Transcript HeartMath - SUNY Oswego

EDU 525
Attention & Intention
ACTION RESEARCH AT OSWEGO MIDDLE
SCHOOL
BY
SEAN CLARKE
CAROLE LLOYD
ROSH MISHRA
HeartMath
 What is HeartMath?
 HeartMath’s Mission Statement
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The mission of the Heart Math Institute is to help people bring
their physical, mental and emotional systems into balanced
alignment with their heart’s intuitive guidance.
 This unfolds the path for becoming heart-empowered
individuals who choose the way of love, which they demonstrate
through compassionate care for the well-being of themselves,
others and Planet Earth.
Who did we meet?
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David Parisian
 Visiting Assistant Professor at SUNY-Oswego and HeartMath
Coach
HeartMath & Our Experiences
 Global Coherence at a Glance
 The growing awareness of the unification and mindful understanding of human
intentions and interactions.
 Heart Rate Variance Monitor
 What does it do?
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Sympathetic: increases heart rate
Parasympathetic: decreases heart rate
By monitoring the autonomic nervous system, both the sympathetic and
parasympathetic, it looks to create a balance in the beat to beat of the heart, so that
every beat is similar.
 Our HRV Results
 The coherence or relaxation response, moving to green, increases as
Mindful/Focus breathing increased; it moves to red the higher the cortical stress
activity (TEST ANXIETY).
 Sean remained red, even while looking at photo of his beautiful child on his
phone.
 Carole fluctuated from red to green as she increased her mindful breathing.
 Rosh remained at green even after arguing about politics, because she remained
focused on her mindful breathing.
Sean: Classroom First Impression of Mindful
Breathing
 Breathing works.
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Stopping is bad.
 Very excited, it was fun and students seem to be curious
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yet cautious.
Initially there was a lot of buy in, but as time went on,
fewer students remained interested.
With that said, most students participated at all times.
Population of students included both the 7th and the 8th
graders on the OMS West Team.
Collected pre-post data of student's feelings before and
after engaging in mindful breathing exercise.
Carole: Classroom First Impression of Mindful
Breathing
 Students’ first impressions of the mindful breathing
was a curiosity of what was to take place.
 7th graders were more responsive to the mindfulness
concept than the 8th graders.
 Most 7th graders participated wholeheartedly with
the exercises as well as liked to lead the exercise and
data collection.
Rosh: Classroom First Impression of Mindful
Breathing
 Students were excited about participating because I had
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spoken with them about the benefits of the growth of their
brain and the reduction of their stress and anxiety, as
well as possibly increasing the quality of their sleep.
Only did this beginning of my three sections of 8th graders.
After the first week, I asked for volunteers to lead the
breathing exercises. The class voted on what breathing
techniques were practiced from Daniel’s book.
Every breathing practice ended with Bee Breath to ensure
some level of consistency, regardless of who was leading the
class.
I was excited, both as a science educator and Yoga instructor.
Sean, Carole, & Rosh
Methods of Data Collection
 Method 1
 The SENTEO system seemed to be more cumbersome than it was worth and it
was taking too much class time to do an exercise that really shouldn’t take more
than five minutes.
 Method 2 (Sean & Carole)
  or  Pre, post emotional feedback scale
 We put the smiley faces on the chalk board as a means to collect data. This was so
much quicker.
 We asked the students to put their heads down and close their eyes and vote by
raising his or her hand one of three option: Positive, Negative, or Neutral in
terms of feelings.
 We practiced our various breathing styles and focusing on our breath.
 Anchor Breathing was the technique used mostly. Most, if not all, the students
participated and it was quick.
 We can also feel the difference in the classroom, a calmness.
 Method 3 (Sean & Rosh)
 Journal entries were taken throughout the time period data was collected.
Rosh: Methods of Data Collection
 Anecdotal Evidence
 Only the 8th graders were consistent receiving time at the
start of class to engage in mindful breathing using Daniel
Rechtschaffen’s book as well as yoga breathing for seven
school weeks.
 Collected anecdotal remarks from students who used the
breathing to resolve conflicts outside of school and inside
the classroom.
 Collected ten different student experiences using mindful
breathing techniques to help them with stressors in their lives.
Sean, Carole, Rosh
Introduction of Mindfulness
 Introducing Mindful Breathing to the Students
 Spider-Man Breathing
 Anchor Breathing
 Kung-Fu Panda Breathing
 Mindful Listening
 Imaginary Candle Visualization
 Barracuda Breathing
 Alligator Breathing
 Bee Breathing
Sean: Observations of Students’ Reactions
 I started the students with a mindfulness exercise at the
beginning of class.
