Creating calm in your classroom with Lisa

Nervous System Secrets: Creating Calm in Your Classroom with Lisa Danahy.

We’ve all been there, that frantic post-lunch slump on a rainy day when the classroom energy is through the roof and your chest starts to tighten. In this episode of Nurturing Educators, I'm sitting down with the wonderful Lisa Danahy author of Creating Calm in Your Classroom, to dive into the science of classroom energy.

Lisa shares her incredible journey from 20 years in early childhood classrooms to founding a global social-emotional learning nonprofit. Together, we explore why your nervous system speaks louder than your words and how you can use simple, 20-second tools—like the "balloon breath" and intentional movement—to guide your students back to centre.

We talk about moving away from rigid rules toward community agreements, the power of slow looking, and how looking after your own energy first creates a beautiful ripple effect of calm. If you’re feeling a bit burnt out or just want some quick, practical strategies to protect your own well-being while moulding young lives, this conversation is for you!

Connect with Lisa:

• Website: www.createcalm.org
• Email: Lisa@createcalm.org
• Find her book, Creating Calm in Your Classroom, on Amazon or Balboa Press.

Don't forget to hit subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with your fellow educators. 

Hosted by Debbie Ross
Find us on Instagram & Facebook: @nurturingeducators

For more information, guest recommendations, and sponsorship opportunities 
or to chat, please email: nurturingeducators@gmail.com or visit  www.nurturingeducators.co.nz

Thanks for listening! 

Transcript

Nurturing Educators Podcast Transcript

Host: Debbie Ross

Guest: Lisa Danahy, Author of Creating Calm in Your Classroom

Debbie: Welcome to Nurturing Educators, the podcast that shares inspiring and insightful conversations with passionate teachers dedicated to education and well-being. I'm your host, Debbie Ross. In each episode, we will explore the personal stories, challenges, and successes of educators from all walks of life. You'll hear practical tips and strategies to help you thrive both in the classroom and beyond.

Today, we're diving into the science of classroom energy with Lisa Danahy, author of Creating Calm in Your Classroom. We're going to be looking at why your nervous system speaks louder than your words and how to stay anchored when the classroom environment feels a little bit chaotic. Lisa, welcome.

Lisa: I am so glad to be here having this conversation with you. I love the fact that we're able to talk about energy and how it fits into a classroom environment and how to work with it. You know, it's really practical, exciting stuff. And I have to say for me personally, after spending 20 years in an early childhood classroom facing all of those imbalances, all of those crazy moments, all of those joyful ones too, you know, it's really great to be here with you to have this conversation.

Debbie: It's very exciting to have you too. Would you like to just give us a little bit of introduction about who you are and what you do?

Lisa: Absolutely. Like I said, I spent 20 years in the trenches of education, and about, I guess it was almost 15 years ago now, I made the decision after building a social-emotional learning curriculum in my preschool founded in mindfulness practices and behavioural health strategies—I decided to take that and apply it more globally. So I built a non-profit so that I could go into schools and communities around the country, around the world, and share these tools for social-emotional education.

So it's, it's been really, really so rich and beautiful to be able to make my work the study of the neuroscience of relationships and support academic performance in a really unique, holistic way.

Debbie: How amazing. Let's have a wee look at a little scenario, and then you can share with us some techniques and things that would be helpful to teachers. I know we all have that time of the afternoon when it's after lunch and possibly the students have had a bit of a wet lunchtime, so they might be stuck inside. So they haven't been able to let out that energy. The energy in the classroom is a little bit frantic.

There are some kids maybe fighting over a textbook, or someone's tapping a ruler – a lot of things going on, right? And the poor teacher starts to feel their chest tighten up a little bit, and they're wanting to maybe shout or pitch their voice a little bit louder than they should. What kind of tools would you use to help that teacher to just refocus and calm down in that situation?

Lisa: Oh, that's such a great question. And I have to say, as you were describing that scenario, I was feeling it in my own body, my chest, a lot.

Debbie: Don't we.

Lisa: Right. My chest was tightening and my skin was getting sweaty, just considering the scenario because we've all been there. And so true. You know, we bring this frenetic energy into our classrooms.

