The Anchor
The Anchor series is a podcast designed to support all teachers as you encounter the inevitable challenges and stress that accompany the teaching profession. Based on key components related to MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction), each episode takes the listener through short exercises to help ground you in the present moment and diminish stress levels.
Episodes
The Anchor: Episode 1 – The Torchlight of Attention
Duration: 7-8 minutes. Welcome to the first episode! In this introduction, we will be exploring ways of identifying your physical stress and intervening before it becomes emotional exhaustion. Listen and follow the guidance offered if you are feeling drained or tense.
The Anchor: Episode 2 – Finding Quiet Amidst the Noise (Settling the Scattered Mind)
Duration: 7-8 minutes. This episode takes the listener through a practical exercise to settle those chaotic thoughts to find that much needed stillness and silence in the mind. As teachers we are perhaps used to noisy classrooms and having minds and bodies that are multitasking, but it is crucial that we learn how to settle our minds and our bodies if we are to sustain ourselves.
The Anchor: Episode 3 – Dropping the Elevator (Flipping the Circuit Breaker on Overthinking)
Duration: 8-9 minutes. This episode helps us to drop out of the head and into the body when we find ourselves perhaps stuck in a doom loop of rumination. Listeners are invited to visualise an elevator to help them take their attention away from those thoughts on loop and into the body to move from doing, to being mode.
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The Anchor: Episode 4 – The Gift of the ‘Now’ (Shifting Perspectives)
Duration: 7-8 minutes. This episode invites listeners to consider where they are putting their energy as well as their attention. As teachers it is likely that we are using up precious energy worrying about what is to come and what has just happened. This short meditation gives the listener an opportunity to connect with the only thing we truly have control over, and that is the present moment.
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The Anchor: Episode 5 – Moving Mindfully (Intentional Presence)
Duration: 6-7 minutes. To project calm authority in the classroom we need to practice mindful, intentional movement. Our pace, our body language and our gestures all signal silently to our learners. This episode explores practical ways of practising how to move in a way that helps to develop our persona and our presence in the classroom.
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The Anchor: Episode 6 – Watching the Buses (Observing vs. Being)
Duration: 6-7 minutes. This final episode draws together a number of elements from previous episodes to help the teacher with their emotional regulation. Using this guided visualisation, the listener can use this episode to learn how to objectify their own thoughts and diminish the stress that those thoughts might be causing.
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