10 days’ Workshop of Yoga and Meditation for the Development of Balanced Teachers Personality
Development of teacher’s personality is an important issue. Personality starts developing since birth, but it assumes great importance during adolescence, when reorganization of personality takes place. Personality is a very common term which is used in our day-to-day life. It tells us what type of person one is. We know that each person generally behaves consistently in most of the situations. The examples of this consistency can be seen in a person who remains friendly or a person who is generally kind or helpful in most situations. Such a consistent pattern of behavior is termed as personality. It can be called as the sum total of behavior that includes attitudes, emotions, thoughts, habits and traits. This pattern of behavior is characteristic to an individual. There are various dimensions of personality. These dimensions are related to physical, emotional, intellectual, social and spiritual aspects of our behavior. For a holistic personality development, yoga plays an important role. Teaching is considered to be one of the most stressful professions chosen by many in India. Stress experienced by the teachers is steadily increasing due to many additional roles and requirements from the institute, boards of education, and universities etc. Depression, anxiety and somatoform disorders are known to occur among working teachers. Teaching is a tough job, with over 15 percent of teachers leaving their jobs every year due to burnout. Not only do teachers have to deal with occasionally difficult students, but they have to work long hours to correct papers and develop lesson plans on top of spending six-to-eight hours in the classroom every day. Even the happiest and most well-adjusted teachers working in the most low-key classrooms can feel like all of it is too much. This is where yoga and other meditation techniques can help. Taking a short meditation break during the day and attending regular yoga classes can help teachers greatly reduce their anxiety level and give them the energy they need to interact with their students. In Rizvi College of Education Yoga sessions are carried out throughout the year. These sessions are led by Mr. Gyanprakash Arya and Dr.Priyanka Pandey who are professionally trained Yoga practitioners. Yoga is for physical fitness but including this it is also for Mental and Inner peace. Yoga is also known for healing inner wounds of human beings and this for the reason RCOED organized stress management workshop for student-teachers is the workshop of yoga which was conducted over the period of 10 weeks.
First day of the session comprised of an orientation and warm up exercise. Orientation was the backbone of the session because it gave the student-teachers the real picture of what exactly the stress is and why it is important to manage it on a right time It also showed them that how one can handle them with asana. Simple to complex asanas like Tadasana, Trikonasana, Dhanurasana, Kapalbhati were taught to us along with their right form and importance. These asanas really help the student-teachers to manage their stress. These sessions were conducted by Dr. Priyanka Pandey and Dr. Gyanprakash Arya.
According to them yoga can also help teachers better cope with the physical demands of their jobs. Elementary school and high school teachers spend a lot of time on their feet, which can be hard on one’s body after several years. Other teachers such as those who work with very young children and those who work in physical education have even greater physical demands. Fortunately, a regular yoga regimen can increase flexibility and improve core strength while it reduces a teacher’s stress levels.
The Rizvi College of education introduced Yoga as value added course. In this course, practices of asana, pranayama, kriya and meditation have been included. The main emphasis of this workshop is to developing personality and managing stress among teachers trainer. Developing physical fitness, emotional stability, concentration and mental development of students have also been considered while conducting this workshop. Variation in techniques of yogic practices may exist. In this worksop, techniques which are commonly used are given. The benefits of doing these yogic activities has been mentioned. Some important do’s and don’ts including limitations which have to be kept in view while practicing these yogic practices have also been given.