And so outside there's more room for it to move. But then we actually try to funnel it into this small, overcrowded space. And we're surprised when it feels so enormous, and it does affect us physiologically. And that's what you were describing: your nervous system. You know, your nervous system was responding to what you were interpreting in this space around you. And, as a teacher, you know, you're very attuned to your students' needs. And whether you realise it or not, you're playing off of their energetic state.

And so you bring the students in. There's that freneticism. Your nervous system goes, Oh, wait, we're not a match. And so you can do one of two things. You can join the freneticism—you can join that chaos and shout or scream or tense up or shut down—or you can, as the adult in the classroom, say, Whoa, I'm really feeling this. Let me help my students regulate. And by saying that, I'm helping myself first, which is super important, because if I'm not stable, then they're not going to be able to neutralise.

Debbie: Right.

Lisa: I am. I'm setting a tone. And so one of the things, one of the first things I would do in that situation, is feel my feet.

Debbie: On the floor, grounding.

Lisa: Right. Ground down, feel my feet and maybe even stomp my feet a little. Because the temptation is to immediately insist on calm in myself or in my students. The reality is the energy is up here. So when the energy is up here, when we're all so big, I'm going to need to meet the big and help it come down.

I can't resist the big one. And you know, I've said this before, you know, in lots of classrooms, the last thing I can do is come in and say, "Calm down, get in your seats." I hear teachers say that a lot. "Sit down." Well, if they're wiggly, asking them to sit down isn't going to work. So instead, in that freneticism, I'm going to start to feel my feet, and I may even invite my students: "Stomp your feet. Stomp your feet. Shake your body. Let's shake. Shake your body." And then as we're shaking, we're filling into that energy, but they're focused on me, so now I've got their attention. So instead of their energy guiding me, my energy is guiding them.

We're still big. We're shaking. We're stomping our feet. And then, plant your feet. Freeze. Reach your arms out to the sides. Take a big breath in. Fill up like a balloon. As you breathe out, bring your hands down the middle. So let's try that together. Let's try that. So take your arms out to the side. Point your hands up. Now imagine you're a balloon and you're filling it up. As you breathe in, your arms come up overhead. You can even look up to your fingers. And as you breathe out, your hands come right down the middle. Nice. Let's do that two more times. Big breath in. Reach the arms up overhead. As you exhale, the hands come right down in front of your heart. One more time. Big breath in and breathe it out. Now, in doing that, you may have noticed a little shift. What did you feel?

Debbie: A lot calmer. Yeah. And centred as well. It brought me back to myself. Yeah.

Lisa: So when you bring your hands together like this in front of you, you immediately are providing the opportunity for the left and right hemispheres of the body and the mind to come together.

Debbie: Wow.

Lisa: You're also mimicking the path of the nervous system that runs from the base of your skull, down through your jaw, down through your neck and in towards your belly. And your vagus nerve runs up and down the column of your internal centre. And in the vagus nerve is where we find the control of the sympathetic side, which is the activating, and the parasympathetic, which is the calming. So when we reach up, we're activating, activating. When we calm down, we're calming. So in 20 seconds, we went from very frenetic to very centred. It's so simple, but so powerful.

Debbie: Yeah. What did you call that technique?

Lisa: So I call it balloon breath, because the idea is you're filling your torso like a balloon, and that balloon is rising, rising, rising. And then you imagine the—like the hole in the balloon letting it out, and it's emptying. And in fact, I will share with you another option on it. When you have high energy, to meet that high energy, sometimes stomping your feet and shaking isn't enough. So you say, "okay, let's fill up like a balloon and pop the balloon."

Debbie: Ah, that's cool, right?

Lisa: So fill up and pop and make your balloon go... shhh! Yeah, feel how that feels. Something I can do. Also, if my class is feeling really low, really tired—you know, we just finished an activity, and they've been really focused on something, and they've been sitting for a while, and they're all kind of heavy. And if I say fill up your balloon, pop it, make a swishy sound... The best thing is if I make a sound, I'm inviting movement of the breath. And movement of the breath is the quickest way to access the nervous system.

So if we pop and we say shhh, then I'm creating a flow of the breath, I'm activating the nervous system, and I can use that simple balloon breath to raise the energy or lower it or raise and lower and go back and forth. And that balloon breath becomes my transition piece. So I know that one of the crucial places in classrooms—and one of the reasons coming from that rainy outdoor recess time to the classroom is so hard—is the transition.

