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Mindfulness Monday: Mandala Painting
Thank you to my colleague, Christine Lord, for introducing me to Mandala painting. In Sanskrit, Mandala means “circle” and the art represents the symmetry of the universe. It reminds us that everything is interconnected and it is a peaceful way to decrease negativity in our lives. We tried it out today and it was a
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Mindfulness Monday: Breathing Bubble
I love to share the free breathing bubble from the Calm app with my students Here is the video I use from YouTube: Focusing on our breath is the easiest form of being in the moment and noticing the mind/body connection. I found myself replaying the video multiple times through out the day. This simple
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The Paradox of Mindfulness
I recently came across the article, “Paradoxes of Mindfulness” by Dr. Shauna Shapiro, et al. It addresses the idea that the more focus we place on mindfulness and being happy with who we are, the more we want to change. As we practice mindfulness, we are faced with four paradoxical concepts: (1) Acceptance vs. Change,
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Mindfulness Monday: Mindful Coloring
Today’s Mindfulness Monday activity is mindful coloring. This is always a popular activity with my students. Since tomorrow is Halloween, I gave them a coloring page of a haunted house. Participation was high in all of my classes today and I think it may have something to do with how coloring makes students feel about
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Mindfulness Monday: Origami
Today’s Mindfulness Monday activity is origami. I give each student a sheet of square origami paper and play a YouTube video of instructions for folding an origami fortune teller. Here is the link to the video I use : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CODnVX7VAZ8 In the past, I have found that most students are already familiar with origami so
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Book Study: Happy Teachers Change the World
A fellow colleague recently shared her copy of Happy Teachers Change the World by Thich Nhat Hanh and Katherine Weare. I am completely drawn in by Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Letter to a Young Teacher.” His letter gets to the heart of why I created this blog which is to establish a community of teachers dedicated
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Mindfulness Monday: Vision Board
Mindfulness Monday is when I highlight a particular mindfulness activity with my class. I’ve been doing it for the past three yeas and I have received a lot of positive feedback from students. I decided start blogging about them to share ideas with other teachers and hopefully receive useful feedback. Today’s activity is creating a
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What does SEL mean to you?
My mission is to help teachers become more comfortable with incorporating Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) into their classrooms. For me, mindfulness activities helped me embrace SEL. I think it is important to point out the distinction between SEL and mindfulness. According to Teaching Mindfulness to Adolescents , “In mindfulness practice -as an exercise- there
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My Story
So you are a teacher, want to become a teacher, or are trying to figure out why you ever decided to become a teacher in the first place. I started this blog after a long journey of trying to figure out who I was as a teacher and how I could make my life more
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Hello world!
Welcome to A Mindful Akashian. Since I returned to the classroom after the 2020 pandemic, I have been incorporating mindfulness activities into my grade 11 ELA classroom. I have received a lot valuable feedback from students over the years so I decided to create a place where I could collect ideas to share with other