Episode 99: Teaching Mindful Movement with Rob Owen of Move2Focus

Rob Owen is the founder of Move2Focus. With over 21 years as a school principal, author, and classroom educator, Rob deeply observed and personally felt the significant stress and burnout that plague the education world. After using both mindfulness and Tai Chi, Rob started to introduce these practices to students.  Now he runs Move2Focus, which supports educators to use Tai Chi and Qi Gong in their classrooms.

Rob gets deep into the details of what Tai Chi and Qi Gong are, why he started teaching them to students and why it’s so helpful for teachers.

 
 
 
 
 

Read the transcript for this episode:

Welcome to Educator Forever, where we empower teachers to innovate education. Join us each week to hear stories of teachers expanding their impacts beyond the classroom and explore ways to reimagine teaching and learning.

Rob Owen is the founder of Move2Focus. With over 21 years as a school principal, author and classroom educator, Rob deeply observed and personally felt the significant stress and burnout that plagued the education world. After using both mindfulness and Tai Chi himself, Rob started to introduce these practices to students, and now he started Move2Focus , which supports educators to use Tai Chi and Qigong in their classrooms. It's more than a program. It's a philosophy, transforming adversity into opportunity and empowering both educators and students to turn challenges into teachable moments. Welcome Rob so nice to have you here.

Rob Owen

Oh, nice to be here. Thanks for having me

Lily Jones

So in whatever direction you'd like to take this question, I would like you to tell us about your journey as an educator.

Rob Owen

Well, that's a big one. Started back, I don't know if I want to date myself, but the late 90s, and I was playing drums, so I'm a drummer, a musician, and have been for years, and I had a girlfriend at the time, and she said, hey, I want to learn how to play the drums. I'm like, All right. And so we got on the drum kit, started playing, and she said, you're a great teacher. You should teach my friends. So, long story short, I started teaching drums, and then after that, I started going to junior college and took a class in education, and was pretty excited about that, and then started working at a summer school. And the summer school required me to teach, like, one little reading course or something for little people. It's probably third, fourth grade, and I went up there and started teaching, and started teaching, and the principal's like, Hey, do you do you want a job? And I was like, I haven't even finished my BA degree. And she's like, how about we just bring you on part time? Like, okay, cool. Let's do that. So I just kept teaching part time there as I get my BA degree. And then, long story short, they just hired me full time, and that was first teaching job was 1999 so it's been a while. And, yeah, that's the story of my teaching journey.

Lily Jones

That's awesome. I love that, and I love that, starting from the drums too,

Rob Owen

I started from music. Imagine that. I know, go figure right?

Lily Jones

Yeah, that's awesome. So then, since you've been a classroom teacher, you know, what have you taught? And kind of, where did you what? Where did you go from there? I mean, I know that you've done various other things in addition to classroom teaching,

Rob Owen

For sure. So I started teaching. I was brought in as a music teacher and PE and social studies for many years, and and then, since then, I mean, I've taught it all, pretty much from first to high school, even did a little bit of college lecturing. But in my earlier times it was, it was on the PE field, where I started to kind of bring in a little bit of mindful movement. I had been studying Shaolin Kung Fu for years, a little bit of Wing Chun. Those are both Chinese martial arts and a little bit of Tai Chi and Qigong. And so we'd be on the field, and I'd start doing the exercises with the kids that that I would be doing in class, you know, and the kids really liked it. And then that kind of morphed into an after school kids kung fu. And then that kind of morphed into, you know, just started growing. But most of my practices in school have been mostly academic. Yeah.

Lily Jones

Cool. Awesome. And I know that with your interest in Tai Chi and Qigong, like you've started Move2Focus . So can you tell us about that and how that came about?

