Sleepy piano lessons and hard-working brains

When I was probably 10 or 11 years old, I remember taking piano lessons after school with my elementary school's music teacher. Often, during these lessons, I would find myself yawning in the middle of learning new music. I wasn't tired, nor was I bored. So why was I yawning, making me look that way in front of my piano teacher? There are actually lots of reasons theorized about why we yawn (https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/yawn.html) but the one that my piano teacher and I landed on was that I was yawning because my brain wanted a little extra oxygen to handle all the information I was putting into it during my piano lessons. This helped me feel less bad about yawning while working, which I still do, and even made me appreciate my brain acknowledging the hard work it was going through. But importantly, it's helped me to acknowledge the importance of rest!

When we work, we all need to be mindful of how hard we're pushing ourselves, and we need to treat our bodies and brains with care. Nobody has ever managed to be successful by working really hard, all the time, and in my experience those who are calmest, most controlled and precise, and with the best relationship with their work are those who pace themselves and treat their bodies and minds with respect when working.

Whether it's taking a second to look away from the screen, only allowing yourself to work up to a certain time at night, making sure to stay hydrated and fed, or (my personal favorite) allowing yourself to take naps after working hard, we all need something to do to help our brains cool off. While I can't say I'll allow students to sleep during my class, I do plan on acknowledging my students' capacity for hard thinking and work. I can't expect to push them hard every single day and not have them tired or burned out! I plan to give them space, time in class for laughter and conversation, and a quiet space outside of instruction hours where they can find peace when they need it.