MULTIMEDIA-ENGLISH

In this short, we hear from children who have already learned a life-changing lesson - taking a deep breath can change your whole world. Talking about what happens in their minds when they get angry, the children in the video explain how it's easy to feel out of control.

The video titled, What Children Can Teach Us About Anger, is described as showing that 'you're never too old, or too young, to discover mindfulness and let anger go'.

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The inspiration for “Just Breathe” first came about a little over a year ago when I overheard my then 5-year-old son talking with his friend about how emotions affect different regions of the brain, and how to calm down by taking deep breaths — all things they were beginning to learn in Kindergarten at their new school, Citizens of the World Charter School, in Mar Vista, CA. I was surprised and overjoyed to witness first-hand just how significant social-emotional learning in an elementary school curriculum was on these young minds. The following year, I decided to take a 6-week online course on Mindfulness through Mindful Schools, figuring that if my son was learning about this, it only made sense that I should learn too. Within the first week, I felt the positive effects of this practice take root not only on my own being but in my relationships with others.

As a filmmaker, I am always interested in finding a subject worthy of filming, and I felt strongly that Mindfulness was a necessary concept to communicate visually. Thankfully my husband, who happens to be my filmmaking partner, agreed. We made “Just Breathe” with our son, his classmates and their family members one Saturday afternoon. The film is entirely unscripted – what the kids say is based purely on their own neuro-scientific understanding of difficult emotions, and how they cope through breathing and meditation. They, in turn, are teaching us all ...

 

I get really mad when my brother hits me a lot.

I don't like it when you say you don't wanna play with me.

When I'm mad, my brain can get a headache and it can start hurting.

Your blood keeps pumping because you're like really mad. And you start to get sweaty because you're getting really, really mad. And then when you start getting really mad, you turn red.

When your body can't really control yourself, mad just takes over your body.

I just get out of control.

It's kind of like if you had a jar and then the jar would be your brain, and then you put glitter in the jar and that would be how you would feel like. If you shook up the jar and the glitter went everywhere, that would be how your mind looks. And it's like spinning around, and then you don't have any time to think.

And you sometimes punch stuff and people, when you don't really mean it.

When I get angry, I feel it in my heart.

I really don't like when I get angry.

The amygdala really reacts but the prefrontal cortex tries to keep it down.

When I like feel like I wanna, you know, get really angry and, yeah, I just like sometimes, you know, like take a deep breath.

Like, first, you find a place where you can be alone. Then you find some way to relax and calm down.

When I need to calm down, I take deep breaths.

I breathe in through my nose.

Sometimes I close my eyes or just take deep breaths.

It's like it's calming down. It's, like, not, like, moving. It's like slowing down and then it stops. And the heart pumps slow, and then it goes into your brain.

It's like all the sparkles are at the bottom of your brain.

My brain like slows down and then like I feel more calm, and then I'm like ready to speak to that person.

Notice the extensive use of the word LIKE meaning "more or less", when we don't have the exact word or sentence to express something. Some people use it so much that very often it means nothing at all. When LIKE is used in this way, we have written it in italics, to distinguish it from the verb TO LIKE or the comparative preposition LIKE or the comparative conjunction LIKE (= as if).

MAD (AmE) = Angry (BrE) (in BrE MAD means the same as CRAZY).

WANNA= (coll.) Want to.

BLOOD= /blʌd/ The red liquid running through our veins, inside our body.

PUMPING= Your heart pumps your blood around your body to keep you alive.

SWEATY= /swetɪ/ Covered in sweat. Sweat is a liquid your skin produces to cool your body down when you are hot.

MAD= (incorrect) Here MAD is used as a noun. It should be MADNESS.

TAKES OVER= If someone or something takes over, it starts controlling the place, person or situation.

KIND OF=(coll.) More or less, not exactly but similar. This phrase is used to signal that you can't find the exact expression but you're trying.

LIKE IF= (coll.) The sentence is: "It is like if you had a jar...". It is more correct to say AS IF (it's as if you had a jar...).

JAR= A small glass container (see picture)

BRAIN= The grey mass inside your head you use for thinking.

GLITTER= Little sparkling bits used for decorating crafts and also in make-up (see picture)

PUNCH= Hit using your fists (like in boxing)

STUFF= (coll.) Things.

MEAN= If you don't mean something, you don't have the intention of doing it, or you did it (or said it) but it was not intentional, it was an accident or an uncontrolled impulse.

AMYGDALA= A primitive part of the brain, at the back of our head, (also found in reptiles) which is responsible for irrational reactions like anger and fear.

PREFRONTAL CORTEX= A modern part of the brain, in front, you can use for rational thinking.

KEEP IT DOWN= If you keep a strong emotion down, you try to control it and not to react after it.

YOU KNOW= This phrase is very commonly used in speech. It really means nothing at all, just a gap-filler.

BREATH= (noun) /breθ/ Every single act of breathing (see BREATHE next)

BREATHE= (verb) /bri:ð/ The act of taking air into your body through your mouth and/or nose.