3S-Anecdotal Stories

K-3 Students

From : Lake View

As an educator, my goal is to empower students with a skill set to achieve at all aspects of their learning, emotional intelligences, training the brain to make positive choices, and conflict resolution have been at the core of those skills. 3S offers a better choice and more possibilities to help the student/s express their energy physically. Restless energy in our curriculum packed school days is a common occurrence, no matter how engaging the lesson. Using 3S, I can observe the level of energy in the room, the dynamics and in a quick moment, break into a three minute series of exercises that can dispel the negative energy, reactivate the brain and redirect their focus, even after lunch, recess or even the last half hour of the day. 3S is a powerful tool in my teacher’s tool box, and I benefit too, from leading the activity and reawakening my energy as I wind my way through the course of a day with twenty two students.

From : Elvehjem

Started for a second time at the start of 2nd grade Literacy block. ALL three in the group have ADHD issues issues & NONE are on medication. Went 7 days straight. Had to take a leave today, so made a lesson plan for 3S and handed over to my sub. Also took a bold decision to put each of kids in-charge of an exercise in 3S Exercises Set-1 that I thought they would remember and be able to lead. Well, my sub responded on the back of my lesson plan at the end of the day that the students were “AWESOME!” (I told her to tell them that it was their job to teach the sub…and they did!) She LOVED the movements. She asked, “Where can subs get this training?!” 3S has become the favorite part of the group: it has transformed how we are together during that time. We are more “in community” and feel closer!

From : Pioneer

Situation: Five students in class, everyone is working at different levels, two of them cannot read and need instructor assistance for all word problems. Students are to move ahead or help each other while waiting for help. Students are becoming noisy and impatient, interrupting constantly. The class is getting too loud and unproductive, so I suggest, “Let’s go do 3s!” We did the first 10 exercises followed by 4 to 5 minutes of forceful exhalation and humming. Results: Everyone started out enthusiastic and on task. By “Amazing Circles” the least stable, most immature guy got silly, but came back. The breathing exercises were very helpful in getting the class focused and calm. We returned to academics and the students seemed more on task and at ease. Even the two boys who were more silly than cooperative were more relaxed afterwards.

From : Lincoln

It is testing time in the fourth grade here at Lincoln. Today we were to begin the reading portion and the kids were very nervous and restless. I decided to try some ideas from Jinendra to supercharge the kids and then bring them back down. Right before beginning I asked the kids to stand up and do jumping jacks, cyclone, snap-snap happiness, slingshot and rock crane. After we finished the series, with ten in each set, we were ready for a short humming session. I asked the kids to close their eyes and hum for four minutes, This was a huge success! The kids were exclaiming how ready they now felt, how energized they felt and how focused their minds were feeling. I was especially happy to note that my most agitated child was not even pencil tapping during any portion of the test. She just kept moving along at an even pace and finished without incidence. This was a true testament to the benefits of 3S for this particular child.

From : Gompers

One of the students in my class has a speech and language disability that evinces as a difficulty in processing language. From my perception, her linguistic disorganization is also visible in how she inhibits her body. There is vagueness to the expression on her face that goes along with her frequently feeling she can’t understand. Regularly during class she will burst out, “I don’t GET it!” She often walks and sits in a very loose way. As I recounted in class, the exercises were at first difficult for her to do and to follow, but she now is a class leader in some of the exercises particularly those that encourage balance and equilibrium. She has a lovely smile on her face as she does the exercises. Her focus in math has markedly improved since I began teaching 3 S exercises, and her face appears more open and sure. Yesterday I for the first time introduced using letters to represent quantities in comparative equations a rather difficult algebraic concept for the students to learn in one day. This student was the first to be able to articulate the relations between numbers and letters in the equations. She looked happy, engaged and confident. When I affirmed how well she understood the concepts, another student said with kindness and enthusiasm, And she hasn’t said once today, ‘I don’t get it.’

From: Lincoln

First week: I decided to just get started trying 3S and see what happened. I began with classes that didn’t have a lot of kids with behavior issues. For some reason, the first set of exercises we learned stuck with me the most so I began with Deep Breathing, Monkey Grin, Wake up, and Did Dip. I introduced the movements by saying I was learning how to move my body in ways that helped me to concentrate or to get my brain involved in the work that I was going to be doing. The two classes I started with both really enjoyed the exercises. As soon as we finished the movements, students from the first class asked if we could do them again! I didn’t use the words meditation or yoga in my introduction, so I was surprised when, after we finished the movements, several students spread throughout the second group sat in lotus position with their hands in the SM-7 mudra with their palms resting on their thighs.

Second week: I met with these two classes again this week. This time I decided to begin with more active movements so I tried Disco-Disco, Hammer Fist, Sling Shot, and Beauty. As I watched the first group of students I noticed that everyone was smiling. After doing the movements with second group, I asked them how they felt. Comments like… ‘relaxed’, ‘focused’, ‘happy’, ‘Awake’ were common. One girl raised her hand and said that the movements made her think of panda bears. We all stopped and looked at her with puzzled expressions. She paused for a moment and then said that for her, panda bears were Paradise and that the movements made her think of Paradise!

