Making room for what brings you alive
Learning intention By the end of this lesson, students can identify ordinary sources of enjoyment or aliveness and describe a realistic way to make room for one of them.
- Time
- 40 minutes
- How the room works
- Individual, with optional pairs
- You need
- Paper and pens
- Opens with
- Hardwiring the good
Before you start
Menus remain private and passing is always available. A student who cannot identify a spark should not be pressed or reassured publicly.
Read the full safeguarding note Adapting it for your class A note home for this lesson
Open this drawing in the library
Why this matters
Joy can become something we postpone until the work is finished or life feels easier. This lesson treats it as part of a whole life rather than a reward for coping well. Joy does not cancel grief, stress or injustice, and no one is required to find it on demand.
Skill in context Approaching life with energy and wholehearted enjoyment, and reconnecting with a felt sense of aliveness.
On the skill of zestTry the interactive practiceTry it yourself first
“What Still Pulls” takes a few quiet minutes, just for you, before you teach it. Nothing you write in it is saved or sent.
Open with “Hardwiring the good”
5 minUse Hardwiring the good to give one pleasant or neutral moment a little more attention. Students may use a real memory, an imagined safe place or simple awareness of the room.
Our attention can stay with what went wrong while an ordinary good moment passes quickly, so this practice gives one of those moments a little more time.
Recall something good from the last day or two, such as warmth from the sun, a welcome message or food you enjoyed.
Revisit the moment for twenty seconds and remember where you were, what happened and what made it feel good to you. A neutral detail in the room is also available if no memory comes to mind.
When the time ends, let the memory or detail go and notice what it was like to stay with it for a little longer.
Listen for Do not look for smiles or claim that the practice has changed the room. A neutral moment, no memory and quiet observation are valid responses.
Teacher explanation
10 minJoy may arrive as excitement, absorption, warmth, play, beauty or a quiet sense of being alive. It is personal, and it may be faint or absent on a difficult day.
Making room for joy leaves room for what hurts too. We allow a whole range of experience, including moments that nourish us. Access is not equal, so the practice should not become another task or a claim that everyone can simply choose to feel better.
Questions for the room
- Why is enjoyment often treated as something to earn after the work is done?
- What kinds of ordinary experiences bring people your age a sense of aliveness?
- How can a group make room for joy without demanding a cheerful mood?
A menu of sparks
15 min- Explain that each student will make a private menu of small experiences that bring enjoyment, interest, comfort or energy. The page is not collected.
- Offer three headings: quick sparks that take two minutes or less, larger sparks that need more time, and sparks that cost no money.
- Add optional prompts involving beauty, trying something new, movement, rest, creativity, nature or time with people who feel safe.
- In pairs, students may offer one idea they are happy for someone else to borrow. Passing needs no explanation.
- Gather anonymous ideas on the board to create a shared menu without attaching names.
- Students privately mark one idea they would like to make room for, or note what currently makes joy difficult to reach.
Private reflection
7 minComplete privately: "One spark I would like to make a little more room for is..." Then notice what may support or crowd out that possibility.
How they reflect Private journal
Closing
3 minJoy does not have to wait until everything is resolved. When it is available, we can let an ordinary moment matter without asking it to carry the whole day.
Safeguarding
Menus remain private and passing is always available. A student who cannot identify a spark should not be pressed or reassured publicly. Offer a quiet follow-up and use usual pastoral routes if loss of interest or low mood raises concern.
If something a young person says gives you concern, follow your setting’s usual safeguarding route. This is not yours to carry alone.
Adapting it
In other settings
Take this lesson with you
The plan is editable, so you can change the names, the examples and the timings to fit the young people in front of you.
To teach
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