A visualization is an exercise that can be used anytime and almost anywhere. In preparation for engaging in this reflective work, we want to offer you a short exercise to help you ground yourself after a possibly long day. We encourage you to return to this exercise before engaging in each module. 

Visualizations help create a clear mind and an open heart and are personal to each of us. They can be done with your eyes open, centering on a calming picture, or with your eyes closed. 

Staying calm in difficult situations or situations where you don’t have an answer immediately is always a good strategy. Slowing your breathing and bringing a calming picture to mind can help your heart rate and lessen anxiety. When we are calm, we make better decisions.

Play the video and watch or listen as you calm and centre yourself through guided visualization:

tinymce-kalturamedia-embed||Visualization Exercise: Guided Audio with Visual (02:31)||560||345

Video Transcript

Time to get settled, focused on thinking about the course material. Get into your comfortable spot. Take a moment to just be sure you're comfortable and ready to focus. Look at the mushrooms sitting on the log, with the green mossy spaces on the log, looking at at the sky and the trees in the background and just listening to the sounds of the earth. Take a deep breath and let it out slowly. If you find it useful take time to focus and calm your energy, how might you continue this practice? Taking a moment to calm ourselves and remember that we can take time to make important decisions or problem solve or react to a situation. Taking time to focus and be present is a good way to get ready for work with children. Letting go of our concerns for the time we are with them can help us listen deeply to them, to their interests, their small worries, and their joys. Now just settle into yourself and focus on the present. Breathe in and out. Try to slow your breathing down to your tailbone and let it out slowly along your back. Listen to your breath. Be grateful to the air that surrounds you and fills you. Stretch your legs out. Feel the muscles that allow you to do that. Look at your feet and feel gratitude for them. Breathe down to your toes. Feel your breath all the way through your body as your lungs expand and contract. Your body fills with air, utilize it, and then let it go for another breath in. Most of the time, we don't think about our lungs and the air we breathe. Take time to feel grateful for the air for your lungs and muscles. breathe in gratitude for your lungs and your muscles, for help to move through the day. Now, hold on to that gratitude.