Transitions are unsettling. We know as adults, even when we understand where we're headed, the transition is the stressful part. And so if we can plant an anchor in the transition time, if we can use that balloon breath when we're standing outside in the rain before we get ready to go: Take a balloon breath; hold on to that balloon; hold it in your hands gently. Let's bring it into the classroom. And then we get to the classroom and we do another balloon breath. So it's a signal of beginning and end.. And it's an anchor for us in feeling safety. When we feel safe, we feel balanced in the nervous system. We know we have access to the calming and activating sites of our nervous system. And then we can do this on our own. So that takes us from co-regulated to self-regulated.

Debbie: I love it. You've written a book. Would you like to share a little bit more about what your book includes?

Lisa: The book includes balloon breath.

Debbie: Very good. And lots of other techniques. I imagine it does.

Lisa: You know, I spent a long time writing the book because I wanted to make sure I could package it in the most useful way. And the book is entitled Creating Calm in Your Classroom. And because I had roots in the early childhood classroom, I focused it on reaching those young learners. But I will say I wrote it in a way that applies to every person, every child, every adult, and outside of the classroom. It can be used in the home; it can be used in an office.

But what I've done is in the front part of the book is a really simple dive into the neuroscience. What am I talking about when I say activation and calming? What am I talking about in the physiology of what's happening in the stress response? And then from there, we go to this concept of regulation—knowing the high energy and the low energy, being able to float the energy, and knowing that when we can practise in a calm state, playfully and outside of the stressful conditions, then we can access those same tools under pressure.

And the book divides the activities into six types of activities, based on whether you want to raise energy, keep it the same, or lower it, whether you want to do balancing and focus, or whether you want to do calming and rest. And so there's a combination of movement, breathing, and mindfulness exercises. I think it is really important that we practise stillness, that we practise rest. So we have this balance of practising movement and practising stillness. And very often the movement helps us to become more balanced, to come into a restful state. The restful state opens us to the stillness and the capacity to be mindful. And having all of those elements scattered throughout the school day gives this really rich platform for us to feel resilient and healthy and joyful and efficient. We can get a lot done when our nervous systems are balanced.

Debbie: That's so true. A lot more. So there was another concept you were talking to me before about: holding on to your centre. Would you like to share a little bit more about that?

Lisa: Yeah. You know, and again, it comes back to knowing your energetic state. And so often... Example: In the beginning of the day, I arrive to my classroom, and I've already had exchanges with family members. I've had a commute. I didn't get the breakfast I wanted to get or whatever it was. I bring stuff with me. And I, as the holder of the classroom space, can create a lot of difference if I pause at the door and centre myself. So I...

Debbie: We did at the start.

Lisa: Yes. I feel my feet on the ground. I lengthen my spine. I allow my body to become centred and present. Sometimes I even put my hands over my heart and feel my heartbeat. I feel my aliveness. And I remind myself of my capacity to bring joy, to bring focus, to bring ease and steadiness, to offer safety to my students and myself. And when I do that and I walk into the room, there's such a shift.

I used to... At my school, we had babies. And I would walk past a room of babies crying and teachers yelling, and, you know, everybody's frenetic. And I would stand outside of that classroom, and I would take three breaths, and I would walk in, and just as I walked in the door, I would take another big, full breath. I didn't say a word. I never said a sound. And as I took that breath, the babies were the first ones to pick up on the vibration. The babies would start to feel it, and some of them would actually literally turn and look at me because this shift came in the door. And then they would start to settle. And the teachers, you'd watch their shoulders relax, and everybody would start to breathe and relax together.

And when I recognise that power we have to create those shifts and how interconnected we all really are, I realise that I don't have to hold on to any feeling really long, good or bad. I don't have to label anything good or bad. I can just come back to this space of neutral. And it's such a relief, such a relief. I don't need to wait for someone else to give me permission or to ask me to. I don't need to get external validation. I can find it on the inside, and I can know the power I have to create those ripples of change.

You know, we talked a little bit earlier about something called Indra's Net. And it's this beautiful analogy of the sense of interconnection. And the analogy is that we are each jewels among this beautiful net that's woven to include nature, to include the elements, to include each of us. And when one of us comes back to centre, when one of us reconnects with our sparkle, that sparkle ripples through. And so when we feel like we can't make a difference, when we feel so small and lost in our sense of safety and confidence, we just need to remember that our sparkle can make a huge difference. And it's as simple as a breath.