Third week: My confidence was growing so I decided to try laughing club and humming. I introduced the activity by explaining how science is discovering so many advantages of laughter as an aid to better performance, and productivity and I laughingly asked, “who wants to make their brain bigger and faster?” We practiced laughing as a group and I noticed that some students seemed self-conscious. Some would simply say “ha… ha… ha…” Others seemed like the floodgates of emotion had opened up and they actually did start to roll around on the floor laughing! Luckily there were some students, who were thoroughly enjoying the activity and they were still paying attention to me so I focused my attention on those students and we just enjoyed ourselves for a while. I got the group’s attention and said we were going to play the laughing game. I was going to start laughing and then point at someone else. Then that person would also start laughing and point to someone else… like the way we did it in class. Well some students followed those directions, some still didn’t

seem to want to be laughing, and then some kids hadn’t been pointed to, so I just started pointing around the room to make sure everyone was included. I introduced them to humming which they liked. I noticed that humming is less conspicuous because everyone is making a noise. If you are choosing not to participate, nobody really knows.

However, I found out later that the kids loved laughing club. They asked another teacher if they could please do laughing Club, like they did in the library! That comment reminded me that we don’t always know the impact of our actions on the students. Even when an activity doesn’t go the way we anticipated it can still have wonderful effects.

From: Sandburg

We have been doing a few mudras in class in the last weeks. I have drawn Pictures of the mudras for understanding, happiness, peace, and concentration on the board. I asked the students to individually try them out during math. In particular, I asked them to consciously choose a mudra if they were starting to feel restless, or if they were noticing they were doing things I didn’t want them to do (like tap with their pencils.) With these visual cues, they seem much more able to focus. One boy keeps his hands in his pocket in a mudra. I told the students that my last 3S class would be tomorrow, and I asked them how 3S had helped them. They responded, ‘I feel more calm’, ‘I can concentrate more’, ‘I feel more peaceful’. When one of the students noticed that I had put the exercises sheet up on the wall, she said, ‘You put our exercises up!’ The students clearly see the exercises as theirs, and they are something they look forward to each day.

From: Thoreau

The Jinendras continue to be essential both in my class and personal life. We do the “protect the world” DMM-4, affirmation every day. It is really helping the boy with the hunched shoulders I spoke to you about …New problem – pouting

“I have a little boy who pouts all the time: when he isn’t called on, when he doesn’t get his way, when he is called to task on an unattended assignment, when he has to read and he wants to color, etc. I usually take him out in the hall, we run in place, then hum, then do laughing club. It stops the pout on the short term, but it has not stopped that reaction or even slowed it down? What do you think?”

I am doing better. I feel more peaceful. Jinendra, thank you for all of your positive energy which went into helping me.

Jinendra Answer

For Pouting in this specific Case, choose few 3S exercises from below:

1. Monkey Grin- 15 times; 2. Simulate Yawning-10 times; 3. Knock-Knock and Pats massage, 4. Neck rolls, 5. Fhoo Breath; 6. Massage full facial Upward and crown fist massage; 7. Panting dog-breath; 8. Road runner; 9. Lying down and relaxed deep belly breath; 10. I am Feeling Happy.

Get him to learn and do whole set 4/5 times including at school and home.

Keep progress report for 3 weeks and share it with me for further interventions if needed.

From: Leopold

Today I was very brave and decided to try some achievements with the two most challenging classes that I have. One comes to me at the end of the morning and the other at the end of the day and both times they are following a break or recess period. Typically recess can be a very challenging time for some of these students, because they are often in one altercation or another. As a result, they are pretty wound up when they get to me. I decided to start slowly with them and not use big movements to begin with. We did Facial Beauty, Knock Knock, Pat and Dots, and Massage Both Ear Lobes. In both classes the kids really enjoyed the activities. Most of them settled down and really listened to the stories I read.

I was surprised, as I looked around the room as I was reading, to notice that some of the kids were doing the exercises on their own! One boy, who is very high energy and who can be very disruptive, was doing Knock-Knock, Pat and Dots, and the Ear Massage. He seemed to be concentrating on learning the movements. Most of the students stayed attentive for rest of the class.

From: Shorewood

The 3 A’s of 3 S are Awareness, Acceptance and Attitude.

“Awareness and Acceptance are like the two wings of a bird that propel it forward, and propel us forward towards Sustainable Happiness. Attitude is like the tall which gives the bird direction, like a rudder on a boat, and which gives us direction in life.” From Jinendra’s 3S Handbook

I have used the concepts of Awareness, Acceptance and Attitude to focus on group dynamics in the math class I teach for 4th graders. They are students who are at the bottom of their 4th grade class in mathematics. I was trying newly learned 3S for their lack of focus and attention during the math class.

Before 3S, I would regularly have to give directions over and over for the students to look at the examples I was explaining. The students also had difficulty sitting still and keeping their hands calm. I also spent much instructional time asking the students to stop drumming or tapping with their pencils.

