumination that takes place.
She says that there's all ofthese hormones surging in their bodies
(08:03):
that they don't understandwell, you know, puberty.
So all of these emotions,happiness, sadness, rage that they
can't control or evenunderstand, all of these emotions
that they still haven't hadthe skills yet to control.
But the thing that took me bysurprise is the connection that Annamarie
(08:25):
made between puberty and menopause.
I have to say, as a middleaged woman, I'm re.
I'm re experiencing a lot ofthose same things that middle school
kids go through, which is allof the variety of hormones that just
make you make you feel alittle bit out of control at times.
(08:45):
So I have an even greaterunderstanding now than I did when
I was even 10 years ago aboutwhat middle school kids are experiencing.
I think this is the first timethat I've ever heard someone compare
the experience of goingthrough menopause and like the, all
the hormone changes to likethe beginnings of puberty.
(09:09):
It makes a lot of sense.
And then the other thing thatyou'd mentioned, you had mentioned
that the teacher in thatclassroom that you went to teach
mindfulness to, that teacherwas like, I'm done, I want to leave.
I saw that you had posted astatistic on your LinkedIn which
(09:30):
is 44% of new teachers willleave their professions.
And I wanted you to maybeexplain a little bit why you think
that is so.
I think there are twoprofessions that I come into contact
with frequently that are themost undervalued, underappreciated
professions, and that isteaching and nursing.
(09:52):
And I think coincidentally,not that I want to get into any political
topics, but maybe this willget us there.
Coincidentally, those careerpaths have been chosen by women.
So I have to say that myexperience in the educational world
is that teachers, they have togo through a four year degree and
(10:13):
oftentimes they have to dopostgraduate studies to continue
to advance in their career.
And yet they are paid astipend essentially for the work
they do.
I just read a book, I thinkit's called Teachers and it describes
the life of a teacher.
(10:35):
And teachers are expected tocreate curriculums in their classroom.
Anna Marie paints a picture ofa classroom.
Imagine being a teacher andyou have 25 students.
Imagine having to create a newcurriculum for each student because
each student has a differentset of needs.
(10:56):
You could have a teacher whohas created curriculums for a class
before the class year starts.
And then all of a sudden youhave three new students that are
coming into the classroom alsowith special needs.
Those students need threeseparate new curriculums.
So there's that anxiety thatteachers have of really wanting their
(11:19):
students to do well andwanting to be the best teacher that
they can be.
And yet being in thisenvironment that's really making
it very difficult for them todo that.
And in some cases teachersfeel helplessness about it.
From what they talk to us about.
There'S an anxiety thatteachers have of really truly wanting
(11:41):
their students to do well andwanting to be the best teacher that
they can be.
But at the same time, being inan environment that really makes
it very difficult for them todo that, they feel a sense of helplessness
about it.
Teachers not only areunderpaid, but they also have these
expectations placed on themthat are simply not attainable.
(12:06):
They almost have to be working24 hours a day.
One of my Friends was askingme about education and about the
work we do.
And she was telling me her boyis in first grade.
And she was saying that theyhave been given an app that they
use, the parents have beengiven an app that they use where
(12:27):
they can directly message theteacher and that there are people
in her son's classroom thatwill message the teacher at 9 o'clock
at night, 10 o'clock at night,saying that their child is sick and
can't come to class, or thattheir child didn't understand the
homework, or expressing somediscontent or some upset about something
(12:51):
that the teacher did or isplanning to do, maybe tomorrow.
And I'm thinking, when do youturn it off?
How do you turn it off?
And there's an expectationthat these teachers are going to
be available.
Now I, I have to say it's upto the school to set boundaries around
that for the parents and forthe teachers.
(13:12):
And it's also up to a teacherto set the boundary.
But there is this kind ofgrowing expectation about how the
teacher is expected to be as ateacher in the educational community
that is very stress inducing.
I was curious how Annamarie'swork within these schools was different
(13:34):
from having a child go totherapy or take mindfulness classes
outside of the school.
And she says that the mostimportant work that they do is actually
not to teach the children, butteach the teacher instead.
And the reason is, is if theteacher is self regulated in the
classroom, if the teacher isbeing mindful with how they are perceiving
(13:57):
and interacting with thechildren, then they are teaching
the children through their own behaviors.
And that's way more powerfulthan the work that we do teaching
the children the exercises.
It's the same at home.
You know, if you have parentsthat are behaving mindfully with
their children, those childrenare going to become more mindful
(14:19):
children because they arelearning from their parents.
Children are learning fromtheir teachers and from other leaders
in their life.
And through these teachings,Annamarie has seen a real difference
in how children feel when itcomes to mindfulness.
Overall, she's found that 98%of children say that they feel less
(14:39):
stress and more in controlover their emotions.
They even say that they feellike they can be more kind and more
grateful.
We have one young boy who hashigh anxiety and his mother was related
to our company.
She was working in our company.
So she would tell us theseanecdotes about him.
