By Emma Nguyen
High school is an extremely overwhelming time for many teenagers. Balancing academics, sports, extracurriculars and more can be difficult and draining. The competitive nature of college applications may pile more stress on students since many believe they must fill their time with some sort of activity to succeed.
Though this drive is admirable, it is important to step back and take a breath. AP Biology teacher Emily Barro emphasizes this idea in all of her classes.
Barro has taught at Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) for around 25 years, teaching classes including AP Biology, Honors Biology, Health and her newest class, Mindset for Success. She has seen hundreds of students pass through her classroom and realized the immense pressure put on many students.
“As an AP Biology teacher, I work with probably the most stressed-out kids on campus, right? It’s a really hard class,” Barro said. “And so over the course of the years, I just saw kids’ mental health just deteriorating.”
Not only did this mentality affect her students, but it began to spread to Barro and affect her own mental health as well. She recalls a brutal review of her on Rate My Professors which tipped her over the edge and caused her to begin focusing more on her own mental health. Barro was inspired alongside fellow Honors Biology teacher Erika Williams to take a mindfulness-based stress reduction training at the District Office.
“As soon as I started practicing, I noticed huge changes in my mental health over a couple of weeks,” Barro said. “I knew it worked.”
She implemented 20 minutes of daily meditation into her mornings and saw an extreme difference in her mindset.
“Just having implemented the daily practice, it has increased my confidence. It has increased my peace when I am in a spin-out stressy mode,” Barro said. “I know when it’s happening. I can be aware that I’m stressed and I need to step away and take a moment.”
Through this class, she began her passion of teaching mindfulness to the people in her own life. She became a certified yoga instructor and continued taking classes that would allow her to be qualified to teach mindfulness in her own classroom.
“It was just like this observation of our slow decline into this perfectionistic, stressy way,” Barro said. “And it was like, this is not how we’re supposed to live. I need to share these tools with the kids.”
In her AP Biology class, Barro typically engages her students in seated meditation for 10 minutes at the start of class. In her separate Mindset for Success class, her students participate in a variety of mindfulness activities including art, yoga and body awareness.
Senior Emma Tedford, a student in Barro’s Mindset for Success class, faced worries about the activities she would participate in and whether her classmates would take it as seriously as she wanted to. Despite these hesitations, she began to enjoy the class.
“Taking this class has had a drastic change on my mindset, and even learning how to breathe better when handling stressful situations has gotten easier for me,” Tedford said.
She learned breathing techniques such as Box Breathing and 4-7-8 breathing to help reduce stress and anxiety. Tedford looks forward to continuing these practices even when she is no longer taking the class as they have made an immense impact on her life and mental health.
“I recommend [the class to] the students who are actually interested in mental health or are struggling with their own [and] that are curious, mature and willing to be non-judgmental to the weird little activities that we do in class sometimes to take this class,” Tedford said. “You won’t regret it because Mrs. Barro makes it pretty fun to learn which makes it a lot easier to take useful information from it.”
However, many students may be hesitant to implement mindfulness practices into their daily routine due to the large stigma surrounding the effectiveness of mindfulness practices and their results.
“It’s just wrong. That’s just absolutely 100% false. and there’s science to back that,” Barro said. “[Those who make these claims] should give it a couple weeks to a month before making a claim like that. It takes time. You’re not going to get it in one Monday with us.”
On campus, there are many resources for students looking to learn more about mindfulness. Alongside Barro’s mindfulness class, FVHS also offers on-campus psychologist Cynthia Olaya and Wellness Specialist Kayla Perkoski. Similar to Barro’s classes, Perkoski teaches guided meditation to students and has received positive feedback regarding her methods.
“Practicing mindfulness and doing mindful meditations can actually feel a little uncomfortable, weird or make you feel sleepy, and you might think, ‘this doesn’t work for me,’” Perkoski said. “Just like with everything else you learn in life, it often takes practice, so I would suggest sticking with it.”
Barro recommends many different resources for students who want to begin mindfulness at home including apps such as Calm and Happify.
“I would also recommend for everyone to meditate for at least ten minutes a day,” Barro said. “Once those habits are established, it is life-changing, guaranteed.“
Barro’s journey with her own mental health has allowed her to grow as a person and help others do the same. So, if you are looking to begin your own mindfulness practices, start small. Start small, establish a routine and see the difference — Emily Barro guaranteed!
