Today's Class Objectives & Schedule:
Class Location:
Please be dressed and in Roxy's Classroom or in the Commons by 1:45. A sign will be posted on my classroom door to let you know exactly where we are each day. If you are running late, I ask that you enter our shared space quietly and join in on our activities.
What to Wear:
Something comfortable like yoga pants or sweatpants. Long sleeve or short sleeve t-shirts. Please, no tank tops or regular school clothes. Please see our school counselor, Erin, ASAP if this will be a problem obtaining these clothes. Appropriate clothing is required for participation and for attendance to count.
What to Bring:
What is Mindfulness exactly?
Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment.
Mindfulness also involves acceptance, meaning that we pay attention to our thoughts and feelings without judging them—without believing, for instance, that there’s a “right” or “wrong” way to think or feel in a given moment. When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune into what we’re sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the past or imagining the future.
Why Practice Mindfulness in XBLOCK?
Studies have shown that practicing mindfulness, even for just a few weeks, can bring a variety of physical, psychological, and social benefits. Here are some of these benefits, which extend across many different settings.
Information above taken from: greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/mindfulness/definition#why-practice-mindfulness
Please be dressed and in Roxy's Classroom or in the Commons by 1:45. A sign will be posted on my classroom door to let you know exactly where we are each day. If you are running late, I ask that you enter our shared space quietly and join in on our activities.
What to Wear:
Something comfortable like yoga pants or sweatpants. Long sleeve or short sleeve t-shirts. Please, no tank tops or regular school clothes. Please see our school counselor, Erin, ASAP if this will be a problem obtaining these clothes. Appropriate clothing is required for participation and for attendance to count.
What to Bring:
- Yoga Mat (if you do not own one, please notify me ASAP via email so that I may arrange to get you one to borro
- Water Bottle
- Open Mind & Heart
- Kindness
What is Mindfulness exactly?
Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment.
Mindfulness also involves acceptance, meaning that we pay attention to our thoughts and feelings without judging them—without believing, for instance, that there’s a “right” or “wrong” way to think or feel in a given moment. When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune into what we’re sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the past or imagining the future.
Why Practice Mindfulness in XBLOCK?
Studies have shown that practicing mindfulness, even for just a few weeks, can bring a variety of physical, psychological, and social benefits. Here are some of these benefits, which extend across many different settings.
- Mindfulness fights obesity: Practicing “mindful eating” encourages healthier eating habits, helps people lose weight, and helps them savor the food they do eat.
- Mindfulness may be beneficial to teens: Practicing mindfulness can help teens reduce stress and depression and increase their self-compassion and happiness. Once teens arrive at college, it could also reduce their binge drinking.
- Mindfulness helps schools: There’s scientific evidence that teaching mindfulness in the classroom reduces behavior problems, aggression, and depression among students, and improves their happiness levels, self-regulation, and ability to pay attention. Teachers trained in mindfulness also show lower blood pressure, less negative emotion and symptoms of depression, less distress and urgency, greater compassion and empathy, and more effective teaching.
- Mindfulness helps us focus: Studies suggest that mindfulness helps us tune out distractions and improves our memory, attention skills, and decision-making.
- Mindfulness fosters compassion and altruism: Research suggests mindfulness training makes us more likely to help someone in need and increases activity in neural networks involved in understanding the suffering of others and regulating emotions. Evidence suggests it might boost self-compassion as well.
- Mindfulness is good for our bodies: A seminal study found that, after just eight weeks of training, practicing mindfulness meditation boosts our immune system’s ability to fight off illness. Practicing mindfulness may also improve sleep quality.
Information above taken from: greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/mindfulness/definition#why-practice-mindfulness
Today's Schedule:
- (10 min) Welcome to Mindfulness Class. Students take turns reading aloud the expectations for choosing this class/community.
- (1 hour) Guided Meditation led by some of my favorite youtubers, The Honest Guys
- (30 min) Mindfulness Coloring Activity
Meditation Video
Coloring and Mindfulness
Does Coloring Really De-stress?
One of the first psychologists to apply coloring as a relaxation technique was Carl G. Jüng in the early 20th century. He did this through mandalas: circular designs with concentric shapes similar to the Gothic churches’ rose windows. They have their origin in India.
When coloring, we activate different areas of our two cerebral hemispheres, says psychologist Gloria Martínez Ayala. “The action involves both logic, by which we color forms, and creativity, when mixing and matching colors. This incorporates the areas of the cerebral cortex involved in vision and fine motor skills [coordination necessary to make small, precise movements]. The relaxation that it provides lowers the activity of the amygdala, a basic part of our brain involved in controlling emotion that is affected by stress.”
In simplest terms, coloring has a de-stressing effect because when we focus on a particular activity, we focus on it and not on our worries. But it also “brings out our imagination and takes us back to our childhood, a period in which we most certainly had a lot less stress.” This leads us immediately and unconsciously to welfare, exposes the specialist.
One of the first psychologists to apply coloring as a relaxation technique was Carl G. Jüng in the early 20th century. He did this through mandalas: circular designs with concentric shapes similar to the Gothic churches’ rose windows. They have their origin in India.
When coloring, we activate different areas of our two cerebral hemispheres, says psychologist Gloria Martínez Ayala. “The action involves both logic, by which we color forms, and creativity, when mixing and matching colors. This incorporates the areas of the cerebral cortex involved in vision and fine motor skills [coordination necessary to make small, precise movements]. The relaxation that it provides lowers the activity of the amygdala, a basic part of our brain involved in controlling emotion that is affected by stress.”
In simplest terms, coloring has a de-stressing effect because when we focus on a particular activity, we focus on it and not on our worries. But it also “brings out our imagination and takes us back to our childhood, a period in which we most certainly had a lot less stress.” This leads us immediately and unconsciously to welfare, exposes the specialist.