Self Reg Journey

  Interception is an awareness of feeling inside out. Exteroception is an awareness of sense what is happening around us.    When we are under stress, we have low awareness of interception and exteroception.  When we are in freeze mode, both interception and exteroception malfunction. 

  Developing personal strategies for restoration and enhancing resilience allows us to build flexibility in human experience biologically, cognitively, emotionally, socially, and pro-socially.    5 steps of Shanker’s self-regulation: Reframing, Recognizing, Reducing, Reflecting, and Responding is a tool to see behind the scenes of human development through science, break through stereotypes, and create a customized, supportive, and sustainable way of living for individuals.  

I chose this image to be my visual metaphor for canalization and up and down-regulation As we develop as humans, we all have a few hidden canalized experiences as those hidden rocks in the ocean. The strong current comes and goes, and our traits (rockface) got shaped consciously (the splash above the water) and unconsciously (the strong hidden current under the water).  Self-reg is like a light tower in the image that gives lights and provide a sense of direction throughout varieties of weather (emotions and triggers).

It has been a year since I started this Self- reg journey with Dr. Shanker and Dr. Hopkins, and this neuroscience research-based approach has shifted my teaching approach as a teacher and rewired my pathway to this life journey.  Before we learn more about self-reg, let me share my top three self-reg myths.  I hope this will get you to start your curiosity and journey with Self Reg.  1:  "Self-reg is the latest class management." It is not "management" but a process of learning lifelong skills for whoever comes across this neuroscience-based approach.  The general class management strategies tend to have external incentive rewards, and children don't necessarily understand what is happening to them and what they need to develop internally. The class incentive reward system that triggers social and prosocial stress then is to shape the surface behaviors without looking beyond the behaviors. On the other hand, Self reg approach sets a developmental foundation fo