Spirituality at DECS

North Star Academy

Stacey A. Pappas
Kaplan University 2015
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Employer Spirituality Plan

Introduction
What is spirituality?
Spirituality is what one believes it to be for them. For me, it is my inner spirit,
my strength, my kindness, my eagerness, and my love. Spirituality can be a
form of religion, but spirituality does not have to include religion.
Ones mind~body~spirit is to be consistent with the normal functioning of
their body as a whole.
When presented with things that strongly affect our minds one must find
healthy ways to deal with the situation. Allow yourself to heighten awareness,
feel, check in with those five senses, and find personal motivation.

Employer Spirituality Plan

Spirituality
We are living in a world full of stress. The pace in which it moves
is fast and furious. There are growing assumptions from all over
the globe that our living conditions and our consumerist
behaviors could ultimately eliminate natural resources and pollute
our planet. Although greed is certainly part of the human
landscape so is altruism. Under the worst situations and most
horrible conditions, countless people open their hearts and
extend a helping hand, often asking for nothing in return. Despite
shortcomings we can rise to any occasion we put our hearts and
minds to. A healthy human spirit, however, responds not only in
times of crisis but in all of lifes moments everyday (Seaward, 2013).

Employer Spirituality Plan

Mission Statement

Appreciate each students diverse character and interests

through an active approach to curriculum, programs, and
projects.
Provide a safe and accepting learning environment.
Offer an open door policy for families to consult with teachers
and Para Professionals.
Offer the opportunity for guardians to observe during class
instruction and with specialist.
Continued..

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Mission Statement Cont.

Offer incentive to students for their hard work and good behavior.
Including but not limited to: brain breaks, movement breaks,
blowing bubbles, use of iPods, and chrome books.
Sustain a philosophy of teaching with these core principles:
compassion, courage, hope, integrity, growth, justice, respect,
responsibility, and wisdom.
Uphold the professional innovation, creativity, and collegiality of
exceptional staff.
Require sound and responsible business and operational
management practices. ~

Employer Spirituality Plan

Five Muscles of the Soul

Stress Coping

Humor
Forgiveness
Intuition
Humbleness
Creativity
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Humor~ Keep the kids smiling and maintain a positive flowing

environment. When things get intense step back and connect
with a funny story or a YouTube clip.
Forgiveness~ Students must apologize for their actions. We often
use a peace path to teach basic steps to resolution. With our non-verbal
students we may use pictures or drawings to help express their feelings
of forgiveness and understanding. We do not want students to harbor their
feelings.
Intuition~ We say go with your gut. If it feels wrong tell someone.
If you see something that does not seem right, tell someone. We want the
students to trust their instincts and recognize their inner abilities to channel
them.
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Humbleness~ We strive for each student to feel dignified

in who they are. Special Ed rooms can bring on new challenges daily.
Yet each disability in our room is equally important. We empower
our students to become comfortable in their own skin regardless
of how a child alike behaves today or yesterday. A student
shall not feel inferior or lower in rank due to another students
disability.
Creativity~ With the use of the art room we can paint, draw, color,
use molding clay, and make greeting cards during the holidays.
In our room we have a corner for dramatic play and dress up. We
also have creative binders catered to each individual student.
Examples are: charts to climb the latter and earn breaks in the day or use
of visuals to create daily schedules for the student to follow and stay on task.
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Employer Spirituality Plan

Two Spiritual Activities

for Our Staf
Chair
Meditation

Opening and
Nurturing the
chakra

Employer Spirituality Plan

Chair Meditation
Step One: Find a quiet location. You will want as few distractions
as possible.
Step Two: Find a specific and comfortable position. Make sure
your feet are touching the ground.
Step Three: Find your focus of attention. Examples to try are: a
mantra or chant in your mind, an object, or your breath.
Step Four: Have an open attitude. Let the thoughts come and go
without judgment. This step is very important because one is
learning how to experience thoughts and emotions during normal
daily life with greater balance and acceptance.

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Chair Meditation Cont..