Rob Owen

Yeah, yeah. So that kind of the curtails on coattails, on the last one, is that I started teaching kids Kung Fu, probably, like, 15 years ago, or something like that, just basic stuff. And then we would open it up with kind of some mellow movement. And then one of the parents said, Hey, Rob one, my kid was showing me this movement, and what are you doing? Like, he really likes it. And so I'm, oh, it's just Tai Chi, you know, just something I'm teaching the kids. And so I ended up opening the PTA meetings and the parent gatherings with Tai Chi and Qigong. So I'm like, Okay, that's pretty cool. And then fast forward about 10 years, currently working at a school that emphasizes neurodiverse children. So you know, dyslexia, dyscalculia, ADHD, all the above. And I was given a group of we have smaller classes because the kids need a little bit more attention. So I was given a group of 10 boys in eighth grade, and probably seven out of 10 were hyperactive. ADHD, and it was a challenge. So I said, Okay, now's the time, Rob, we're going to make this happen. So every morning I take them out on the courtyard, and we would start doing mindful movement. I. It with just the same sequence concrete every single time, training their bodies first, right from the outside in. So I train how do they move their bodies? Just slowing them down, moving mechanically, moving with breath. I would usually mix in a little bit of martial arts stuff, because they like that. But I would slow it down. And then the faculty would see what we're doing in there, and they would slowly, kind of trickle in and end up behind the boys doing it with us, and and they're like, hey, I want to learn this stuff. And I'm like, Well, cool. I want to teach it. And so the principal, she kind of hit me up. She's like, Hey, were you, would you be interested in, like, offering this for like, because we already had a little bit of mindfulness in our school, but this is about mindful movement, right? Not just necessarily sitting, but being mindful as you, as you practice the art. And I said, Sure, yeah, let's do it. So, so they kind of section off parts of the day where the kids could go, or the faculty could go, and I could just do it with them, and then, well, this year and last year. Now I'm teaching it as a class, which is super cool, and it's really, you know, mindfulness is pretty accepted and the mainstream. When I started, it wasn't it was like, what is that kind of woo, woo stuff? But then, kind of like, once, probably Jon Kabat Zinn came in and kind of created a science out of it. It was more accepted, and the research started to come in. I think there's more than 500 studies, I think right now, around the benefits of it. I started practicing it, and then it turned into a class. And after it turned into a class, it was like, I think that I should start, like, bringing this out to the greater, you know, the greater population. And well, I took some of your courses, Lily, which were absolutely amazing and very helpful, by the way. And yeah, I started building with the website and, you know, gathering testimonials and that whole thing. And I just went with the name move to focus. And it is been an amazing kind of passion project that I'm kind of balancing with my current day job as a teacher. I've been able to go part time now with my my teaching and moving it to move, to focus, you know, in a greater capacity. So yeah, it's been a wonderful thing, and it's still totally unfolding. I'm just getting my Instagram going. I mean, not a big guy on social media, but I, you know, you got to play the game. So I just got that going, and some emails are going out and, yeah...

Lily Jones

That's awesome. I love hearing how it kind of organically unfolded from teachers. Like, I love that story of the teachers coming in and be like, I want to do this too, yeah. And then you pay attention to it, and just that moment of you being like, you want to learn it, I want to teach it. Like, let's do it. Just like seeing it unfold. I love now how you've been able to kind of integrate it into your teaching life. You know, both teaching classes at your school, but also, you know, going part time and doing this part time. And I'm interested in seeing and I'm excited to see where it'll evolve and grow to next. So can you tell us a little bit about the offerings of Move2Focus.

Rob Owen

yeah, yeah. So I do one on one coaching, so, you know, you can hit me up at info, at move2focus.com, it's just move and the number two focus.com, so I do individual coaching, and that's like when teachers or or others, I have a therapist and I'm working with two works with her clients, and I just kind of build a practice for you in the morning, so it's anywhere like a five minute practice, seven minute practice, and then we can go up to a 20 minute so I kind of teach the teachers to have their own practice first, right? And then they can bring that in the classroom. And then there's methods and how you bring it to the classroom, so one to one coaching. And then I have, I do faculty training for school wide. So I'm hired at a school, you know, you show up in the cafeteria and the teachers are there, and you you go through your spiel, depending on what the school needs. And then I have a three hour course, a weekend course, it'll be out in November, which will be very interactive. So it'll be a mixture of, you know, facts about the needs of this in the classroom and for children and for humans in general. And then it goes into integration, how to bring these movements into the classroom? So that three hour course will be happening. I think late November, I haven't, I haven't nailed a date, done yet.