(15:01):
And one of the things was thatone year, one season, we happened
to be in his classroom and shewould tell me Stories then of how
he utilized what he was learning.
And she told one story abouthim going to the doctor's office
and he's sitting in thedoctor's office and he's super anxious
(15:22):
about this experience.
We have this Hoberman sphere,which is a ball that we use to teach
the kids belly breathing,which is when you inhale, your belly
expands.
When you exhale, your bellycontracts, right?
So he was sitting on thedoctor's table and he's doing this.
(15:43):
For those of you not watchingthe video, Annamarie is demonstrating
belly breathing with her handsexpanding and contracting.
And the doctor comes in andsays to his mother, what is he doing?
And she says, he's practicinghis belly breathing because he's
feeling very anxious.
(16:04):
And the doctor said, I wishall of the kids would learn these
techniques.
And so that's kind of oneanecdotal story about some of the
benefits.
But I hear from parents andfrom teachers all the time about
how children are using thesetechniques in the classroom.
And we have these statisticsthat also indicate the success that
(16:28):
these techniques are having inthe classroom and how it's benefiting
the children.
At Mindbody Align, Annamariehas introduced a curriculum with
children's books that arefully equipped with a handbook of
12 lessons for the teacher,which can even be purchased if you're
homeschooling as well.
One of these books is calledTIA Takes a Pause, which is all about
(16:51):
learning to take a moment, totake a few deep breaths, to pay attention
to how you are feeling intimes of stress.
These books are part of aseries called the Labyrinth Adventures
and can even be purchased on Amazon.
And if you're interested, alink will be in the show.
Notes.
The most important aspect ofmindfulness is this non judgmental
(17:13):
pause.
And what I mean by that is youpause for a moment.
Often the pause is initiatedby taking a deep breath, which is
why we'll use belly breathingor we'll use hugging breath.
And hugging breath is simple.
You literally just hugyourself and you feel the inhale
and the exhale.
(17:34):
So you feel your bodyexpanding into your arms when you
inhale.
We're just doing it on cameraright now.
And then you feel your bodykind of contracting or relaxing during
the exhale.
And that is enough of a pausethat it can stop the rumination or
(17:58):
whatever is happening in thethought process because you're focusing
now your thoughts, your mindis focusing on the sensation of breathing.
And then wrapping your armsaround yourself is actually activating
the parasympathetic nervoussystem, just like Somebody hugging
you, if you've ever heardabout the 22nd hug.
(18:20):
So all of the exercises thatwe do with the kids are some variation
of pause, breathe, notice, andthen this resistance to judging something
as bad or good, right orwrong, good or bad.
And the reason that you resistthe judgment, or if you notice there's
(18:40):
a judgment and you gently putit aside for a moment, is because
the judgment filters how youperceive the world around you.
So, for instance, as a middleaged woman, I'm having hot flashes
all the time.
My first instinct when I havea hot flash is I, I hate this.
(19:02):
This is bad.
I wish it would go away.
When is this gonna end?
And the moment that I pauseand invite myself to simply notice
what it's like to have a hotflash, it's actually somewhat awe
inspiring because the hotflash itself is not quite a hot flash.
(19:23):
It's actually the sensation ofhot and cold at the same time.
And it's actually a reallycool sensation.
Really interesting, really.
It has a lot of depth andnuances to it.
So if I stop and I payattention to it without this judgment
that it is bad and I hate it,I can actually see it as something
(19:44):
else, something other thansomething I don't like.
So the mindfulness practice isabout paying attention without the
judgment.
And the judgment is so thatyou have the potential of seeing
something else in what'shappening rather than what your habits
(20:07):
or your beliefs are going tobring to it.
It's not about saying that anaction is okay or that it's acceptable.
Right.
Some people have criticizedmindfulness, saying that, well, we're
mindfulness people are just passive.
You know, they're watching theworld go by in a passive way.
It's not the way it is.
(20:28):
It's about having a reallydeeper understanding of the world
and providing an opportunityto see the world from a perspective
that as an individual, I'venever seen it before.
So it's about really rootingyourself in the full 360 view of
what the world is like, whatit is to be alive.
(20:49):
Annamarie is the author of thebest selling book the Right side
of A Practical guide forembracing mindfulness and living
your best Life, A book inwhich asks the question, are you
sitting still or living fully?
It explains how mindfulness isso much more than sitting still for
a set amount of time.
(21:09):
Find the right side ofhappiness on Amazon or by clicking
the link in the show notes.
As Annamarie and I werechatting, a very simple question
came up.
Why was she so passionateabout this work and why did she create
Mind Body Align in the first place?
Well, so I started out incommunity development.
(21:31):
My husband and I.
I was an interior designer bytrade and I owned a retail store
in a revitalizing downtown.
I'm in.
I live in a Rust Beltcommunity which pretty much lost
all of its major industry inthe 70s and really had a crisis of
opinion about itself.
There was kind of this notgood enough attitude that the community
(21:52):
had about itself.