Step Five: Now, relax. Give yourself 10 minutes to start out. As you become
better with your breathing increase your meditation periods. 20 minutes is a nice
goal to hit.
Step Six: Inhale slowly through your nose, counting in your mind 1-2-3-4, filling
your belly with air. No chest breathing, all belly.
Step Seven: Exhale slowly out of your mouth, counting your mind 1-2-3-4,
flattening the belly back out. Try to double the length of your exhale. If one
inhales for 4 counts, one should focus on exhaling for 8 counts.
Step Eight: Keeping your eyes closed unless checking the time.
Steps nine: When finished sit quietly for a few minutes, now you can
slowly open your eyes.

Step 10: Do not worry if you were successful at mediation. Just

remain a positive attitude.
Step 11: Repeat and Enjoy

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Chair Meditation Resources

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgO6erMHHS0

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Nutrition for your Chakra

Step One: Find somewhere quiet with little to no distraction.
Step Two: Start with the root chakra and follow the chakras from
there.
Step Three: Hear your thoughts but let them pass. Do not judge
your thoughts or feelings.
Step Four: Remember that although we are opening your
chakras, there is no need to try and make over-active chakras
less active.
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Root Chakra - Red

Step Five: Open the Root Chakra/Red/Area of the Anus and genitals.
This chakra focuses on being physically aware and comfortable.
Ground yourself by standing up straight and relaxed, keep the feet
shoulder width apart, and slightly bend the knees. Move the pelvis
forward a bit, and keep the body balanced, distributing weight evenly
over the soles of your feet. Stay in this position for several minutes.
Sit down with legs crisscrossed. Bring your index finger and thumb
together, rubbing them gently in a circular motion.
As you continue to regulate your breaths, silently chant the sound
LAM. Think about the chakra and what it means to you. Visualize a
closed red flower. Imagine a powerful energy radiating the flower as it
slowly opens revealing all the red petals.
If ones Root Chakra is well balanced their whole body is sensible,
stable, and secure. You are well connected to the body. If this chakra
is under-active you tend to be nervous and fearful. If this chakra is
over-active one tends to be materialistic and greedy.

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Root Chakra - Red

Tips to strengthen the Root Chakra: Yoga, walking, manual house

cleaning. These activities let your body be known to you and strengthen
the chakra.
Eat red foods to feed this chakra. Tomato, red apple, cherries,
strawberries, rose hips, whole wheat

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Sacral Chakra Orange

Step Six: Open the Sacral Chakra/Orange/Low Back. This chakra deals
with feeling and sexuality.
Sit on your knees, with your back straight, but relaxed. Lay your hands in
your lap, palms up, and on top of each other. Left hand underneath, the
palm touching the back fingers of the right hand, and the thumbs
touching gently.
Concentrate on the sacral chakra/low back and what it means to you.
Silently chant the sound VAM. Let yourself relax and continue to think
about what this chakra means to you.
When completely relaxed one should feel refreshed, purified, or clean
again.
Foods to eat: Oranges, orange bell pepper, carrots, peaches, almonds,
papaya, Kumquat.

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Naval Chakra - Yellow

Step Seven: Open the naval chakra. This is your naval/waist. Welcome
this chakra involving confidence, especially when in a group. When this
chakra is open one should feel in control and feel self dignity. If underactive you tend to be passive and indecisive. If it is over-active one can
become aggressive and imperious.
Sit on the knees, with the back straight, but relaxed.
Put your hands before your stomach, slightly below your waist line. Join
the fingers at the tops, pointing away from the body. Cross the thumbs
and straighten the fingers. This is important!
Concentrate on the naval chakra and what it means to you. Silently,
chant RAM. Repeat. And relax to having a sense of clean.
Eat banana, bamboo shoots, cinnamon, corn, yellow zucchini, lemons.