Lily Jones

Wonderful. I love that array of offerings that sounds very exciting and supportive, and people can come in individually or with their school and get support there. And I realized I probably should have asked this question first, what? That is Tai Chi and Qigong, for people who might not know, yeah,

Rob Owen

oh, boy, that that's kind of a big question I would start with. Well, tai chi, fundamentally, is a martial art. Qigong started about 4000 years ago, right around the time of yoga. So Qigong is kind of like the mother of it. So think Chi Gong and yoga, those are kind of synonymous, one in China, one in yoga, or one in India. And and Tai Chi came around anywhere between three and 700 years ago. I like to say around around five to seven. There's a bunch of stuff I can go into. I'm not going to right now. So it's a it's a mindful practice, uh, mindful movement practice. So Qigong is, think of it as a single movement that you would practice maybe 358, times in a row, and you're moving in a slow, fluid way that your mind, your intent, is connected to your breath, which is connected to your movement. So when you connect all three of those together, and you slow it all down, you begin to feel a little bit more calm, obviously, right? But so Qigong will just be one movement you just repeat over and over, usually not too much stepping or moving around. Tai Chi has Qigong in it, right? Because you're being mindful and you're moving a breath. But what's happening is you're is you're doing, let's say you would start with like the opening pose, and then you'd go to wild horse parts. It's main that you would go to brush knee, then you'd go to crane, then you'd go to Single Whip, it's like a sequence of multiple movements that you have to kind of remember, and then eventually the body will just kind of take over. So after some time doing the Tai Chi sequence, there's really no mind. You know, you know, when you you look at some of the master levels, their bodies just move to that shape. And there's more steps involved, if that makes sense, that the Qigong is more stationary and and, and the same thing kind of happens, and then, and Tai Chi is, you'll be moving more, and there will be a, you know, changes in the sequence of movements. And also Tai Chi can have a martial intent as well. While Qigong in general won't have that kind of thing. Qigong is, there's medical Qigong, and then there's the only martial Qigong is like what they call Iron Shirt training. Is where you you develop energy in your body that could be used for, like, a defense of some kind. But there's not necessarily self defense moves, where you'll see in Tai Chi, some will be moving really slow, but a lot of times what they're actually doing if you sped it up, it's a martial art movement. So hope that all made sense.

Lily Jones

Yeah, absolutely. It's super intriguing and interesting to hear it broken down like that. And do you have a suggestion of teachers who might want to use some of these practices in their classroom, like, how could they get started? And also, what benefits might they expect to see with their students?

Rob Owen

Yeah, so benefits, I would definitely say, calm, relaxed, more mind body connection, tons of research about the benefits around stress, anxiety, depression, hyperactivity, impulsivity. I mean, the list goes on. There's a ton of research. You just got to dig in. It's a little bit easier to get the research in the yoga it's a little bit more popular these days, but there's a bunch of benefits. You'll see in the classroom. The children will some of them will actually want it, depending on what ages. But I'm doing a class that has third to fifth graders in there, and if I miss one movement in the sequence, Oh, Mr. Owen, you forgot blank. And I'm like, oh, sorry about that. So recently I've been throwing curveballs. I'll miss one and that same, hey, I think you missed one. So yeah, you'll see all the benefits of that. And most recently, it's been really popular for folks who are working with kids and adults with, you know, behaviors that demonstrate, you know, kind of ADHD, kind of behaviors. Where it starts is someone would contact me, hopefully, a teacher and administrator, and I can talk to them like a discovery call or whatever, and just see what they're looking for, what it usually looks like for all you teachers out there. There's probably a lot of teachers on the podcast, right?

Lily Jones

I would say pretty much entirely.

