Maybe your mind just needs to relax.

Advocate Gail Kolbeck talked about yoga and mindfulness at Monday’s District 186 board meeting.

“I’m a certified mindfulness instructor,” Kolbeck told the board, “and, unfortunately, in my role I don’t have the capability to be in the classrooms, side by side, all the time, and the beauty of this model is that the instructor is in the classroom not only instructing the students, but providing that embedded professional development.”

Superintendent Jennifer Gill describes the genesis of the idea:

“It really was coming from a good place in our heart with good intent: how can we bring something to our students that might help them deal with some of the trauma that they face; the anxiety that they have – and how do you handle when you feel like you want to have an emotional outburst? What are some strategies you can use to calm yourself and help you feel supported in the classroom?”

It’s possible there will be a pilot program for yoga and mindfulness to come to some schools. But it’s not a “stretch” to say board members did not rush to support it.

Board member Buffy Lael-Wolf said it’s not as if teachers are clamoring for a yoga / mindfulness program. And board vice president Micah Miller said the feedback he has gotten has been almost all negative.

Gill said she expected the subject to come up again Feb. 21