Amplifying Celebration

Hard to believe, the end of the school year is upon us! In this Conscious Classroom Webinar, Amy Edelstein will lead you in some reflections and meditations that will celebrate the year’s victories, allow more challenging times to be assimilated and transformed into lessons learned, and consciously close the year so everyone can enjoy the summer break ahead.

This episode looks at how to bring in celebration in the time of COVID-19 and protests for equality and the end of racism. Teens are still teens and need to celebrate milestones, rights of passage, and have levity and joy. 

We will also look at summer resources to help teens navigate the lack of structure and support, and unease that sometimes arises when they are faced with the long stretch of the vacation months ahead.

Transcript

When I first planned out this year's webinar series, and this is, the second year I've done them each month. The final webinar of the year is, is the June. It's all about the successes and accomplishments of the year. Of course, when I planned this out last August, I had no idea that we would be in the situation that we're in right now.

None of us did. And none of our teens did at the same time when we come to the end of the year, it's so important to acknowledge successes, to have that celebration, to make a marker of the end of the year and the beginning of summer to create new structures for the summer. That provides support and discipline and guidance while emphasizing the freedom and fun of being out of formal education.

So it's a really interesting time because what we see is we see that there, the end of the school year kind of blurred into non learning. Non-structure semi-structure confusion. And then into now, you know, a, some semblance of a graduation or an end of year ceremony, but as educators and parents or mentors who work with teens, we need to make extra effort this year to allow students to really acknowledge and.

Value and celebrate the year. That's just gone by teens, really need rituals. They really need the coming of age, the closure of a, of one grade and the rising up to the next grade. It's so important for their development to feel that sense of acknowledgement and accomplishment. Those milestones. And whether it's a freshman completing their first year going into their sophomore year, where they're no longer new at the high school, the sophomores going in their, into their junior year, where they're going to be expected to start thinking about their future as young as they are.

And those juniors going into their senior year where they know this is they're coming to their end run of high school. They all need to celebrate and support. They need support to do that in the teens that I've been working with over the last two months, I've found that many of them. Even in the midst of the pandemic and even in the midst of the social UN upheaval and the protests and riots for equality and respect for people of color and African Americans, even in the midst of that, what I'm really seeing among the teens that I've been working with.

And I've probably had the opportunity to meet with. A good thousand online. So I don't get to see them, but I do get to chat with them and they are still being teenagers. So they are still celebrating endings. They're still celebrating, coming to the end of school and they're missing school. They're missing that community.

And those, those friendships they're missing being with every.  and they're finding ways to keep themselves busy as teens do. They're finding very unique interests to pour their attention into they're finding creative outlets and across the board. I've, I've really felt that the teens, because that maybe partly because they're younger than.

They're still in that phase of more, they, they appear to be young adults, but a lot, a good part of them is still older childhood and they really need that celebration. They really need that joy. They really need that happiness. They really need and seek and find and create for themselves ways to enjoy.

So if you're finding that you as an educator or parent or grandparent are feeling somewhat, down and feeling sorry for teens, make sure that you resist the temptation to impose your own concern and distress and, worry about the present and the future onto them. Because teens will still be teens and teens will still, find ways to pursue that creativity and exuberance.

That is just part of the teenage years. So how do we support that as educators, as parents, as mentors? How can we look towards, this period of time? If you're closing out a program or you're with a young person in your life, make some plans to really recognize, acknowledge, integrate, and nurture

those, those young people. Really make the time to celebrate their accomplishments and make it somewhat formal. So make a formal time where you find out from if it's a teen in your life who may be less than communicative, find out what they accomplished from September until June. What were the highlights?

What do they remember? What were the academic highlights? What was their favorite piece they wrote? What was their favorite subject? What was the best insight they had

and take the time to find out from them. And then take the time to create a moment where those accomplishments and insights and new discoveries are celebrated. And maybe that's maybe you create your own achievement wall, or if you're working with a program in closing out the program, maybe you create your mini award video.