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Heart Chakra - Green

Step eight: Open the Heart Chakra. This your chest bone and
across. The heart chakra is about love, caring, and
endearment. Invite this chakra to open. When balanced one
is compassionate, friendly, and working well in amicable
relationships. If under-active one tends to be cold and
unfriendly. When over-active one can give so much love to
the receiver that they feel they are suffocating.
Sit cross legged. Let the tips of the fingers and thumbs touch
on both hands. Place the left hand on the left knee and your
right hand in front of the lower part of your breastbone.
Silently chant YAM. Remember to think about what this
chakra means to you. Continue until you feel relaxed and
clean.
Eat Broccoli, Kale, avocado, jalapenos, alfalfa, honeydew.

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Throat Chakra Blue

Step Nine: Open the Throat Chakra. This chakra is our selfexpression and communication you express yourself easy and art is
enjoyable. If it is under-active you tend not to speak much or your shy.
When over-active one tends to speak so much that it annoys people.
One can also be a bad listener.
Sit on the knees. Cross your fingers on the inside of your hands, without
the thumb interlacing. Then let the thumbs touch and pull them apart a
bit.
Again, concentrate on the chakra and relax till clean.
Eat Purple broccoli, cauliflower, blueberry, blue corn, kelp.

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Third Eye Chakra - Indigo

Step 10: Open the third eye chakra. This is the point a little above the
center of the two eyebrows. This chakra deals with insight. One will have
excellent clairvoyance and dreams a lot. If it is under-active you tend to
look for other peoples approval of you. This makes you confused. If overactive one tends to live in a world of imagination all day in extremes. One
could suffer from constant day dreaming and possibly hallucinations.
Sit crossed legged. Put your hands in front of the lower part of the breast.
The middle fingers should be straight and touch the tops, pointing away
from the body. The other fingers are bent and touch at the two upper
fingers touch. The thumbs point towards you and meet at the tops.
Silently chant OM or AUM. Relax your body. This should be becoming
easier.
How does this chakra affect your life? Relax until you feel clean again.
Eat black beans, black cherries, black olives, plums, boysenberries.

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Crown Chakra - Purple

Step 11: Open the Crown Chakra. This is the top of your head. This is
the most spiritual chakra. This chakra encircles our being with the
universe and our wisdom. When this chakra is open prejudice disappears
and one is more aware of the world and how they connect to it. When the
chakra is under-active one tends not be very spiritual and can be quit
rigid in their thoughts. When the chakra is over-active one tends to
intellectualize things all the time. One may even ignore their bodies
needs for food, water, or shelter.
Sit cross-legged. Lay your hand before your stomach. Let the fingers
point up and away from the body, touching at their tops, and cross the
rest of the fingers with the thumb underneath the right.
Relax, concentrate on what this chakra means to you. Silently chant
NG. This is a tough one. Your mind should come to complete peace.
This chakra takes the longest, however do not do this for more than 10
minutes.
Get your root chakra in balance before trying to clean your crown chakra.
Eat tofu, coconut, white corn, buckwheat, garlic, mushrooms, turnip.

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Summary
Thank you for you time and open mindnes today. I hope
everyone recognizes that our mission is to teach and
protect the students while staying relaxed and provoding
an open door to our families. Everyone is welcome and
everyone belongs here.
Teachers and Staf need time to decompress and
recharge. Try these two relaxation exercises and you will
feel better connected to yourself and your students.
Any Questions and you can contact me at 218-000-0000

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References

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Benson, H. (2000). The relaxation response (pp. 162-163).

Feldman, C. (2014, January 1). Sufering is optional. Retrieved April 6,

2015, from http://www.yogajournal.com/article/practice-section/suferingis-optional/

How to open your chakras. (2014, January 1). Retrieved April 8, 2015,
from http://www.wikihow.com/Open-Your-Spiritual-Chakras

Nine Steps to a successful nutrition challenge. (2009, January 1).

Retrieved April 3, 2015, from http://whole9life.com/2012/12/nine-stepsto-a-successful-nutrition-challenge-2/

Seaward, B. (2013). The call to spirit. In Health and human spirit:

Spiritual dimensions for personal health (2nd ed., p. 7). Burlington, MA:
Jones and Bartlett.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgO6erMHHS0

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