Introducing Essential Oils in the Classroom, Written by Jess Terlick
Jessica is a level three classroom teacher, mother of two, passionate about health, wellness, positive thinking, striving for your personal best and being the best role model possible to the little people watching. I’d like to thank Jess for all her hard work in bringing such an amazing program to young children and showing them a way to nurture in this busy world we live in! Jess you are doing an incredible job and we can’t wait to here about additional schools taking on your amazing program. I hope you all enjoy this article as much as I did, it is a wonderful reflection of the lives we live and how simple changes can make such a hug difference to our little people.
Time
When do you have time?
Do you ever do something where time doesn’t matter?
As we grow older, time seems to go faster.
We quite often say ‘Where did that year go?’.
I don’t know the exact reason why time goes faster as we get older but I have a theory; because we make it go faster.
There is no time-keeper, there is no one spinning the Earth faster, there is no one ordering the sun to go down quickly and rise quicker.
We are busy.
We make our lives busy.
We make the choices of what we are going to get done in one day, a week and a month. We think we need to be busy, like busyness is an achievement.
Or some of us are just so busy that we have lost control and have no choice.
When the Day Begins
So, let’s put this perspective on to our kids, the little people.
Run through everything you ‘must’ do even before the little people wake up.
Then think of all the things you ‘must’ do and the little people ‘must’ do as soon as they wake up.
Not to mention what you need to do today and tonight before you will be back in the position you are in bed now because we are busy before we even get out of bed. The little people on the other hand…they have just woken up.
They have not considered how important and how quickly they need to get ready, eat breakfast, brush their teeth, go to school or out for the day (even though they have done it every previous day) because to them it’s not important, they are not choosing to be busy.
But they have no choice because all these factors come at them; first you are ready to run a marathon because you have psyched yourself before getting out of bed and you are ready to get mission number one out of 50 out of the way, so you start giving orders and lay out everything that needs to be done this morning or today.
Signal to the little people-let’s get moving, the day has started.
Now depending on their personality, they resist it or their ‘fight or flight’ response kicks in.
For some reason either personality trait leads to anxiousness, worry or concern.
It all begins with- I’m going to be late!
School Time
Fast forward to when the little people are at school.
Their day is jammed packed and not because the teacher thinks being busy is fun, believe it or not we don’t have a choice.
We are expected to fill these minds with as much content as possible before they leave us or we are classified as an incompetent teacher.
Throw into the mix the amount of time it takes for a student to learn new content or those who need extra attention to learn and we have a time problem. We don’t get extra time so we need to create it.
So, how can a teacher create time in the classroom where there is no spare time (this can also be applied at home)? Simple really- you stop. You don’t just stop your body; you stop your mind too.
Silence.
No actions.
No thoughts.
Being mindful is becoming the new in-trend thing.
See the funny thing is, when we stop, our minds have a chance to ‘breathe’.
Our bodies have the opportunity to realign and our ‘resisting’ or ‘fight or flight response’ disappears because there is no longer a need for it.
At the start of the year we had a classroom of little people where nearly half of the class had either (or all) anxiety, attention or lack of confidence issues.
We taught them the importance of being mindful and linked with Smiling Minds to coach students on how to be mindful.
Student would be ‘mindful’ every day at a set time.
They were given an opportunity to stop and not think about anything.
The change!
Students were not only more focused and ready to work after (which is what you wanted first thing this morning) they were happier.
Being mindful gave them the energy and perspective they needed to carry on.
With the success, it was time to amp it up.
Students understood that they could do things to help them focus and learn better, we needed something else to continue their learning journey about being mindful and in control.
Introducing Essential Oils in the Classroom
Introducing essential oils in the classroom started with introducing the diffuser, and to begin with, three oils- Lavender in the morning to calm, Oregano in the midday to boost and Elevation in the afternoon to provide focus and energy.
This was only the beginning.
When winter rolled in-Frankincense, OnGuard and Peppermint were introduced.
As you know with essential oils there are so many combinations to use and so much to learn.
We talked to the little people about what oil we were using and how it could help them.
The moment we knew we were onto something good was when we had students coming up and asking if we could diffuse some Peppermint to help them focus or something to save them from getting sick if they heard some coughing in the room.
Linking Essential Oils to Time
Essential oils can do a lot and some may feel like they are miracle workers, but one thing they can’t do is give you extra time.
What they can do is help with; mood management, dealing with emotions, clearing your mind, focusing and give you energy to get through the day.
Utilising essential oils and being mindful are strategies to help you become more efficient and productive with time.
Take a moment to think about how you can make your day less busy, ask yourself how can you help yourself be more productive and ‘slow down’ time and most of all ask yourself how you can help your little people do it to.
Top 5 tips from this article–
1. Sit with your kids first thing in the morning and talk.
2. Stop booking so much into one day, spread it out over a week.
3. Get a weekly planner working for you.
4. See being ‘not busy’ as an achievement.
5. Spend your first moments in the morning being mindful whether it be through meditation, using essential oils, sitting outside whatever it is. (Avoid having a cigarette or coffee)
Top 5 things to research–
1. Mindfulness
2. Smiling Minds
3. DoTerra Oils for meditation and calming the mind.
4. The uses of DoTerra oils in your home.
5. The use of DoTerra oils to support your children.
Top 5 things for Classroom Teachers and Essential Oils in the Classroom–
1. Speak to your administration before introducing the new concepts.
2. Speak with parents before starting with the students.
3. Speak with the students through the whole process.
4. Start with mindfulness.
5. Introduce the essential oils.
What would you like to hear about next? Get in touch.
• How much does advancing technology affect us?
• Mental Health and our Little Ones.
• Managing Emotions.
• How to communicate effectively with our Little Ones.
@j_terlick
With a big smile and a deep breath,
Jessica