Relaxation Techniques for Adult Learners
Breathwork as an Effective Method to Improve Learning Conditions
As a busy adult, getting to class might look like a marathon: Gathering books, notes, pens, grabbing a coffee to go, just barely making the bus, and falling into an available seat in time for class to start. Good for the schedule, but how does this affect the state of mind that should be prepared for learning?
“That optimum balance between being alert and being relaxed is something we can’t achieve all the time, but anything we can do to bring ourselves to that place is ideal,” explains Judy Murphy, adult literacy practitioner, project coordinator, researcher and writer in an interview on April 9, 2009.
Creating Desirable Conditions for Learning
The desire to find ways in which the conditions for learning could be enhanced, improved, and created has inspired Murphy to venture into work that would allow her to explore other ways of learning and knowing through expressive arts and movement. “I was intrigued by finding out how we can better invite balance between body and mind into the learning environment.”
Her book, Move the Body, Stretch the Mind published by Windsound Learning Society in 2008, is filled with practical exercises that don’t require a Lululemon shopping trip or six pack abs. The exercises are designed to help learners warm up bodies and minds in order to feel more energized, focused, and calm. Everyone who wants to learn more effectively can benefit from these mind states. “It is for everybody, because facilitators and teachers are also learners… they may come to their work more centred, more focused, more grounded," says Murphy.
What started out as a project to support adults in community based learning programs has yielded results that show these methods can help everybody involved in the process.
“Most learning environments are still fairly traditional in a sense that there is not a place created for body in the classroom. We expect learners to come in with their heads, and leave their bodies at the door,” says Murphy. She tries to encourage more openness so that more people will be receptive to breathwork, movement, and meditation strategies.
Research and Results Associated with Breathwork in Learning Environments
Murphy is not alone in her research. Although many of the principles she teaches relate to yoga and are the shared knowledge of thousands of years, current brain research is affirming the science behind it. “Ideally, when we might feel anxious, hurried or stress, it is helpful to bring inhalation and exhalation into balance.This takes only a few minutes and can be brought into regular practice anytime throughout the day," says Murphy.
Murphy recounts a student's positive experience integrating breathwork into the learning environment. The student wrote about her experience in a course evaluation. "The panic and anxiety was coming over my body ...so I took a moment to myself and really tried to focus on my breathing...I calmed down enough to continue my work and think clearly again. This was my first experience with using the technique I had learned. I really enjoy taking control of my own body and mind."
“What is so fascinating," says Murphy, "Is that it is so simple, it doesn't cost anything. It doesn't cost anything to breathe...to think about stretching or doing a little bit of wrist work when working at the computer, or just sitting in silence for a few moments to meditate.”
How Practicing Breathwork Helps to Create an Ideal State for Learning
- Breath lengthens and slows down
- More air moves through the whole body, including the brain
- Mind begins to settle and let go of tension
- Mind feels less stress
- Thinking is clearer
- Feel more energy
Girl on the Beach Practicing Yoga
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