My name is Halle Phillips and I’m currently a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison set to graduate in May of 2021! I am double majoring in Human Development & Family Studies and Psychology, and am incredibly passionate about working with children to help them grow and achieve their full potential. I was drawn to Exceptional Mindset Tutors because the organization’s philosophy aligned with a lot of my own personal beliefs and values which was really important to me when looking for a job position. The organization’s emphasis on mindful learning especially caught my attention as I have been embarking on my own mindfulness journey this past year and loved the idea of connecting my personal experience to a professional one.
As a student myself and someone who struggles with anxiety, I have experienced firsthand the impact that remote learning has had on my mental health. Whether it’s feeling overwhelmed with school work, experiencing Zoom fatigue, or just enduring the loss of in-person interaction with peers and professors, I can understand how difficult this pandemic has been for all students, academically, socially, and emotionally. As someone who has always been passionate about helping others, I felt determined to do something to help support students through this experience, and Exceptional Mindset Tutors provided the perfect opportunity to do just that!
Throughout this last year, mindfulness has been my saving grace when dealing with stress and anxiety. I was so excited when given the opportunity to help other students implement mindful practice into their own lives. While I am still a mindfulness beginner, I have found that even engaging in a few minutes of mindfulness a day can help improve my mood and emotions which then makes tackling school work much more manageable. Additionally, I have found that practicing mindfulness at the beginning of my tutoring sessions has had tremendously positive effects on the student I work with.
This job truly brings me so much joy and it has been so rewarding to see the progress my student has made over the course of the past few months we’ve been working together. Given that this past year has been so difficult for everyone, it feels so good to work for an organization that aims to spark joy in the lives of others and create a sense of community among the families we work with.
As a team, we decided to create a blog to extend the work that we were doing and to reach an even larger audience. We want to use the blog to create an even bigger community of support for special needs families as we continue to navigate the current pandemic and life after the pandemic. We want to use this platform to help special needs parents and caregivers incorporate mindfulness into their day-to-day parenting.
We want to give a voice to kids, parents, and professionals who have a story to share. We are inviting anyone in this category to be a guest blogger or to be interviewed for a story.
Lastly, we want to highlight and share all of the amazing things happening in the world of mindfulness and special needs education. In addition to sharing stories and information, we will be sharing products and services that may be helpful to parents of children with special needs.
We hope that this blog provides helpful, inspirational, and heartwarming content to families far and wide and allows us to expand our mission even further. I am so excited to be spearheading this project and can’t wait to share so many amazing things, through this blog, with our amazing and ever-growing community!