Rob Owen

Okay, okay, okay, so teacher talk. So kids line up right before class. You get the line of kids, you know, they're whatever grade you're working with. They're holding their backpacks. They're blah, blah, blah, blah. You make eye contact with each one how you do and you give them a high five, or you have them relate to their emotional level with the one through five on their hand. Or they give you a color, whatever you do that early morning, check and they line up. They walk in quiet. They sit down. The first time you introduce it is, you walk in front of the class and you say, Hey guys, I got this cool new thing I learned. I wonder if you just stand up for a second, we're going to move in a certain way. And I just want you to follow along. And you just haven't do it like three times, if you're working with youngers, the little people, you know, I start mentioning, like, things like Kung Fu Panda or like, Avatar. You're like, Hey, have you seen like, Ong, like, throw fire and do the water bending? Okay, we're going to do something like that today, and they get stoked, right? So you can introduce it like that. But if they're, you know, the little bit older, you know, middle school, you might get some grunts and groans. But start with, like, three times of the same movement I introduced. Like, there's a couple basic movements. If you go to teacherstress.coach, I'll run you through a little stress test, and you'll get some free exercises on a video sequence i i give out on that website. And you can just start with those, and you just do them, like, three times with the kids, and have them sit down and then just carry on. And the next day, you're like, hey, we're going to do that one more thing. And then and then you add on one more exercise, and you kind of build from there. You ideally, you do it in the morning, and then maybe after the first break, I do it in classes, but if you start in the morning, you do it once, and then maybe after lunch, when the kids are kind of whacked after they eat, or they probably eat too much sugar or whatever, you just have them calm down. And so many times, I can't tell you how many times doing it after lunch, and you just start seeing the yawns. Their energy was out. And so I always tell the kids, like, Okay, we're gonna we're going to have our energy outward at the recess time. You're going to be playing football, tag, whatever. That's energy out. So when we do our practice here, the energy goes in, right? So it's the differences. Instead of running around and exerting energy, it's actually bringing it back in and refining it, right? And that's what these movements do. They bring the energy back and to refine it. And it's so funny to watch the little people. They'll just start yawning. But some of them want to be polite, so they're like, trying to hold their mouth. It's like, Dude, it's cool. You can yawn totally you're just chill. And then after lunches is a good time to do it too, as well.

Rob Owen

Yeah, that's great. I love that. And I think it's like, it's so great to see kids have that awareness too, of the energy and energy out and just how it feels that to be in a more calm space in your body and aware of like, how the energy affects you, and how you know you affect the energy.

Rob Owen

Right, right. Exactly, exactly.

Lily Jones

So I know you mentioned that mindfulness, you know, is more popular in schools and yoga. Why do you think Tai Chi and Qigong maybe are not as at that level yet?

Rob Owen

Yeah, so there's, there's a couple ideas about that my mind is that I think there's, there's, well, two of the main ones that I think is one, yoga just kind of has more marketing, and has for 20 years. I think there's just more, like the ideal wellness person on any media outlet or whatever. You're going to see this person sitting cross leg, you know, in their, you know what? They have their Mudra, they might have their yoga outfit on. That's like the, the icon of wellness, for some reason and that. And then, well, it's yoga. And then that term Yoga, you know, even though it's a Sanskrit word and it's, you know, it seems to just catch so I think it has partially to do with that. I think it also has to do with a perceived complexity of Tai Chi compared to yoga. Like a lot of people see, yoga is just like, Oh, you just like, Oh, you just sit down and you stretch, and then you're done and then, but yoga is actually, I know a lot of Yoga people, and I love yoga, and it's amazing. It just wasn't, wasn't my path, but I'm totally down. It's, it's not easy, like when you start getting more advanced, it's really not easy. It might look easier, right? But really, what's going on? It's not for all you advanced Yoga people, you know, it's not, and a lot of times we'll have to do whether it be like strength based, not easy, or core based, not easy, or if you're doing Bikram or whatever, you know, Tai Chi can be perceived as more complex, but there's simpler ways to do it, Qigong in general, depending on what kind of Qigong, there's lots of kinds of Qigong. It is. It's pretty simple in its movements. But yeah, I think there's like, a perceived complexity in Tai Chi compared to yoga. And I think the marketing aspect of it is huge. But I think that the the tai chi and the Kung Fu are starting to come up slowly as an accept, an acceptable way to bring about, like, mental clarity, calm, mental health in general. It's like one in four people claim mental health issues these days, like there's so many studies and. Everyone's kind of looking around and not sure if they want to start popping pills, and they're like, Well, what I what can I do besides diet and, like, run around the block, you know? But I just think that yoga has a lot of a lot more followers in its building. And there's a couple companies out there that are doing amazing stuff, and they bring yoga in schools, and so I'm doing a similar thing. They've been doing a lot longer than I have, and they're very successful. And they're doing a wonderful thing. I have a few teacher friends who are certified in it, but yeah, I would go with the perceived complexity of Tai Chi and then, and just kind of the overall marketing is stronger in yoga right now.

