Well.. this is my final post regarding my mindfulness journey. This assignment has allowed me to dive into and learn about a topic I am extremely passionate about. It has also allowed me to gain knowledge to further share with my future students in the hopes they too see and feel the benefits of this wonderful practice, and continue to benefit from it in the future just like I have.
I would like to thank you so much for following along, and I hope you were able to incorporate one of these practices into your life!
Mind Map – Mindfulness Journey Recap
Awesome mindfulness videos you should check out! 🙂
“We breathe all day, every day without thinking about it—but something truly transformative can happen when the breath becomes something we do think about.” – Maggie Seaver.
In addition to my previous post, I wanted to stay on the topic of breathing and how it contributes to mindfulness and wellbeing. I came across an awesome blog style website called realsimple.com, they have a bunch of helpful resources ranging from saving money to recipes, but of course the category that stood out to me most was the “health” tab, category “mental health”. Clicking this “mental health” category opened me up to a World of self-care and mental wellness articles. And of course, I found a post strictly on breathing exercises!!
The article is named “5 Mindfulness Breathing Exercises You Can Do Anywhere, Anytime”, and Maggie Seaver (author) lays out each mindfulness breathing exercise, the benefits of each and the ways in which you should complete them.
The last five days I have practiced each of them once a day and found the ones I felt best suited me and the ones that I am whiling to give more time to. The two I found most helpful in taking me to a state of calmness were, “deep breathing” and “2-4 breathing”, I am excited to further use these techniques and share them with others in the hope they too help bring calmness to their lives! Give them a try! 🙂
www.realsimple.com
www.realsimple.com
Breathing in the classroom:
In addition, I feel that trying these five breathing techniques each week in a classroom would be a great way to introduce the benefits of using our own breath to calm our nervous system to students. You could introduce them individually, then once the students are familiar with each technique you could give them the option of using the one that best suits them.Â
For this week’s mindfulness practice, I wanted to switch it up a bit! Instead of choosing a mindfulness practice I could do, I decided to take a look into the “teacher” side of mindfulness and search for ways you can implement it into your classroom on an educational level (activities, cross curricular lesson, etc.) I came across an awesome website called Education.com, this website has tons of resources for teachers, covers all grades and topics, AND most of the resources are FREE! Â
The lesson plan that stuck out to me most was “Paying Attention with Animal Breaths”. The reason it stuck out to me was most was because of its focus on using your breath. I feel that teaching breathing techniques early on could be a beneficial lesson for students as they can revert back to it in hard situations, explain it to others that are experiencing a hard time and it does not need any exterior materials, just yourself! Plus, from personal experiences I have noticed it calms the nervous system and takes your mind to a place of calmness and being in the present moment. Lastly, I love how the students can create their own “animal breath” that they can use forever and it is a cross curricular lesson as it incorporates literacy and art skills.
I strongly encourage you to check this website out and maybe create an “animal breath” of your own! 🙂
“Paying Attention with Animal Breaths” Lesson Plan PDF.
I chose to do a mindfulness practice this week that involved movement because I feel that I sit too long throughout the day. So, I came across MINDFUL WALKING! This caught my attention because I love walking outdoors and thought I would take full advantage of the fact that it had not snowed yet. It was exactly what I was looking for!
I came across an awesome website that gave me a step by step on how to accomplish a mindfulness walk and the many benefits you can gain from doing it. There are six different steps they recommend you follow in order to do this walk properly; I will show them below:
To be honest the first two times I tried this it was extremely difficult for me since I always get distracted on my walks and love that I usually do not have to think of anything when I am walking. But, on my third walk I really convinced myself that I wanted to follow the six steps and see if I would see any changes in myself, and I did. Even though it was hard to focus on my movements first and then my surroundings there was a sense of peace and calmness that came over me, I felt I was fully engaged in the present moment. It was beautiful!
