The New Year is always a good opportunity to shake things up. You might start a new exercise routine, launch a new project at work, or just try a new way of doing things. To jumpstart your New Year and spark some fresh energy to bring to your training in 2018, we’re sharing three new energizers to try with your first round of training classes.
Energizers are fun activities that get people up from their chairs and moving around to get the blood flowing and wandering minds back on track. A good energizer stimulates the body and the mind at once to renew energy and focus for training. Energizers can be used during transition time, to break up a longer section of content, or any time you sense that the energy in the classroom is low.
Coming back from a holiday is hard. So is coming back from lunch during a day-long training session. In both cases, an energizer would be an effective way to break distraction, engage the mind, and boost energy.
Here are three new 3-minute energizers for you to try in your first sessions after the New Year:
Mental Vacation
Instruct participants to close their eyes and go on a mental vacation. This will be easy, since they just got back from one! Have them imagine this vacation for sixty seconds. Then ask them to come back from their vacation, still with their eyes closed. Ask them to “vacation” in the classroom for a moment, seeing what they can recall on the posters around the room, pages from the workbook, or slides from the presentation. Then have them open their eyes, stand up, and share with a neighbor either their vacation destination or one of the items they visualized from the classroom.
Silent Sit-Down
Select one participant to be the designated winker by having everyone draw from a deck of cards. Whoever gets the ace is “it.” The person who’s “it” should not tell anyone. When you’ve selected who’s “it,” instruct everyone to stand up, stretch, and look around the room at one another. The person who got the ace will then begin winking at people. Each person who receives a wink will sit down. The other participants should attempt to identify the winker before everyone in the room has sat down. Once the winker is identified, the game is over.
Three Breaths
Instruct participants to stand, rub their hands together, and take three deep breaths in unison while you slowly count out, “one, two, three.” Then have participants clap their hands three times and say, “Ready to go,” in unison. You can change the words to any three syllables you like, such as “Rock and roll” or “My team rocks.” That’s all there is to it, but you’ll notice a definite energy change in the room.
Energizers don’t have to be anything fancy. In fact, the most effective ones often don’t last longer than three minutes, like the ones we’ve shared with you today. But you’d be amazed at how much of an impact they can have. When used correctly, mental stimulators literally create energy amongst the group. You’ll be able to see the physical energy increase through the mental stimulation. Try these three new energizers, then report back to us on how they went!