But make sure it's special. Give it a little bit of music, give it something so that the young person feels like this is important. It was worthy of the time it was worthy of these adults' attention and it was worthy of their own attention.

Part of helping teens celebrate. Is by recognizing their accomplishments or the accomplishments of their peers and encouraging them to acknowledge that now whether they write or you get them to speak, you get them to create an end of year speech about their,  accomplishments, or you do it in a silent practice where.

You give them a guided meditation going through the accomplishments and we'll do one a little bit later, so that you go through the accomplishments for these teens and you help them really feel into what it's like to have succeeded. Or have tried or have experimented or have discovered when they feel into it, whether it's through music and watching.

Their accomplishments, on a video or your award shelf, where you create little awards for those key discoveries and insights and accomplishments, or it's in a real, guided meditation. You're allowing students to, I.

You're allowing them to take ownership of those accomplishments and let those accomplishments really seep into their being. Let those accomplishments become part of them.

One of the concerns about this time, where there isn't any social validation in person is that accomplishments will just sort of float by unrecognized, unappreciated and the, when that happens, the teens won't integrate that accomplishment into their being. They won't that, that accomplishment won't create these small, positive weights or anchors for them

as mentors or teachers and particularly teachers of mindfulness. We're bringing to attention and awareness. The important things that happen in, in, in our, in the inner life of the youth that we work with as well as in the outer recognition. And by doing that, we're also helping teens create and understanding of hierarchy and importa.

What are the signs and symbols of their growth that are important, that are significant. How do they know? They're significant? They're not simply significant because an adult said so or acknowledged. We wanna make the effort to put those accomplishments in a context they're significant because this engagement with science or physics or philosophy or chemistry, Means that you are integrating your knowledge with the way the world works.

You're learning things and you're learning ways that the world works. And when we learn how to interact with our world in that way, we develop a sense of stability and solidity understanding that how. The world works is important and will guide us in our lives. Celebrating a teen's, a teen's engagement with meditation is also important recognizing that the inner world has a big influence on how we show up in the world of activity.

And recognizing that in our exploration of the nature of awareness or consciousness of thought and feeling of social relationship of kindness and care are a huge part of what will help us move forward in life.  you can remind students that all the great philosophers of the past did this kind of exploration, the great culture changers did this kind of exploration.

The great musicians did this kind of exploration, linking their experiments with mindfulness, their time in reflection with others who they might not identify.  and show them that their own activities are very similar they're of the same stuff and substance as those activities of the role models they respect, or the thinkers that they're they're reading, who are long gone.

Helping teens celebrate the end of the year. As we just spoke about having to do with recognizing their accomplishments, acknowledging their accomplishments, then integrating their accomplishments, really taking them in and digesting them. And the next step to work with is really helping teens extend that recognition and acknowledgement to others.

Helping them appreciate and respond to their friends. What's happened over the year. What were the highlights? What did they appreciate?

Teens are tend to like to focus on themselves. It has a lot to do with where, how the adolescent brain is developing. It's they, they like to relate to themselves. They like to relate things towards themselves. You can work with this as you help them extend appreciation recognition, acknowledgement to others.

So the things that their friends did that helped them understand something they couldn't understand.  the things their friends did that showed care when they really needed it. The things their friends did that helped them just feel a sense of updraft and fun and laughter in the same way that you formalize your own acknowledgement of their accomplishments and their right of passage, create a mechanism.

To help them acknowledge and integrate the rights of passage, these accomplishments for their friends,

being creative about acknowledging and special times and accomplishments is, is, doesn't have to be something that's incredibly time consuming. There's a certain level of excitement and updraft and fun and joy that just comes when you decide that you want to show that teen that you care,

it's important that a teen feels that the appreciation and recognition and acknowledgement. Is is something that is seen and given markers to, but that it lives in the intangible world. It lives in the world of the heart. It lives in the interior of our connections. And it's recognized in the exterior.