Debbie: Isn't that great? And then what we were talking about before: you have your sparkle, I have mine. And slowly the sparkles expand. It's really cool how we can all do our little part to really make that difference.

Lisa: I love that. I have this visualisation of, like, you know, you sticking your elbow out, like, when you sparkle. Like, your elbow leans over into me and goes, "Hey, turn your sparkle on." And then, you know, the next one goes, "Hey, I see your sparkle," you know, and... and we just, like, poke each other. You know, little lights pop up.

Debbie: Yeah, it's so cool.

Lisa: None of them are the same, right? They're all different colours and shapes. And that's the other thing that I think is really important to remember: that we do each sparkle differently. And from a real practical standpoint, none of us are wired the same—physiologically, emotionally, mentally. So each of us is going to do our thing our own way. So even that balloon breath, it might not look the same for everyone. Some folks might not like the arms moving. Some folks really might feel it that way. So recognising that it's not what it looks like, it's what it feels like. And the more we feel into our natural centred state, the more we sparkle in our own way. And that is what lights the world.

Debbie: That's incredible. Before we have a look at the concept of one true listening, which I talked about with you previously, and I'd love for you to expand a bit more on that, are there any other tips or things that you think might be quite helpful for in the classroom with students?

Lisa: I go into classrooms an awful lot. I do extensive trainings, and then I do a lot of one-on-one mentorship. And I think what has helped the teachers I work with most is to... to look at their daily routine and what seems to be a space that is challenging for them. And it could be their own personal energy level. It could be students, you know, having difficulty with a subject area or a moment. But to identify some of those places, and instead of dwelling on the challenge or what the hold-up is, look for tools like in the book—look for tools that are going to allow a quick reset or support that space.

And I have some teachers who, as they have their morning meeting, their gathering, will work in a breathing or a movement sequence so that we're practising the tools outside of that challenging time. And then we can revisit that later on. One of the really neat things that I've helped a lot of teachers put together, and I've done some really powerful workshops on, is instead of having class rules that govern our sense of community, we have class agreements. And the agreements come with a movement and a sound. Okay, an affirmation or a word that helps us very quickly remember that sense of connection, that community.

So they'll start with the class agreements at the beginning of the day, but then we can come back and revisit them. So, for example, in the classes that I lead with children, when I'm teaching yoga or other regulation sessions, one of them is to reach their arms out and stretch them out. This is helping to open up the body for breath. And then imagine you're gathering up as much love and goodness and positivity and respect as you can and wrap it around yourself and squeezing it into the inside of you and loving and respecting yourself. Now spread that out to everybody else. Take a big breath in as you breathe out. Love yourself, love everyone else.

And so we do that to not only feel into the body—there's this nice fluid movement of the spine and movement of the breath—but it's also a reminder to be kind to ourselves and to be kind to each other. And then I can take this symbol into the whole day. So when we come back from recess and it's been rainy and we're all out of sorts, I may do a little movement and then take a balloon breath. And as we come down, you know, let's be kind. Let's take a moment to remember kindness. And we settle in, and those affirmations start to replace the negative talk. And then I scatter those throughout the day—maybe before we get ready to do maths or reading or a challenging exercise, we do some movement and get focused. And then afterwards, we do a movement to release. So I try to find those points in the day.

Debbie: Great. So you're talking about workshops. I know that you're in the States and we're in New Zealand, but if other people around the world would like to get an online workshop with you, how would they go about doing that?

Lisa: Thank you for asking. The easiest way is to either go to the website or email me. The website is www.createcalm.org, and my email address is Lisa@createcalm.org.

Debbie: And what about the book? Where could we buy that?

Lisa: You can buy the book on Amazon, or you can also buy it directly through my publisher at Balboa. And I can provide a link. If you Google it, you should be able to find it through Balboa Press or through Amazon.

Debbie: Okay, perfect. And we'll also put a link on...

Lisa: You can find it on my website, too.

Debbie: We've covered a few options. And what about this one true listening that we got to talk about last time? The pressures of being a teacher and the reports and the marking and everything – how can they really use that to hear and support one another's nervous systems?