Right.
So at one point the communitystarted revitalizing, late 80s, early
90s.
And I wanted to be a part of that.
And I was an interior designer.
I opened an interior designstore in the community, got involved
in the urban planning, the revitalization.
And then I married my husbandand we bought old buildings and we
(22:16):
revitalized old buildings.
And what I saw was, or what Irealized is that you can do all this
great stuff in the community.
You can change the streets totwo way.
You can make the buildingslook beautiful, you can bring in
new businesses.
But if your schools aresuffering and your children are suffering,
(22:38):
how is that sustainable longterm for the community?
You're investing all of thismoney in revitalizing a community
that the next generation andthen the generation after that isn't
going to have the skills to support.
So after I was in that school,I realized this had been after a
number of years of schoollevies not passing.
(23:01):
Our school was in financial distress.
And there's a large populationin our school system of foster children,
children of parents who are inthe prison system because we have
two major prisons here.
Anna Marie then realizes thatshe was looking at the situation
in the completely wrong perspective.
(23:23):
She relates it to the idea ofa beautiful house.
When she was doing a lot ofinterior design work, she would work
for clients that would buythese big, grand, beautiful houses.
And then when you walk inside,they were so cash poor with high
mortgages that there wasnothing at all inside the house.
(23:45):
So I kind of relate what's.
What was happening in thecommunity to that.
It's like we're going to havethis beautiful revitalized downtown,
but there's nothing inside.
There's no, there's no guts tosupport that long term.
And that moment I was in theschool, teaching in that middle school
classroom was the moment thatI kind of had that epiphany that
(24:08):
this community is never goingto be a strong community unless we
focus our energy on our children.
I feel it's the same globally.
What I see happening inschools in the United States, it's
not unusual.
It's happening all over.
Children working in the mines,children working in sweatshops.
(24:31):
We need to really focus on ourchildren globally.
And the only way I know to dothat is in my own community.
And so that's my approach isjust to focus on community development,
community revitalizationthrough the children.
(24:53):
I just love that you said thatbecause it is so true.
You're investing in thestudents and the children so that
the next generation reallymakes a difference.
You know, my last question toyou, it's really like all the advice
that you would give parents ofyoung ones who might be developing
(25:16):
early signs of stress or lackof focus in school, where, you know,
maybe they're in a school thatdoesn't have the privilege of having
a program like yours.
You know, what do you, whatadvice would you give these parents?
I think the biggest gift aparent can give to their children
is to pay attention to them.
I mean, I think we're in asociety now where there's a lot of
(25:38):
busy people, you know, workingand making ends meet and providing
a quote unquote better futurefor the next generation.
However, I think the childrenare suffering from lack of attention.
The parents.
I would love to see parentsspending time with their children,
(25:59):
playing softball in thebackyard, going for a walk, taking
a hike, just being with theirchildren and showing their children
love and affection.
That's the best gift that theycan give them.
Our guest today, AnnamarieFerniak, is the founder of the mindful
(26:19):
education company Mind Body Align.
She is an award winningcommunity leader who lives and works
to make life better indowntown Mansfield, Ohio.
She is the author of the Rightside of Happiness and is an educator,
speaker and writer on buildingresilience and living mindfully in
the present moment as the pathto a life of true happiness and contentment.
(26:44):
MindBody Align teacheshundreds of students and educators
each year how to pay focusedattention, practice kindness, and
share gratitude.
Annamarie is also the coauthor of a 16 book series for children
and is the vision behind themain character, Tia, a butterfly
and Dwight, a grasshopper,among other delightful inhabitants
(27:08):
of a special garden labyrinth.
These books teach childrenskills of self regulation, how to
navigate disagreement, tomanage anxiety, and much more.
The series is set in a reallife labyrinth at Anna Marie's farm
in Lucas, Ohio.
A big thanks to Annamarie forher time in sharing her expertise
(27:29):
in this podcast episode.
If you're an educator, parentor someone curious to learn more
about Annamarie's mindfulprograms and curriculums, go to mindbody
online.com and if you resonatewith anything that was said in this
week's episode.
Please comment below if you'rewatching or listening on YouTube
or Spotify.
If you're listening anywhereelse, feel free Free to email me
(27:52):
at hetallobalhealthpursuit.comI welcome any questions, comments
or even concerns.
I'll link all of the resourcesmentioned in the show.
Notes this episode was hosted,produced and edited by me, Hetal
Bauman, and as always, a bigthanks to my coach Anna Xavier of
the Podcast space forcontinuing to push me to create a
(28:14):
show that is meaningful,educational and entertaining all
at the same time.
If you'd like to support theproduction of this podcast, there
are a few ways to do it.
As an independent podcaster, Iwould love to give you a shout out
on the show.
All you have to do is become apatron by donating as little as $3
a month.
Please follow this podcastwherever you're listening.
(28:36):
Write me a review on ApplePodcasts or rate me on Spotify and
I'll see you next week.
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