Welcome to A Breathing Classroom. In this short orientation, you'll learn how the course is structured, where to find your handbook and practical resources, and how to access the community and support available throughout your journey.

We break things down into simple, manageable parts so you never feel overwhelmed.

Today's classrooms are facing unprecedented challenges. Together we'll explore the changing educational landscape and why understanding the nervous system has never been more important.

What if education focused not only on what children learn, but on the conditions that make learning possible? This lesson explores a vision for education that places regulation, wellbeing and connection alongside academic success.

Before learning new strategies, take a moment to imagine the classroom you hope to create. This reflection will become your compass throughout the course.

Discover the foundations of the autonomic nervous system and how it quietly shapes behaviour, learning and relationships every day.

Learn to recognise the different survival states and begin understanding behaviour as communication rather than compliance.

Explore why breathing offers a unique pathway between body and mind, making it one of our most accessible tools for supporting regulation.

Learning is about far more than attention or intelligence. Explore the internal conditions that help children feel safe enough to engage, explore and learn.

Discover how nervous system development unfolds across childhood and what this means for the way children regulate, relate and respond.

Pause to reflect on your own classroom through this new lens, considering how understanding the nervous system may already be changing what you notice.

Understand how breathing works, why it matters, and how simple changes in breath can influence the entire body.

Explore how different breathing patterns influence attention, emotion, energy and nervous system regulation throughout the day.

Experience the power of observation by becoming curious about your own breathing patterns and what they reveal.

Our nervous systems are constantly influencing one another. Explore how resonance, empathy and co-regulation shape classroom relationships and why your own state is one of the most powerful tools you bring into the room.

Every challenging moment presents a choice. Learn how to recognise your own activation, create space before reacting, and respond with greater presence, flexibility and intention.

Supporting others begins with supporting yourself. Develop a practical self-regulation routine that helps you restore your own nervous system throughout the school day.

Effective breathing isn't about choosing the "right" technique, it's about knowing when, why and how to offer it. Discover the principles that underpin every breathing invitation in this course.

Before breathing can become a supportive classroom tool, it must first feel safe, familiar and meaningful. Learn how to introduce breathing to your class with confidence and curiosity.

Strong foundations create lasting habits. Explore how to establish routines, expectations and experiences that allow breathing to become a natural part of everyday classroom life.

Children engage with breathing differently as they grow. Discover how development influences the way breathing is introduced, experienced and supported across different ages.

Build your library of breathing invitations through a collection of practical, playful and purposeful activities designed to support a range of classroom needs and nervous system states.

Breathing becomes most effective when it is woven into everyday classroom life. Explore how regular routines create familiarity, safety and confidence before moments of challenge arise.

Learn how to thoughtfully respond to both the collective classroom and individual children using the principles you've developed throughout the course, offering breathing as a supportive invitation rather than a quick fix.

A Breathing Classroom doesn't stop at breathing techniques. Discover how to extend this approach into classroom culture, behaviour support, curriculum experiences and partnerships with families.

Take afew moments here, resting in the intimacy of your breath. How do you feel?

Try this anchoring practise and remember that you can return to it as many times as you need during the day and before the practises in this course.

As you listen to the guided practise, observe the vision for your classroom. Try to use all your senses and remember there is no right or wrong as you let your desires be seen.

As you listen to the guided practise, notice how you feel. Observing what changes as you bring awareness to your breath, to the way your breath moves through your body. As you open your eyes, notice what feels different now compared to before.

During this guided practise, you are invited to notice what brings you a felt sense of safety. As you notice the images or memories, try to connect with the felt sense of safety. How does your body tell you it feels safe? Practise this as many times as you can, in as many scenarios to help you resource throughout the day. You can write a list of things to draw on if that would he helpful or notice in each new moment.

As you are taken through this practise, start to bring awareness to the way your breath and body respond to each other? What happens within your body as you breathe, where do you feel the breath moving through? What parts of your body do you notice the breath?

A physiological sigh is a natural breathing pattern consisting of two quick inhales followed by a long, slow exhale. It is a quick way to lower stress in real time, fix oxygen levels, and calm your mind by reinflating air sacs, removing excess carbon dioxide and slowing heart rate. The long exhale signals your nervous system to switch off the fight-or-flight response and relax.

Try this heart breathing practise that focuses on connecting with the heart space and tuning into the Vibrational Energy of the Heart. The heart’s electromagnetic field radiates outside of the physical body, extending roughly 3 to 5 feet away. People can physically and subconsciously sense this field which explains why we can feel a stranger's kindness or tension without them saying a word.

As a teacher, you are taking on so much energy throughout the day that you might not be aware of. Try this practise throughout the day or just at the end of the day to clear out what you might be holding for others. Imagine releasing (hooking or shower) releasing the energy from the day or a particular interaction as you return to yourself.

Notice the space between your inhale and exhale and allow it to remind you that space exists between what you notice and the story your mind tells you. The moment of perspective may serve as a reminder that it’s not always a personal attack or a behavior problem so you’re able to see the exchange of (often) unspoken information more clearly in order to respond rather than react. Try this practise together and then use it on your own whenever you need.

A gentle morning practice inspired by the Ayurvedic tradition of greeting the day with awareness and intention. Using simple breath and body awareness, we pause before stepping into the demands of the day, noticing how we feel and consciously choosing how we want to arrive.

A simple practice inspired by Nāḍī Śodhana, using the breath to alternate gently between the left and right nostrils. This practice offers a moment to pause, rebalance and reset before moving into the rest of the day.

A structured breathing practice using four equal parts: inhale, hold, exhale and hold. The steady rhythm can offer a simple point of focus, helping to create a pause between what has happened and what comes next.

A gentle alternative to breath retention, where the exhale is slightly longer than the inhale. By slowing and lengthening the outward breath without force, this practice creates space to soften, settle and return to a steadier rhythm.

As a teacher, you have the privilege and responsibility to become the container and anchor for the children in the class, providing them with the stability their nervous systems need the most to feel safe. This practise supports you in embodying the experience of becoming the container for yourself and the children in your class. Notice the steadiness and capacity within you, the way you are able to move through the day and the impact it has on the class.

A closing reflection to honour how far you've come, revisit your learning and imagine the teacher you are becoming. We'll explore how to take the principles of A Breathing Classroom into practice and begin integrating them into your classroom, school and wider community.