Good morning! Let’s tighten all of our body up tight, and then twirl it loose.
Good morning! Let’s tighten all of our body up tight, and then twirl it loose.
* You can learn more about Taes Leavitt and her work by visiting bigheartjourney.com.
And you can write to Taes or record a voicemail and send it to listen@akidsco.com. We would love so much to hear about your day or the ways you say goodnight.
GMGN
S1E27, MORNING Tighten and Twirl
[INTRODUCTION]
Taes: Good morning. My name is Taes and I want to welcome you to today.
Can you wave your hand and say, “Good morning, day.”
Can you put your hands on your heart and say, “Good morning, heart.”
And I want to say good morning to you.
I just love getting to start today with you as we check in, as we wake up our bodies, and as we think about what is in store for us today.
Are you ready to start off our morning? Great!
So let's get started with our activity.
[TIGHTEN AND TWIRL]
Taes: Today I'm going to show you something that I like to call “The Tighten and Twirl”. And Tighten and Twir is something that you can use when you're having really big feelings.
And you wanna try to move that feeling to a different feeling, Tighten and Twirl is a really good way to come out of your head and into your body. I thought it would be a really good way for us to start the day.
So here is how Tighten and Twirl works. First, can you hold up one hand? And can you squeeze that hand into a fist? This is the tighten part. Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. And then… twirl. Just twirl that wrist and relax it as you twirl it.
Okay, that was good.
Now can you pick a finger, maybe just pick your index finger and you're gonna tighten it, tighten it, tighten it and twirl. Good.
Tighten and Twirl helps us focus on specific parts of our body and tightening them, and then relaxing them, increases our relaxation levels, which is what we wanna do when we're in the middle of a big feeling moment.
So let's try it now with your face. Are you ready? Okay.
I want you to tighten up your whole entire face. Squish your nose. Squish your eyeballs. Make them nice and smalls squish your mouth. Squish your face. Tighten, tighten, tighten, tighten, and twirl.
Now just relax. Twirl your head around. There you go.
And notice the difference between when you tighten and when you twirl. How does it feel when you twirl? A little more relaxed. Good.
Okay. Now we're gonna try it with our whole entire body. So starting at the top of your head, can you tighten your face? Tighten your shoulders, tighten your arms, tighten your hands, tighten your middle. Tighten your legs. Tighten your knees. Tighten your calves. Tighten your feet. Tighten, tighten, tighten, tighten and… Twirl.
Can you just twirl all of your body around twirl, your wrist, twirl, your head, twirl, your hips, twirl, your legs. Can you twirl your whole body in circles and just notice how relaxed you feel when you twirl.
Now Tighten and Twirl is something that you can do in a big way with your whole body, or it's something that you can do when you're just sitting still. So if you're in class and you feel a big feeling, Tighten and Twirl can help bring you back to your heart.
You can try Tighten and Twirl with your tiniest little toe and it will work.
So, I hope that you have the best, big heart day you can tighten and twirl all day long. And I can't wait to see you here tonight.
[CLOSING]
Taes: I'm so excited for you and for your day.
And I want to say thank you so much for starting today with me and for setting yourself up for a big heart kind of day.
I can't wait to see you tonight and hear about all of the things that you did.
Remember: there is nobody in the whole world with a heart, just like yours.
I love you. And I love your big heart so much.