When we do that, we show the team that we can have a celebratory time. Whether it's the same family that's been at home for the last couple months or whether it is a special time in, on, in the backyard or on the deck or by the window. If you live in an apartment building on the fifth floor showing the teens that it's not the things.

That indicate the celebration. It's the import that we put on them. It's the heartfelt acknowledgement of accomplishment and passage. That is what creates that opportunity to celebrate.

The other aspect of building celebration for teens as we move into the summer is to create your own schedule for summer camp. Now the thing about summer camp, which, you know, most, teens and teens won't be going to this year. And, many inner city teens usually work in the summer and, and don't go, but summer, we need to create a break during the, you know, in, in the rhythm of the year that students need to have that sense of summer.

Even if they're working, that feels different. They're not adults yet. They're not just in the American year round work schedule with a two week vacation. They're still in that phase of life where they have that time on, of learning and they have that time off of celebration and summer and freedom. So how do we create that when we've just been home for since March or end of February, for some people.

How do we create that we're already in June and we've been doing something of this, reality as a friend of mine, like to call it, create your own summer schedule. What makes summer camp fun? And I, I was not a big summer camp goer, but I did go to girl scout camp when I was very young. And what made it a lot of fun was the music and the rituals around regular chores and activities.

So KP working in the kitchen, cleaning up the dishes was always a lot of fun because there were special camp songs that you sang that had to do with cleaning up and you knew them and everyone did them together and it made it summertime so that it was no longer a chore. It was KP at summer camp build that kind of structure.

And that kind of celebration into your schedule for the youth and your lives that you're working with, either in your youth program or at home,

decide how you're going to, take the situation that you're in and turn it into a celebratory summer. What are the markers during the day that make this summertime different than regular time than these last couple months of being at home, it's gonna be important for parents to do, and it's gonna be important for teens to feel this what's gonna make it feel special, give things different names.

Engage your youth in special mindfulness activities, mindfulness outside mindfulness. Really get them to explore inner freedom and outer freedom. Give them the challenges, give them a special self-reflection journal just for the summer. This is not your, their regular diary during the year. This is for summer.

Creative exploration and inner discovery. What are their feelings? What are their thoughts? What are their poems? What artifacts are they collecting outside? What's blooming. What flowers can they press? What songbirds did they notice? What did the weather make them feel like? And what are the moods of summer?

You use the self-reflection journal as a marker of summer and use that to help them explore the inner landscape with an emphasis on the celebratory. We are

living in very stressful times. Some teams are gonna want to engage with it. Some teens are gonna want to avoid it as someone who works with youth, you're gonna want to appropriately engage your teens to acknowledge, give space and create mindful rituals and moments to acknowledge and discuss, and explore and express what's happening.

And then leave that aside. Teens are still developing and it's important because we're on this 24 hour news cycle. Now we need to also give them space to let that go to be young people without concerns. To be young people, falling in love for the first time to be young people worried about, finding summer clothes that look cool to be young people who can be active and explore their newfound freedom and maturation

being specific and intentional. About when you're gonna explore issues around race, around police brutality, around, unfair legislation around destruction and violence in neighborhoods from riots. All of that is gonna be important. At the same time as adults, it may be on our minds far more than we want it to shadow overshadow our, our young people's minds.

They may choose to talk about it more, but know, let them know that you're creating specific times to explore that. And then you let them be. It's good practice also because we don't wanna carry that with us all of the time.

I think the final celebratory perspective that I wanted to share is really connecting. Our moment in time and growth and development with the unfolding of the cosmos summertime is a time of meteor showers. You can usually the sky's usually clearer. You can see the night sky helping students connect with big history and there are, some beautiful online resources that they can follow, helping them really.

