An Open Letter to St. John's Faculty

Below is the body of a letter sent to the SJES Faculty on Wednesday, November 30. 

So just take a breath! Breathe, just breathe. 

I wanted to follow up on what we are currently practicing in chapel.  Staci and I planned to present in January some of what we experienced at the latest conference by The Momentous Institute, but as we are now implementing some of the research-based practices, I thought I’d provide a bit of context to those interested. The science isn’t really that new, but it was well explained, and, unlike many brain research conferences I have attended, they did provide some concrete things we can do in order to assist students in preparing the brain for learning, dealing with stress or anxiety, and becoming more altruistic.

What is always funny to me, is when scientists are surprised by the fact that some things which religions do consistently are more than dogmatic ritual, but that they actually work! The same is to be said of the military (if there are ever any organizations where results matter, they would be the ones!).  And so, I giggle at times when these very brilliant and well-educated people are shocked to discover that some of the basic tenants/rituals of Western and Eastern religious practices have physical and measurable impacts.  After hearing the research results and some concrete ways to utilize these methods, Fr. Thorpe was excited to blend them in with our advent lessons.

Vagus Nerve

Breathing: The breathing, slow in, hold, slow out, hold, repeat (about four seconds for each inhale, hold, exhale, hold) has been shown to affect the Vagus nerve in very real and measurable ways. The Vagus nerve reaches from our amygdala to our digestive tract. It is the amygdala which is responsible for our fight or flight reflex. This will come in later. The breathing (far from really resting or shutting down the brain as scientists expected) is shown to activate many parts of the brain (especially our neo-cortex) while calming our more primitive and instinctual brain functions.  In short, the breathing practice has been clinically shown to increase students’ readiness to learn with marked and measurable improvement for students who practice the breathing for only about 2 minutes (or 16 breaths) at the beginning of the day. Over time, this has a positive, measurable, physical effect on the actual brain as well. Thus, the infusion of this with our quiet time in chapel.

Vagus nerve is in contact with everything from our primitive

Holding a person in your mind: A long tradition in Christian prayer is this act of praying for the gift of God’s grace directly to a specific person. Testing has shown that simply the act of wishing good things directly to individuals (praying for a specific person for a couple minutes each day) increases altruism in the person praying/wishing by a substantial percentage. If you consistently wish good things for others, you actually act in more generous ways toward society at large. Thus, the holding a specific person or people in your mind and praying directly about that person during our prayers of the people.

Fr. Thorpe has gone one step further in combining these steps (similar to Eastern meditative practices) of breathing while concentrating on prayer to specific people.

One last concrete step:  In my advisory, we are piloting/beta testing a method of dealing with student stress, anxiety, fear, or anger. Based on the aforementioned studies of the amygdala’s influence on our brain, scientists at the conference boiled down several approaches to assist students (or anyone) in independent ways to handle and overcome stress. I combined them into this strategy (Stop, Breathe, Think/Plan, Act) with which we are experimenting.

Our ancestors needed a fight or flight response daily when dealing with the perils of nature.  There are times when we still need that.  But, most of the time, the amygdala is more of a hindrance to our daily life. It is on the constant look out for danger (to personify a bundle of neurons), and when it perceives a threat, it tends to hijack our thinking brain and we experience a flood of emotions. They

described it as if the amygdala requests an immediate explanation from our cortex of what the danger is and an immediate solution (fight it or run from it).  While this works great when dealing with a saber-tooth tiger, it works very poorly when dealing with an argument with a friend or a hard test question. Emotion, first-impression decision making, and the flood of adrenaline resulting from this hijacking often leads to improper decisions and actions.  It’s why in the heat of an argument, even with someone you love, you might think or even say terrible things: “I don’t want to know this person anymore,” “my best friend is out to get me!”  etc. This is the explanation your cortex has given for the danger.  There is an enemy, a danger, an opposing force, let’s fight it/run from it. The trick is to turn the amygdala off and then reconsider the problem rationally. This same breathing technique does just that (as mentioned above); it activates the thinking and rational brain and turns off the instinctual brain through the Vagus nerve bundles. Then, you are able to rationally consider and solve the problem. Below is what we are experimenting with in class: a suggested method for performing this process based on brain science.

In times of stress, anxiety, fear, or anger, students are practicing:

STOP

·                Stop what you are doing/thinking.

·                Settle yourself.

BREATHE

·               Military Tactical Breathing:

·               IN for four counts

·               HOLD for four counts

·              OUT for four counts

·              HOLD for four counts

·              Repeat this for a couple of minutes or about 16 breaths.

THINK/PLAN

·             Why did you feel/react that way?

·             What story did your brain try to tell you?

·             What’s the real problem?

·             What should/can you do to solve the problem?

·              PLAN the solution.

ACT

·             Do it!

·             Perform the actions that you planned.

This is not new in any way; however, I am always struck at how our students can struggle coping with stress, disappointment, anger, etc. We are going to try to experiment with this method, and I’ll let you know if it is internalized and worthwhile. Staci and I will have more to share around January. 

Sincerely,

Thor Herrin

5th Grade English

5th Grade Advisor

Head Coach:  Volleyball, Basketball, Tennis

214-538-1533