* I do not think I will do this all the time due to my preference of being “free” in my walks, but this will not be the last time I do it either, due to me actually seeing the benefits of mindfulness walks.
Will I be doing this in my future class as a mindfulness practice?Â
I think that I will give it a try, because it could be the best thing ever for my future students or the worst thing but at least I tried it. I feel that students would benefit from this practice, but I believe when you go on walks this is the time for students to talk to each other and a time when they are not bothered. In saying this, I could see this practice being turned into an art / literacy lesson plan though, the students could draw pictures of what they saw and write sentences about how they felt! I will be trying this in a lesson plan for sure!
More about changetochill.org:Â
They provide lesson plans / activities / resources which are free to all.Â
They cover a lot of different topics other than mindfulness, some being how to reduce stressors, finding life balance and how to reduce stigmas. Â
Highly recommend checking it out! 🙂
A little reminder to take with you throughout your day, take time for yourself!
This week’s mindfulness practice is a bit on the simpler side… due to it only taking one minute to complete and you can do it pretty much anywhere! This post is strictly for my apple watch owners (and maybe Fitbit? Or other fitness / health watch owners…) *EDIT: Fitbit does have a mindfulness breathing application, but I do not know if you get reminders throughout the day to partake in the breathing exercise? Or if you can set up this feature?*.
For myself personally, in the past every time I would get the notification on my Apple watch suggesting I should “take a minute to breath” I would ALWAYS ignored it due to the inconvenience… but I have recently (well just this week) changed that habit! Now, every time I get the notification and if I am in a space where I can successfully complete the one minute of breathing, I take the opportunity to do so. I feel that this mindfulness practice has helped me the most out of all of them, because even when I am busy I can take that one minute to myself and really focus on my breathing and being in the moment.
I feel that this little change in habit could make an impact on my everyday life, even though it is such a small task, the Apple company knew what they were doing. They knew that humans could benefit from a few small breaks throughout the day, even if it is just a minute.
Ideas for implementing this in the classroom… If you as a teacher have an Apple Watch device.
I feel that you could make up a little name for this breathing app so when you get the notification you can say “Hey class, (whatever the name you pick is) is wanting us to take a minute to stop what we are doing and do some breathing.” This may help it become something fun for them.
I understand that dropping everything is hard when the class is in the middle of something so maybe doing it when is convenient for you / your class.
You could show your watch on the projector so they can see the flower going through the breathing with you (as shown in the video below.)
I feel this could be a fun way to get your students to take a minute to themselves and slow down from the craziness of school. 🙂
Me doing my mindfulness practice: journaling 🙂 Video edited on: Splice (Info at the end of post)
This week I chose to do another written mindfulness activity; this one includes journaling. I got the idea from another class I am in (Elementary Field Experience Seminar) and I started to see the changes in myself after the first time we did it, and am still continuing to see positive changes in myself throughout this week, so I thought it would be a great exercise to share! At the beginning of every class, we get 5-15min of alone time where we pick a spot to sit outside and journal (written or drawings) any thoughts that arise for us as well as write out our five senses which are (as well as your heart):
Sight: What are you seeing around you? (Ex: Trees, sky, grass)
Hearing: What do you hear around you? (Ex: Cars, people talking, generators)Â Â
Smell: What do you smell? (Ex: Wet grass, smoke, fresh air)
Taste: What do you taste? (Ex: Coffee, gum, food)
Touch: What are you feeling around you? Or sitting on? (Ex: Wet grass, gravel, soil, seat cushion)
Heart: What are you feeling in this current moment? What is your heart feeling? (Ex: Happy, content, emotional)
This activity has taught me that being alone with your thoughts is not so scary, and that writing them out can get a lot off your chest. Also, being aware of your five senses allows you to come into a state of being present, and I feel that humans of all ages do not get enough time in this state.
What this activity would look like with your students (any grade): Â
Every student would have a pen and a journal that is there’s to keep – this allows them to continue this mindfulness practice at home or wherever makes them comfortable.
