I recently had the pleasure of sitting in a presentation given by Dr. Romie, a physician from Orlando, FL who has made herself known as a life coach through her breakthrough research on the physical and chemical effects of stress on the brain. She has some incredible articles about this and other closely related topics on her blog on her website http://www.brainbodybeauty.com if you want to go check them out. The biggest take away I got from her speech was how a very small and slight addition of just three minutes of detachment from the stressors of the world can have an incredible affect on the level of senseless neural activity in the brain.
This will look different when implemented in different teams, so what might this look like on your team?
Well, at Spintronix we always pause and take deep breaths as a team right before we do a run through, no matter if it is in rehearsal, at a contest, or even just a partial run of the show. We also implement a full 15-minute yoga practice in each weekend rehearsal. Not only does it help with sore muscles, but it clears their lungs and clears their minds to help everyone sleep (since all of our rehearsals are sleep-away). When I was marching DCI we had a staff member who insisted we get daily meditation time as a color guard, and honestly I think that's what kept a lot of our members from beginning overwhelmed by the experience. I've also recently heard from a director who has his guard do a light zen meditation once per week, adding ten seconds each week to increase their endurance for sitting still and being focused.
As you can see, this is something that can be implemented in the way that best suits your team. With the prevalence of stress and anxiety disorders in our society today, why not take a few minutes to take care of the mental health of your students? But don't take my word for it, go see what Dr. Romie has to say.
❤️ Jackie