Lisa: Yeah. So I think just like in the classroom, we need to practise some of these tools when we're not in the unregulated state. So being able to establish rituals, set aside times, and build routines that, as the teacher, allow me to check in with myself allows me to... to tap back into my inner knowing. We're all very externally focused, and children are the least shielded from their, you know, external experiences and quickest to get back into their internal knowing. But we as adults kind of layer it on and we get thick-skinned, and we sometimes think that the external experience is more important.

Being able to take a few breaths to ground yourself or to move really big and then come back and take a moment to really listen... And I think one of my favourite exercises, especially at the end of the day, is to move a little and then sit and engage my five senses. And I ask myself, what do I hear right now? And I just listen. And what do I hear on the outside? What do I hear on the inside? And then what do I see? What do I feel? And then from there, I tune into my breath, and I feel my breath coming in and out of my body, and I drop into that space of internal knowing, and I take a moment to hear, 'What is my need, what is my longing?' ' You know, how can I tune in to what I need so that I can be in a space of receptive learning?' Connection before instruction, and that's connection before engagement, right beyond the classroom.

So if I can take that moment to connect—and it does take practice, and I think I have to make it important that I feel that I have that practice—then if I can do that myself and stay connected to my internal knowing, then I come in more attuned to my students each day and I can help them practise these tools. And what I find is... okay, this is a little bit of a confession. When I do these tools and teach them to the students, I'm getting the advantage every time.

Debbie: Sure.

Lisa: So it's very selfish that I do this in the classrooms, because it makes me happy; it makes me feel better. I can't tell you how many times I've stood in front of a class and said, "Hold on, I need a balloon breath. Wait a minute, I'm losing it. I, I'm not feeling part of this community the way I need to, so I'm going to take some balloon breaths. If you want, you can come along with me, you know, but I'm finding that I am so much more joyful and balanced and able to hang in there.

And you know, I... in a lot of the trainings I've done, there's this one method that I've developed with a colleague called artful movement. And we do this practice of slow looking and moving. And every year we invite some teachers to come to a training in D.C. We do it at a museum. And every year there's at least one teacher who says, "I wasn't going to renew my contract, and now I am." Because they find that their essence is joyful. Their essence is still intact when they connect, when they truly listen and give themselves space to process and allow the instability, allow the chaos, and know that I'm okay on the inside anyway, me. That's... that's the real work. The real work is in developing ourselves.

Debbie: It's such a powerful reminder to know that keeping calm is contagious. And I think, also so important for teachers these days that are getting stressed and burnt out to know these techniques that they can use to help in the classroom but also help themselves.

Lisa: Yeah. What they are doing is literally moulding lives and forging our future. I just got chills. I mean, the power, the power in teaching and the courage that they have to... to go out and do that work every day. Teachers, I am so, so impressed and inspired by you every day. You know, don't give up. You know, feel into your gifts and know that you are making a difference. And just every breath you take is sealing and adding to that sparkle. So love yourself, please.

Debbie: So important. And I love that your techniques and strategies are so simple, because I feel like some days with teachers, there's already so much going on, and to add more, learning all this new stuff, it's just overwhelming. Whereas with your strategies, it's really 2 seconds here and 30 seconds here or a minute here. And it's something that you can add slowly to your routine and build up.

Lisa: Yeah. If you take one thing away from this today, practise that balloon breath. Practise it on your own. Practise it with the kids. Feel your feet, open your heart, you know, relax your face, and just take that breath.

Debbie: And I think if any of this resonated with the teachers out there today, definitely get in touch with Lisa. She's got a great book and some amazing resources and is keen to do more workshops with teachers everywhere. She'll make it happen for you.

Lisa: To even come visit you all there.

Debbie: So my goodness, how cool would that be? You could do a little road roadtrip.

Lisa: It would be amazing. Yeah, let's keep that energy out there because I would love to make that happen.

Debbie: That's great. All right, well, I think that's a lovely place to finish today, but we might have to get you back in sometime to be able to share some more knowledge and wisdom with us because I know that the teachers and also I have learnt so much today, and I really appreciate your time and wanting to share some amazing things with us. Lisa, thank you. I appreciate you, and it's been a wonderful, wonderful visit. Thank you.

Lisa: Thank you.

Debbie: Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to hit the subscribe button. Leave a review, why don't you, and share it with your fellow educators. Let's keep these important conversations going. For more information, follow us at Nurturing Educators on Facebook and Instagram.

*Please note that this transcript was automatically generated using AI, so it may contain occasional spelling or other errors.