This virtual 3-hr Mindful Yoga Breaks® workshop will help educators & clinicians to bring focus, self-regulation and calm to kids while also fostering social-emotional learning. We will explore the many benefits of mindfulness & movement techniques, and how to utilize them for clinical interventions as well as in the classroom with children ages 5 – 11. In this online workshop we will: Discuss the brain as it relates to managing emotion using child-friendly terms Practice dozens of activities to add to the teaching toolbox that can be used in little breaks throughout the school day or in your practice Explore the many benefits of mindfulness & movement and how to use them as interventions for specific behavior patterns Where: From Your Own Home! (zoom link shared once you register) When: Oct 1, 2022 Time: 9:00am – 12:00pm ET Who: educators & clinicians Each workshop participant will leave with: Downloadable PDF… Read More »
Why YOU, Yes YOU Should Start a Gratitude Practice
and how a gratitude practice can bring more joy to your life. The definition of gratitude is the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness. Benedictine monk, Br. David Steindl-Rast, suggests that two qualities belong in our basic definition of gratitude. The first is appreciation: You recognize that something is valuable to you, which has nothing to do with its monetary worth. The second quality Br. David mentions is that gratitude is gratis: freely given to you. Robert Emmons, perhaps the world’s leading scientific expert on gratitude, also argues that gratitude has two key components: “First, it’s an affirmation of goodness. We affirm that there are good things in the world, gifts and benefits we’ve received.” In her book, Living in Gratitude: A Journey That Will Change Your Life, Angeles Arrien writes: “Gratitude is essentially the recognition of the unearned increments of value in… Read More »
How to Create a Mindful Glitter Bottle
This glitter bottle represents how our minds can settle. It is an activity that your kids can use as a mindfulness practice. Why the glitter bottle? We are always looking for tools to calm our kids. This one in particular is extremely calming – they are mesmerizing AND give us a window inside our brain. But first we must explain why we use this glitter bottle. Kids tend to act out when they are struggling and sometimes have difficulty sharing what is going on. When they can’t find the words to explain how they are feeling, we need to be able to demonstrate the connection between our thoughts, feelings and behaviors. This glitter bottle is one of the most powerful visual metaphors for what is going on in our brain and the connection between our feelings, thoughts and behaviors. It allows us to practice mindfulness– the practice of being still… Read More »