After 3S: The awareness of body and breath that the students have gained with 3S exercises has given all of them a ground for being more focused in class. They now know that paying attention is a base of learning and of creating community. They each know they are capable of paying better attention, and they have found that they learn much more when they are focused.

Conclusion: They have accepted not only themselves, but others. The group has truly come together as a learning community, and that is in part because of the kindness and gentleness they are now showing each other. The conjoining of awareness with gentleness they are now showing each other. The conjoining of awareness with acceptance has created the emotional conditions necessary for accelerated learning. The students’ focus on Awareness and Acceptance has led to a new, deeper Attitude that is open to and positive about learning. I have helped to create the conditions for this, but much of their shift in attitude is self-motivated; it has flowed from their increased self awareness. Focused learning still does not happen every day. There are days they are off, even right after the exercises. But they are learning more and more what it is to learn with attention. And these students who desperately need to learn are now learning with confidence and heart.

From: La Follette

I do 3S regularly, for me, the benefits from 3S include :

• Wellness and stress reduction fitness
• Fitness
• Breath awareness
• Positive attitude toward ourselves, others, and life in general
• Learning how to quiet the mind
• Focus on Kindness
• Awareness of diet and its impact on our bodies
• Energy movement throughout our bodies
• Increased confidence; Enjoyment of life
• Appreciation of happiness and laughter
• Less hostility; Better posture
• Reduces clutter inside and out
• Easy to Practice forgiveness
• Increases adversity quotient
• Increases attention, focus and concentration
• Helps rejuvenation and relaxation
• Activates the parasympathetic nervous system Tones entire nervous system
• Increases compassion, self control
• Improves our immune system

From: Muir

I have spent a lot of time trying to memorize the 3S Exercises movements in the order presented. This was important to me to get it right for the classroom presentation of the exercises. But to be honest it bogged me down from actually trying to implement anything because I didn’t feel I had it down quite right. Then, one day in class, Jinendra said, “JUST DO IT!” He encouraged us to just use the moves we were feeling comfortable with at the time. He removed the fear I had about doing it ‘wrong’. He said, “there is no ‘Right’ or ‘wrong’ way, simply a little better way”. He made me aware that none of my movements must be seen as wrong, my focus has to be on trying to change the current climate in my class room. He made me realize that the sequence of exercises are not as important and that gave me more confidence to try it, right now and not wait till I learn them all well. It just removed all me imaginary fears and I started enjoying using 3S in my class and the freedom to use the movements in a manner that works for me and the kids.

From: Chicago

Situation: I have had a horrible meeting with some of my co workers. I’ve got 45 minutes before my next class. I go down by the lakeshore to walk and practice 3S.

Results: As I walk, all I can do is defend my position and make mental lists of how I am right and they are wrong. I try to think about other, more enjoyable things, but keep returning to my frustration. When I get to a place along the lake and start doing my 3S exercise, my mind becomes occupied with performing the exercises properly and breathing correctly. By the time I get to the rejuvenation exercises I am thinking about the beautiful sound of the waves crashing on the shore and realize that I have been smiling since “Beauty in the Mirror”. I was able to do forceful breathing and hum for 10 minutes after my routine. I returned and had a wonderful class with my kids. When I got home, I had forgotten my challenges of the day and when my partner asked me about work, I simply said “Oh, it was great!”

Situation: Older group of four teenagers came into class at 8 15 a.m. complaining about being tired, bored, and irritated by others on the unit. They had agreed it was going to be a terrible day and seemed to be trying to make it that way. I suggested we needed to “move around a bit”. The students groaned but went to room with more space with no resistance. We did the first 15 20 exercises with some omissions, and then did the Serenity set of exercises.

Results: After 3S, the students returned to desks and worked very well on individual seat work. They showed good patience with one another and with me. We laughed together much during 3S and the students seemed more energetic, more positive, and more at ease.

From: San Francisco, CA

A friend was furious with me. We have this conversation so many times. Usually I just get upset right away and holler right back. But this time, I remembered my 3S Training, so I took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. I was able to calm myself down and not get all energized and angry with him. After several minutes, I noticed that he had calmed down much faster and didn’t push the argument further. We eventually were able to have a peaceful dinner together. I believe 3S works, and if used on a daily base, can help improve life.

From: San Mateo, CA

Last week, had voted to do a different craft/cooking project each day this week as a break from the hard work they have been doing during Literacy Block. But first, they reminded me right away as soon as everyone was present, that we MUST start out with our 3S exercises…They are so into it that they have put individual name markers on the floor where each of them stands each day to do 3S..They kick off their shoes and get right on their spot! They were really enthused and did not want to skip any of the first series. In the end, we did Road Runner, Wipe My Troubles Away and then sat down with the lights off to do our 3 minutes or so of humming. We were ALL CLEARLY in the FLOW of the MOMENT when the most amazing thing happened spontaneously, one of the girls just climbed into my lap. We were doing the Jinendra’s every day, they just LOVE them SO much that when we turn off the lights at the end to do our ME-44, I believe that they feel super SAFE and LOVED and see me as someone who can keep them SAFE And their classroom teacher also reported to me at the end of the day that they had ALL had a GREAT day.

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