Mindfulness and Free Awesome Tool

Mindfulness. It's a word that we are hearing more frequently in education circles. It's also a word that might lead us to think of other words-  gimmick, fad, and fluff, for example. It's entirely understandable, especially given the current workload of educators. Afterall, who has time for something as hokey as mindfulness?

What if that this post started with something other than the word mindfulness and instead started with this question: Would you like your students to have the ability to pay attention with purpose, kindness and curiosity?  It makes mindfulness actually sound kind of awesome.

It sets a stage for appreciation, increased reaction time, and better decision-making abilities.  In children, mindfulness has been found to:

• mitigate the effects of bullying (Zhou, Liu, Niu, Sun, & Fan, 2016)
• enhance focus in children with ADHD (Zhang et al., 2016)
• reduce attention problems (Crescentini, Capurso, Furlan, & Fabbro, 2016).
• improving mental health and wellbeing
• improve social skills when well taught and practiced in children and adolescents.

When thinking about how much time educators spend reacting to the issues above, perhaps a more proactive approach is to teach mindfulness to students. If nothing else, it's something to consider.

Start Here: 

If you're curious about bringing mindfulness into your classroom,  there are unlimited resources available online, and it's easy to get overwhelmed. Start with something simple.

FREE for Teachers & Schools: 
The Calm Schools Initiative is offering every teacher in the world free access to  the paid subscription of Calm, a well-known mindfulness app. The goal of the Calm Schools Initiative is to  empower teachers with resources they can use to help kids. Click here to fill out a form to get your subscription.  It will take a few days to get your code. 

Help kids pay attention to their breathing to quiet the mind. In this video, a narrator guides children through a breathing excercise by instructing them to imagine a sail boat that rises and falls as they breathe. 

Another activity  is the  SpiderMan meditation. This activity from Kids Relaxation can help kids hone in on  their “spidey-senses”  in the present moment. 




Teaching kids to pay attention to their body while walking them through a body scan can also help teach mindfulness. Here's a script to read to your class to walk them through the process. (You'll have to change the part that says to "lie down" unless that works for you.) 

Finally, Mindfulness Activities for Children & Teens: 25 Fun Exercises for Kids  provides a  list of easy mindfulness activities for all ages that require almost no preparation. 

Resources: 

Ackerman, Courtney. “Mindfulness Activities for Children And Teens: 25 Fun Exercises For Kids.” Positive Psychology Program, 3 Feb. 2017, positivepsychologyprogram.com/mindfulness-for-children-kids-activities/.

Barseghian, Tina. “Why Teaching Mindfulness Benefits Students Learning.” MindShift, 12 Sept. 2013, ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/09/12/why-teaching-mindfulness-benefits-students-learning/.

Beach, Sarah Rudell.  “10 Ways to Teach Mindfulness to Kids.” Left Brain Buddha, 28 June 2017, leftbrainbuddha.com/10-ways-teach-mindfulness-to-kids/.