A Few Minutes for Yourself
Designed by BearmoreStealing a few minutes for yourself while the kids run around.
Steal a few moments for yourself in the gap between drop-off and the final whistle. This Burst is fully sideline-friendly: box breathing to settle, then try a sketch, and finally flip the paper over and have a go at writing. Put it all on a timer and use the restriction of time to see what you can come up with.
The runsheet
Box breathing for five minutes
Breath workFive minutes of box breathing wherever you already are, the car or the bench on the sideline. Breath in for four counts, hold for four, four out, and hold for four. Put that cycle on repeat for five minutes.
5 min activityBearmore’s thoughts on doing breath work before visual arts
This can help because a calm, focused state can enhance creative flow and artistic expression.
One sketch
Visual artsFifteen minutes to draw on one side of the paper, use a second colour if you brought one. This is set to a fifteen minute timer so you just do whatever you feel like sketching and give yourself the space for it to be experimental.
15 min activityBearmore’s thoughts on doing visual arts before creative writing
These go especially well together because visual art surfaces emotional content and themes that writing can articulate and develop further into language.
One poem
Creative writingTurn the paper over and write a poem for ten minutes. Whatever you write is what you write; when the timer goes off, the writing is done. You can alway pick it back up later if you want to keep going with it.
10 min activityTime well spent.
48m spent doing something good for yourself.
The breakdown
Burst evaluation
Wellbeing focus
About this Burst
You’re going to be at their training anyway and waiting for them so why not have a go at something creative and see how you feel. All it needs is somewhere you can sit, a scrap of paper and a pen; a second colour is a bonus, but not crucial. The poem goes on one side, the picture on the other, and each has a fixed time limit. None of this is about the finished product; the engagement is the point, and there’s no skill expected or needed. The kids can see you are still there, and there’ll still be time left over to catch up with the other parents, the teacher or the coach.