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Mindfulness Monday: Mindful Mugs
Today’s Mindfulness Monday activity is Mindful Mugs. This paper copy of a mug of hot cocoa gives students a chance to be mindful about happiness. I asked each student to write down the things that bring them joy on the marshmallows in the mug.
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Mindfulness Monday: Mindful Pencils
We are in the middle of midterms and it’s a stressful time of year for both students and teachers. Today I gave each of my students a pencil with the word “breathe” written on it. I hope this gesture helps ease the all this mid-year anxiety! I hope this post reminds you take breath and…
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Book Study: Mindfulness by Ellen J. Langer
I just finished reading Ellen J. Langer’s book Mindfulness, and I have so many important takeaways from her research. Right from the start, she points out that “to do an act mindfully, novelty must be introduced.” I see this as directly related to the work I am doing in my classroom by exposing students to…
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Mindfulness Monday: Desk Yoga
Today we had a two hour delay, but I was still able to share this desk yoga activity with one of my classes and I posted the link on Google Classroom for anyone else who wanted to try it at home. Here is the link I used: If you try this activity with your class,…
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Different Measures of Success
I’ve always been accustom to measuring growth sequentially. Whether it was adding more miles during my marathon training, or counting the number left in a stack of essays to grade, I measured my progress by the increase in number completed. However, my healing journey has forced me to measure my success differently. According to my…
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Mindfulness Monday: Mindful Snowman
Today’s Mindfulness Monday activity is a Mindful Snowman. First I used this video to do a breathing activity with my class. Then, I had each student cut out a paper snowman and write the breathing exercise on it as reminder to themselves or for someone else to take a minute to breath with intention. Some…
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Book Study: Radical Acceptance
I started reading Radical Acceptance after listening to Gwyneth Paltrow interview Dr. Tara Brach on her Goop podcast. I loved that they did the RAIN practice together and given my own background in researching protocols, I think it is an important one to share. The RAIN protocol is a practice to try whenever you are…
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Mindfulness Monday: Mindful Snowflakes
Today we made Mindful Snowflakes. I gave each of my students a piece of white paper and scissors. We followed this video: Once the students created their snowflakes, I asked them write down the things that are weighing on them (school, work, friend drama, etc.) on the snowflake. I was so excited when my class…
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Mindfulness Monday: Singing Bowls & Sound Baths
Today I introduced the idea of “inviting the bell” the my classroom using the Tibetan singing bowl I have and I also posted a link to the crystal singing bowl sound bath I like to listen to when I need to calm my nervous system. I explained to my students that I struggle with anxiety…
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Realistic Expectations
The pressure of having a magical holiday season can weigh on those of us who struggle with our mental health. I see some of my students struggle during this time of year because the inequities among families are even more apparent than ususal. Whether it is mentioning the cost of gifts, extravagant trips, or large…