This practice could be done outside, inside the classroom, pretty much anywhere that is a quiet / calm environment as well as at any time of the day!
Explain what the five senses are and give some examples of them like I did above.
And let them enjoy being outside or sitting in silence in the classroom where they are alone with their own thoughts and feelings. Allow them to write or draw or both, because some students may feel more comfortable doing one over the other!
Outcome:
Creates calmness amongst the classroom and allows for a fresh start to the day, break in between lessons or a way to wrap up the day before heading home.
* I encourage you to give this mindfulness journaling a try either individually or with your student’s multiple times a week and see what benefits you gain from this practice! 🙂 *
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SPLICE: Video editing App!
Screen Shot from Apple App Store
^ What a fun App! I just discovered it today on the App Store on my iPhone and had way too much fun playing around with all the editing tools that are available (filters, speed changes, text). I highly recommend this app for all your video editing needs, you can select the right type of video layout you are looking for such as an Instagram Reel, Tik Tok or Youtube video! It was also user friendly, I do not have a lot of editing experience when it comes to videos and I found that I was able to navigate myself through the app quite well and the editing process of my first video did not take long at all! I will definitely be using this app in the future.
If you are having troubles navigating through the app, below is an extremely helpful masterclass video that will turn you into a Splice Pro!
This week for my mindfulness project I chose to write five different things I am grateful for every day. This seems like a simple task but when you sit with yourself and really dig down and think it can become a very meaningful task that could be implemented into your everyday routine. For example there are days where I can write a million things I am grateful for and others it takes some digging, therefore I feel that in order to really get something out of this practice it needs to be done for many days, so you can catch yourself on the days that you feel like your world is crashing down and realize that in reality there is always something you can be grateful for!
In addition, I feel that this mindfulness practice could easily be implemented into any classroom at any grade level. Thinking about things or a thing you are grateful for does not take a lot of preparation or time. You can do it in any environment (classroom, outside), you can give options of writing the grateful list in journals or simply just saying what you are grateful for out loud / to a partner OR just allowing them to think about it and having no pressure to share out loud. It has the same effect and teaches the same lesson of slowing down and realizing that there are so many things to be grateful for, even when it does not feel like it.
So, my first mindfulness practice is in the books, and to say it went well would be an understatement. For this week I chose to do a lead mindfulness meditation from a website called insight timer it is completely free and has an array of different types of meditations. I chose to do this meditation three days in a row to see if it continued to benefit me, and it did!
It usually takes everything in me to sit still for longer than 10 minutes straight, but there was something so calming about this meditation that just sent me straight into a world of pure relaxation, resulting in me losing track of time. Having found such comfort in this meditation I could see myself implementing this practice as well as other meditations into my weekly routine, to help me disconnect myself from some of life’s stressors, so I can reconnect and bring myself back to a mindful state! In addition, I could also see myself in the future using guided meditations in my classroom to help bring relaxation to my student’s everyday busy lifestyles. I have found many different children meditations on insight timer and have listened to them myself; I could see them positively benefiting my future students!
In my Technology and Innovation in Education class we have been given the task to further investigate a topic we are curious or passionate about. The purpose of this project is to create a learning plan where we collect online resources, document the process and reflect on our journey of learning through technology.
At a young age my sister taught me the importance of being mindful and how it can positively benefit our mental state and the environment around us. We live in a world where stressful situations, rushing and multitasking comes natural to us which takes time away from what our body needs the most, time to sit with our own thoughts and to live in the present moment. As adults we understand the benefits of slowing down and focusing strictly on one task, and I feel that we need to share and teach these beautiful practices to young students’ early on. Doing so will allow them to carry this practice with them throughout their lives and get to experience the life benefits of mindfulness. Â
For my free inquiry project, I will be implementing a new mindfulness practice into my routine every week, with the intention of getting some useful strategies that I can one day use in my future classroom.
I am very excited to document the process of this journey and share my findings with all of you!