Lily Jones

Sure that makes sense. And yeah, I can imagine, for yoga, it's like, maybe you got to bring out all these mats, like Tai Chi. It seems like you could just get started.

Rob Owen

Yeah, yeah, that's, that's hugely you just stand up. Like, there's a couple students I work with that have been a little overweight, and so it gets they're they don't want to sit down, right? Because it's hard for them to sit down, get back up and do these things, but if they can just stand up and move their arms, that that's been really beneficial for them, one of them, particular I can think of right now. So, yeah, it's, it's, you don't, you don't need a mat. You can just wear your everyday clothes and and just go at it, you know?

Lily Jones

Yeah, accessible for all, yeah? So then thinking about starting your own business, I'd love to hear what you've learned about yourself, or are learning about yourself through the process.

Rob Owen

Yeah? So it started out as a passion project. What I'm learning is kind of the mechanics of it, right, which is not my strong point, like I'm a teacher, songwriter and martial artist, you know? So I just, that's my passion, just what I do. So, but to look at, like the mechanics of like building a website, doing social media, scaling, proper copy, you know? Well, that kind of stuff, like looking at it in that perspective, I'm learning a lot because it's more just not something I just wake up and I do, like, I just wake up and do my my morning practice, and I get to share it, and I'm done. This is like, trying to think, like, Okay, well, how can I actually get this to people you know, or or, or just like, how do I what do I click on this when I you know? Or should I get a business coach? Or, like, all these other things. So I would say more the mechanics of the thing that has challenged me to look at this entity that I call move to focus in kind of different ways. And it's almost slowly become, strangely enough, it's like writing a song. It's like, you're in the song, you're in the song, you're writing the song. And when you're done with the song and you record it, it's like, it's like, out there, you know, it's like everyone else is now. And it's the same thing with move to focus. It's like, okay, I'm building this thing, and I just do my thing, and all sudden, you build a website, and then you get it out there, and you're like, Wait, this is kind of like a you like a, like a baby. It's like, it's, it's like an entity in and of itself. So, so that's been an interesting part of the journey as well.

Lily Jones

I totally relate. I mean, I think it's interesting thinking about how it's like, even doing things that are your passion, right? Not all of it is going to feel like it's your passion, or something that's like, natural you're naturally inclined to do. And so I think it's like, all the steps, like, I think about that with the world, like writing, like, I love writing, but sometimes I don't love the actual task of writing. Like, right, right?

Rob Owen

I just want to get this out right now, but now I got to actually do it.

Lily Jones

I have to do it. And like, I don't know, you know, it takes longer, it's frustrating, or all the things. So I think thinking about, even if it's something that you're passionate about, there are going to be times that feel hard and like learning through the process and thinking about the bigger why, I think can be grounding throughout them.

Rob Owen

Oh yes, that's probably one of my favorite words. I bet it's one of yours too.

Lily Jones

Definitely, definitely. So thinking about for educators who might want to start their own business, do something outside of the classroom, maybe take one of their passions and move it out into the world. What advice would you give them?