Start feeling the wonder of how, how the universe came into being where are places in that the miraculous nature of life unfolding

is? It's profound. It's a great, connection for teens to be exploring their own unfolding and development.  they can see that as human beings, we've really only emerged at the very tail end of history. And then that tail end of history means that as human beings, as species, we're still kind of in our adolescence, we have a long way to go to mature and to mature into being really good stewards.

Of this moment in history, connecting with that broader universe story is a powerful way to help teens contextualize their own personal ups and downs. The heartache that can take over as young people or the concern for the future. To

really help the teens set their experience in this bigger context and just think about it, cuz it's endlessly fascinating and beautiful and it takes out a lot of the sting and worry. That a lot of our young people are experiencing now, simply because their lives have just been so disrupted and the things that they've taken for granted school and friends and the March of, grade to grade has been upended and they don't know exactly what's coming.

To help them live through turmoil. It can be very helpful to look at the turmoil that created the cosmos, the turmoil that, that, caused stars to explode and then create new, planets in their wake turmoil. And change is just a part of the great unfolding. Of course, these times are. Charged and important, and they need us to really pay attention and engage with them.

At the same time, teens can take things very hard and feel despair. So recontextualizing everything in this much larger context can really help the teens, feel. This real sense of possibility and discovery.

So to finish,

let's do a, an appreciation guided meditation, which you can use in your youth programs. You can use with the teens in your life.

Begin by asking the

teens to bring their whole year into mind. Remember that first day of school in September. Do you remember what you were wearing? Do you remember what the air smelled like?

Do you remember being surprised at who was in your advisory or homeroom?

Do you remember that smell of being back in school?

now think through the fall,

what's the first fun experience that comes to mind.

Do you remember cracking up with your friends in the hallway, laughing so hard, your stomach hurt

or staying up late to work on a project that came out really well

or reading the most incredible book. That you just loved.

What was your favorite song that in the, during the fall, do you remember? What was your favorite dance move?

Now think about the middle of the year, the second half of the year in January, coming back from winter break, maybe school was a little bit hard in the

middle of the year. Classes were getting tough. Homework was a lot.

Think about something you worked on in the middle of the year that you felt really good about, maybe you struggled, you put yourself into it.

Were you playing sports?

Remember one workout that was particularly hard. And you really did it. Can you feel that feeling of satisfaction in your body, that memory or a track meet or a game?

and think about this time at home, when school was outta session, think about something

that makes you smile.

Maybe you baked something for your whole family.  or maybe you loved having so much time with your family together.

Maybe you found your own interest and started learning something, just cuz you wanted to.

maybe it was hard to stay organized once classes started again online, but you did it

in the next few moments.

Let all of the accomplishments of the year.

Rain down into you like a really lovely summer shower,

all those accomplishments. I like water

watering the flower beds of yourself.

feel yourself soaking up

the nutrients and the warmth from all of the things that went well.

And for all the things that didn't go well,

there were lessons learned. There was strength developed. There was understanding, created.

Those things help make you wise.

So soak in all those lessons learned those hard times, that felt only hard. And now turn them into lessons learned, turn them into inner strength.

Appreciate how much you've grown since September.

And now think about all your classmates.

Just take a scan in your mind, all your good friends and then the other classmates, you might not know so well, but let everyone just pop into your mind.

And like a quick movie, real and fast motion. Just remember some of the highlights,

the accomplishments they all made their successes,

their lessons learned.

And as we draw this exercise to close, really feeling the warmth and celebration

feeling how far we've traveled. Since last fall,

feeling our collective successes, our collective lessons learned our collective growth and letting that fill us

with a sense of pride and accomplishment.

Now imagine that you could take all the goodness and concentrate it into a very small seed in your heart.  a seed that is always there,

always nurturing,

filled with infinite energy and love and support. And

that little seed will keep growing with you.

And providing you with all you need in this next phase, and you

can seal your reflection.

And we'll end with the sound of

the bell. Thank you very much, always moving and delightful to reflect on the ways that we can support teens, especially during these challenging times.