Spiritual Work with Children/Psychic Self-Regulation in the Work of School Teachers
Psychic Self-Regulation in the Work of School Teachers
T.V.Korchagina, M.P.Tretyakova, S.A.Shilovskaya, I.N.Rausova, M.K.Khaschanskaya
The pedagogical process in schools must not only enrich students with concrete knowledge about the world around them and develop creative thinking, but must also lay the foundations of aesthetical perception and ethically correct reaction.
Therefore it is very important that the students receive during lessons not only the information on the lesson’s subject but also the knowledge about what is spirituality, truth, love, that is humanitarian knowledge.
Significant help in the process of one’s spiritual development can be received from the system of psychic self-regulation created by Dr.Antonov and his associates.
The experience of work with the teachers of the school #520 in Saint Petersburg showed that this system can be successfully included in the educational program for children.
A group of teachers, who took the first course of this system, used the elements of psychic self-regulation in their lessons in the school. The results showed that this helps to carry out lessons at a higher level, helps to find new, more effective methods of teaching, and contributes to a creative approach in the system of upbringing and teaching.
Using the acquired skills, teachers can easily attune the class to the necessary emotion, to the necessary work. Besides that, radical changes occur in their contact with the children as well as with their colleagues and administration.
Let us look at examples:
M.T., a teacher of history: “My experience of the classes of psychic self-regulation convinced me that studies in this direction are useful and necessary for teachers.
“The one who does not feel harmony around oneself… — what can such a person give to children but irritation, fuss, nervousness?! On the contrary, teachers who can control their own emotions, control their own behavior — attract children.
“Studies on psychic self-regulation showed that virtually every person who mastered psychic self-regulation can harmonize the situations around himself or herself. This is very necessary in our school life, which is full of conflicts and stresses!
“I have learned an excellent method of communication — communication from anahata (the heart chakra). I enter the class, concentrate in my anahata, send rays of harmony around myself — and children ‘miraculously’ respond: recently excited, they calm down, their eyes are kind and radiant! They have felt my love; the contact with them has been established, and I can begin giving them knowledge without being obtrusive.
“The following should be noted: presenting only the information on a lesson’s subject is not sufficient. Today we have to also teach the basics of philosophy in the class: to have conversations about the meaning of life and its realization, about what is goodness, what is compassion.”
S.S., a teacher of physics: “The classes of psychic self-regulation had a great positive effect on my relationships with people. They also changed my work of teaching in the school.
“It turned out that even such concepts as electricity and magnetism are easier to explain by creating mental images of these phenomena and imparting them to children.
“Once I conducted the following experiment. In a 6th grade class, the subject was presented to students with the help of meditation: together with verbal explanations, I created and sent to the children mental images. In this case, even weak students could easily solve problems of higher complexity. When after a series of such lessons in this class the next subject was explained in the usual way (without special attunement), then the level of creative activity was significantly lower.
“I believe that the methods of psychic self-regulation allow one to find new, more effective methods of imparting and learning information.”
I.R., a teacher of chemistry: “Formerly I was an extremely nervous person, disposed to mental crisis. Mastering psychic self-regulation changed me in the most wonderful way. Now I take conflict situations calmly; I never shout at children. When trying to explain something, I influence them from my anahata. The results are remarkable: I can achieve everything that I want — quickly and without ‘nervous problems’!
“On the lessons, for example, I create images from psychophysical exercises, most frequently Reconciliation, and children immediately calm down and work so quietly that one can speak to them almost in a whisper.
“I began to love all students infinitely! Now there is no student whom I do not love, and children feel this! They became affectionate, kind towards me; their eyes always shine with light and kindness!
“Relations with colleagues have changed as well: formerly they were based on my personal sympathies and antipathies; now, thanks to the acquired skills, I became tolerant and kind to everyone around.
“I love my work and profession even more!”
M.H., a teacher of fine arts: “Under the influence of the classes of psychic self-regulation, my attitude towards the Earth and nature has changed dramatically. I regard the planet as a living being, which can feel pain and suffering. We must give to it all our love, merge with it, and receive its power — in order to help the embodied beings living on it.
