In schools it is increasingly critical to “press pause” to create time and space for reflection and restoration. For educators, the stresses of teaching can lead to compassion fatigue, burnout, and increased anxiety and exhaustion. For students, the pressure is on to perform well academically, participate in extracurricular activities, get high SAT/ACT scores and gain admittance into college. These factors can decrease the joy of teaching and learning as well as increase anxiety, insomnia and a host of other symptoms related to stress. For administrators, the outside pressures of regulations, fund-raising and strategic planning can be overwhelming. Teaching people how to “press pause” builds skills of self-care and self-awareness and, in turn, can amplify everyone's inner and outer voices.

What happens after you hit "the pause" button? The nervous system resets. Blood pressure drops, breathing relaxes, jaws unclench and our “smart brain” comes online. Just as lifting weights builds muscle strength, practicing restorative relaxation helps build our capacity to find calm in chaos.  MIND-ED utilizes the foundations of Urban Zen Integrative Therapy ™ (UZIT) designed to calm and focus the nervous system. An Urban Zen Integrative Therapist™ session incorporates complementary healing modalities such as restorative yoga, essential oil therapy, breath awareness and body awareness meditations. This integrative approach is uniquely designed to address the primary symptoms and feelings of the VOWEL MODEL™ (Anxious, Exhaustion, Insomnia, Overwhelmed, Upset and You Need Self-Care.) Practicing “the pause” allows teachers and students to be in the classroom equipped with portable easy skills to handle the pressures of the school environment.