Dr. Brennan: This is a strategy I like to call "find yourself and return." To engage in this practice, picture a scale from 1 to 5. 1 is your most calm, your most present self. 5 is your most panicked, perhaps stressed-out self. Throughout the day, call the scale to mind and figure out where you are on it. If you're at a 1 or a 2, that's awesome--keep going. If you're at a 3, pushing a 4, that's a really great time to perhaps take a mindful stop or engage in some mindful breathing.
The point is that the more often we do this, the more we learn about ourselves. We learn what it feels like to be at a 1 or a 2, and we learn what it feels like to be at a 3 or a 4. The more we know about ourselves, the more quickly we're able to engage in mindfulness-based practices and help ourselves from ever reaching that 5.
This video is part of the Mindfulness: A Resilience Practice module, one of several in the EarlyEdU Alliance Learning Modules series.