 I only did this with the sections 8-12 and 8-11 initially
and then eventually did the mindful breathing with all of
my students.
 Both sections seemed somewhat curious about what
mindfulness is and why we are doing it.
 Many students were hesitant to try the deep breathing
and our team anticipated this, so we started with
exercises suggested by Daniel Rechtschaffen's in the book
The Way of the Mindful Education.
(Please refer to the attached journal for the student data of pre and post feelings feedback)
Carole: Observations of Students’ Reactions
 I monitored and observed all five sections of my 7th and
8th grade classes.
 I surveyed my students’ states of mind before and after
mindful exercises.
 The 8th graders, although older, did not take the
mindfulness experiment as seriously as the 7th graders.
 Data collection statistics were not always consistent as I
believe the students thought it was more fun to prove the
statistics wrong.
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However, visually, I could observe that the atmosphere of the
classroom was calmer.
(See attached Data Collection)
Rosh: Observations of Students’ Reactions
 Students reported that they felt calmer at the
beginning of class after participating in the breathing
exercise.
 This reported calmness was due to the students’
perception of focusing on his or her breathing.
 The students became very engaged with their breath
after learning much about the science and the
physiology of their breathing.
 Students asked many questions about proper
breathing and its importance in stress reduction,
health, and longevity.
Sean: Personal Experiences
 At the time, my wife was seven months pregnant
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with our second child.
Tricia sprained her ankle and was in a lot of pain.
She began to cry and feel contractions.
Needless to say, her stress levels just hit critical
overload!
There wasn’t much I could do, until I remembered
our Lamaze classes and HeartMath mindfulness
breathing techniques.
In short, she is okay.
Carole: Personal Experiences
 Breathing exercises (deep, slow, relaxed breathing) lowers
blood pressure. I developed high blood pressure when I
started teaching. I went to give blood during my first year of
teaching high school math. When they took my blood
pressure, it was something like 158/95. I never had it before
that.
 I learned one method of lowering blood pressure was by
relaxed, deep breathing. I proved that it worked by taking my
blood pressure before breathing, and after, at the grocery
store blood pressure machines. 
 I also saw the results when I was placed on the heart rate
variances (HRV) monitor with Dr. Parisian. I had a stressful
day at school. I was apprehensive of getting on the monitor,
so started deep breathing. My results were much more
relaxed than I anticipated seeing.
Rosh: Personal Experience
 I attended Mindfulness in Education Conference
through Omega institute in New York City to learn
from Rechtschaffen and other educators how and
why to use breathing techniques in the classroom.
 I also attended the Yoga In Schools Symposium at
Kripalu Institute for extraordinary living. I spent
time with the premier researchers from Harvard,
Brown, and other universities on how and why to use
Pranayama breathing for increased student
engagement, reduction in anxiety, and overall
happiness.
Sean: Thoughts & Conclusions
 Sometimes, when I have thoughts, they lead me to
conclusions.
 Mindfulness seemed to be an effective tool for classroom
management.
 It helped to establish a learning environment that was
calm and free of tension.
 It seemed that only about 50% of the students retained
his or her engagement of the exercises. Many lost interest
even though previously they were benefiting from the
practice.
(Please refer to the attached Excel document for the student data of pre and post
feelings feedback)
Carole: Thoughts & Conclusions
 I have realized that focused breathing and thinking
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positively can help me to develop better clarity and
attention to detail.
I predict that starting mindfulness activities early in the
year could be more beneficial to my students.
It would be a better predictor of data if we had begun
with these activities.
Middle School students this year did not buy into the
concepts as well as I would have liked.
7th graders were more receptive (than 8th graders) in
authentically participating with more bona fide results.
Rosh: Thoughts & Conclusions
 I was over the moon with joy in being able to share
the experiences and benefits of mindfulness with my
students and my colleagues.
 I would love to see mindfulness used as part of the
health and wellness policies in public schools.
 Mindfulness is a tool that will serve them well for the
entirety of their lives.
Bibliography
 "Mission and Vision - HeartMath
Institute." HeartMath Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 28
Apr. 2015. [https://www.heartmath.org/aboutus/hmi-mission]
 Rechtschaffen, Daniel J. The Way of Mindful
Education: Cultivating Well-being in Teachers and
Students. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.