Rob Owen

Well, I would say, do it. Don't Don't hesitate, because once you hesitate, then you're gonna be like, but, but what if? What if you know the inner critic part of you just going to take over? If you just start writing it down, or just start talking about it with a friend, like it'll start to kind of take its its form. But it's so important. I mean, not to get too philosophical here. We only have, we don't have too much time left. But just to say that, like, you know, it's like Joseph Campbell, you know, like, follow your bliss, right? I mean, not to be cliche, but love the guy. It's, it's like, if you have that inside of you, there's no reason why you should not. Share it you, and then that passion will become your vehicle to a deeper sense of self, right? Or non self, depending on how you're looking at it. So that is so important, and even if it's something small, like, you know, like, Oh, cool. I created these new pencils for for the classroom, but I really like doing it. Then do it, you know, and and speak to people who've done it before, and there's tons of models, right? So find someone who's doing it in a similar way, and use that like, like, watch videos, you know? How do you get to that point? Okay, from A to B, I want, I want to make this cool pencil. If you just slowly keep that passion going and learning, you'll find a new part of yourself that will be unleashed, and you'll just keep it'll keep growing, and then you'll keep growing. I think it's really important to act on your passions, especially if you're talking about purpose and meaning in your life. If that's pushed and repressed downward, we all know what happens there. Yeah, just make it happen. And sometimes some of us need help talking to others to make it happen. To kind of, like, give you a little shove. So find that person to do that. You know,

Lily Jones

yes, absolutely. I mean, I love the immediate answer of like, just do it and do it imperfectly. And like, embrace the process of learning. And I love all the examples you shared, too, that you can have that agency and be like, Hey, I might not even know how to make a pencil, but like somebody else does, who is that person? How can I find out? And I think that we often have things that were like, oh, someday we'll do this. Or maybe, you know, it's like, well, maybe today you don't have to quit your job tomorrow, but like you could explore it. You could start watching those videos. You could start talking to people about it and sharing that you want to do it, but don't ignore it, you know, go after the things that make you happy.

Rob Owen

Yeah, I totally agree and that that that imperfection part is huge in most of us humans that I met, the imperfection thing and the inner critic part, those two will just get the best you and I, I've learned years ago just to, like, make friends with them. I'm big fan of Thich Nhat Hanh, if everyone's ever heard Thich Nhat Hanh, and he said the same thing with his fear. So you know, he's he used to have a lot of fear, and he would just stop for a second his meditation, and he would feel his fear, and he would say, Hello, my fear. How are you today? And he would greet his fear. And then once you greet it, it's no longer bigger than you. It becomes part of you, and slowly it gets smaller and smaller, so you have your fear and it doesn't have you. It's so powerful. It's so powerful. It's the same with perfectionism, you know, like you can or the, of course, the inner critic, we gotta happen. It's actually not a bad thing, as long as as he or she or it doesn't take over. But I will, literally, can feel like this motivation, like rob your lag and rob your lag. And there's all these different parts talking. And if I just sit down for a second and close my eyes and just, like, talk to that critic, just be like, you know, whatever it is, making friends with it, instead of, like, fighting against it, it seems to become more bearable. And then you kind of know that part, you can kind of recognize it. Yeah, that's cool. I'm glad you're there, but I'm going to go do this for now, and we can talk later.

Lily Jones

I think that making friends is so key too, because it's like our natural inclination can be to say, like, go away, like I don't like you, or to fight against it, or to have some judgment of like that even that this inner critic exists. Or, why am I even feeling this? And so I think it's normalizing that we all have this as part of us, make friends with it and then find your way through it. You know, don't wait for it to go away. Great, right, right? Yep. Well, Rob, it's been so amazing talking with you and hearing more about what you're up to. Can you tell people how they can connect with you?

Rob Owen

Yeah. So you can go to move2focus.com, that's what the number two. Or you can go to teacher stress dot coach, and you can get some free mindful movement there. You can also just email me at info, at move2focus.com.

Lily Jones

Wonderful. And we'll put all the links in the show notes as well. Thanks so much.

Rob Owen

All right. Thank you. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Lily Jones