Places are expressive, dynamic, and responsive beings voicing themselves at different scales ofemergence. Placefields are the sites of research at the complex nexus of peoples, cultures,
geography, experience, mythology, and place history in terrapsychology. Children are open and
receptive to these expressive qualities of place, understanding these place emanations through
the context provided to them by place-based educators and other adults. This four-month study
at Lowell National Historical Park utilized terrapsychological inquiry to explore youth
connection to the historic industrial placefield of Lowell, Massachusetts as experienced by
learners and educators, reproduced through youth placefield encounters, and iterated through
self, community, and as culture across scales. The arts-based research method of terrain
weaving empowered this research to connect with complex pattern languages of Lowell,
surfacing the symbolic repertoire of place, the somatic and psychological components of youth
place encounter, the deep patterns of place that rise through the researcher, and the expansive
states of consciousness that are catalyzed through complex place relationships. The difficult
histories placefields perform reproduce their traumatic and historic woundings in the visiting
psyche. At the same time, the underlying resilience, strengths, and gifts of places with difficult
histories are vital assets to be liberated. The experiential and embodied elements of field trips
make them powerful intersections for troubling the ways historic narratives are constructed.
This research concludes it is possible to radically redesign field trips and recontextualize
histories to provide a nourishing, regenerative place encounter by adopting complex,
expansive, and agential understandings of place.
The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of Mindfulness brings together the latest multi-disciplinary research on mindfulness from a group of international scholars: Examines the origins and key theories of the two dominant Western approaches to mindfulness Compares, contrasts, and integrates insights from the social psychological and Eastern-derived perspectives Discusses the implications for mindfulness across a range of fields, including consciousness and cognition, education, creativity, leadership and organizational behavior, law, medical practice and therapy, well-being, and sports 2 Volumes
The purpose of this paper is to describe benefits of yoga and to provide practitioners multiple ways to implement yoga into classroom settings and home environments for young children with Down syndrome (DS). Yoga can be introduced into many settings to enhance motor development as a physical activity warm up or cool down, a behavior management technique, and/or an innovative way to get children with DS moving. There are various techniques to integrate yoga into adapted physical education classes, early intervention or preschool classroom, as well as home-based settings. Fun activities to incorporate yoga include yoga stories and songs, picture cards, yoga with technology, playing yoga games, and involving families. Practical applications and multiple references help as a starting point for educators and care givers to introduce the practice of yoga for young children with DS. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR
Objective. A qualitative research methods approach was used to explore the experiences of participants in an ongoing community-based yoga program developed for cancer survivors and their support persons. Methods. 25 participants took part in a series of semistructured focus groups following a seven-week yoga program and at three- and six-month follow-ups. Focus groups were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using a process of inductive thematic analysis. Results. The group was comprised of 20 cancer survivors, who were diagnosed on average 25.40 (20.85) months earlier, and five support persons. Participants had completed the yoga program an average of 3.35 (3.66) times previously and attended approximately 1.64 (0.70) of three possible focus groups. Four key themes were identified: (1) safety and shared understanding; (2) cancer-specific yoga instruction; (3) benefits of yoga participation; (4) mechanisms of yoga practice. Conclusions. Qualitative research provides unique and in-depth insight into the yoga experience. Specifically, cancer survivors and support persons participating in a community-based yoga program discussed their experiences of change over time and were acutely aware of the beneficial effects of yoga on their physical, psychological, and social well-being. Further, participants were able to articulate the mechanisms they perceived as underpinning the relationship between yoga and improved well-being as they developed their yoga practice.
Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is a chronic rheumatic disease associated with pain, stiffness, and psychosocial difficulties. The purpose of this case study was to investigate the impact of a yoga intervention on pain and morning stiffness in an adolescent female with JIA. A secondary aim was to assess the impact of this intervention on self-efficacy, mindfulness, health-related quality of life, and disease activity. A 17-y-old female with JIA participated in 3 yoga groups and home yoga practice with a digital video disc. She engaged in daily self-monitoring of pain and stiffness and completed questionnaires assessing psychosocial functioning and disease activity at pre- and postintervention, and psychosocial functioning at 3-mo follow-up. Primary outcomes were evaluated using quasi-experimental single-case design structure (ie, ABAB), with emphasis on the report of means. Results suggested that yoga reduced pain intensity, stiffness intensity, and duration of morning stiffness. Outcomes for disease activity also suggested improvements. Modest changes were revealed on psychosocial outcome measures, however not consistently in the direction of hypotheses. Anecdotal reports from the participant indicated acceptability of the intervention and improvements in pain and stiffness attributed to engaging in the yoga intervention. More research is warranted to further explore the impact of yoga for youth with JIA as an adjunctive component of multidisciplinary treatment targeting pain, stiffness, disease activity, and psychosocial factors.
Research has shown that engaging in different forms of physical activity is positively correlated with mental health and psychological well-being, but negatively correlated with anxiety, depression and stress. Literature on stress in the work place is plentiful, as is research that specifically investigates teachers' stress. Physical educators are in the business of selling preventative medicine and wellness, but they are not immune to feeling pressure or stress themselves. Due to the role that physical educators play in the school community, it can be difficult for many to find time for their own physical activity, which ultimately compromises their health and well-being. Thus, educators should look for coping strategies that aid in dealing with life's daily stressors, one of which is yoga. The purpose of this article is two-fold. First, the authors encourage physical educators to practice yoga in order to gain balance, strength and flexibility and to release stress and escape the daily pressures that teachers experience. Second, the authors encourage physical educators to implement yoga in their programs to educate students in both the physical (strength, flexibility) and affective (stress relief) domains. The authors believe that the implementation of yoga in a school community could be very helpful; however, yoga should only complement current quality physical education programs and not replace them.
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