“Now I deeply feel all manifestations of Life. In this state, you cannot cause harm; you would rather sacrifice yourself for the good of those who need it.
“… Once you begin practicing psychic self-regulation, it is impossible to conduct lessons in the old way. You see yourself as if from outside; therefore, outbursts of anger, which could arise, look ridiculous; so I can easily avoid them.
“I began to understand that the most important thing in education and raising of children is to teach them a harmonious way of relations with the world around them.
“The system of psychic self-regulation of Dr.Antonov can be successfully combined with the program on fine arts developed by B.Nemensky, which I use in my classes [35].
“According to this program, before starting a lesson on fine arts, the teacher has to perform emotional attunement of the students with the help of demonstration of slides or reproductions of works of art, with the help of listening to music, reading excerpts from literary works.
“However, with the help of the methods of psychic self-regulation, one can strengthen this attunement and make the emotional states of children more subtle.
“For example, children in a 1st grade class were asked to paint the sea and to express in this painting the sea’s character: the sea must be either good or bad. Before children started to paint, the teacher asked them to close their eyes and imagine themselves flying over the sea. First they flew over the quiet, calm sea. The children held brushes in their hands and moved them in the rhythm of smooth wave movement. It resembled spontaneous dance. Then clouds came over; waves gradually became higher and more frightening; the hands with the brushes began to move wider; some children even began to make sounds similar to the moan of the wind. Later they said that being carried above the imaginary foamy waves, they felt the taste of salty water drops. After this emotional attunement, the children only had 20 minutes for painting, but in this time they quickly expressed with gouache on big sheets of paper the state of the sea which they felt. All works turned out much more emotionally charged, which made them look better than the works of another class where the same theme was given with attunement to slides and music only, without visualization.
“On a lesson dedicated to still life painting, children were shown a slide with the work of I.Mashkov Pineapples and Bananas. After certain attunement, the children tried to ‘penetrate inside’ these fruits and perceive them not only as food but also as a substance that possesses life and mood. All students wanted to express themselves, and their statements were most unusual. It turned out, for example, that inside bananas it was warm, viscous, and sleepy; inside a jug from the same painting — it was warm and moist, and one could spread oneself to its entire volume. In the pears of Van Gogh's painting Pears, it was sticky, and some of the children felt themselves like fruit worms.
“Systematic use of methods which change one’s attitude to the objects of the material world allows children to see first of all the ‘essence of things’; it makes their attitude towards everything in this world more careful and allows them to perceive everyone and everything around them as equals.
“There is also an important point concerning ecology. In good warm weather in spring and in autumn, it is very good to conduct lessons in nature among the verdure of spring or falling leaves of autumn. When possible, it is very good to touch the earth, to feel its warmth and power. You can also show that contact with plants can be established best if one regards them as equals, and that plants are capable of feeling our emotions and responding to them. Many children establish such contacts immediately. And they cannot offend without reason a living being which is equal to them.
“If we systematically promote the humanistic attitude towards the world — then there will be less evil and violence.
“We need an integral approach to upbringing, starting from kindergartens, primary, and then secondary schools. In this case, the teachers must be well prepared and competent, and what is most important — they must be people aspiring to spirituality. The system of the psychic self-regulation mentioned above is one of the methods to solve this problem.”
We can also mention the issue which is often forgotten when we discuss educational problems. It is the health of our children.
The opinion of the best teachers about the necessity of changing the approach to teaching is confirmed by the results of medical research. For example, doctor A.Dubrovsky reports in his book that a high fraction of children have mental deviations, chronic diseases, or disorders of the nervous system [22].
Teachers’ Newspaper (on April 2, 1988) reads: “Only few children have a joyful attitude towards life. Many children regard the world around them with aggression. In others, aggression is combined with fear…”
It is most advisable to take urgent psychological and pedagogical measures that can decrease, and in a number of cases, completely remove such a widespread illness of students as didactogenic (school-caused) neurosis — i.e. neurosis that occurs due to wrong attitude of the teacher [17].
We can conclude that it would be most useful to introduce the methods of psychic self-regulation into the teaching of children. But first, one needs to solve the problem of training the teachers, because it is only teachers that can teach children what they themselves know.
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