In the past year, many of you may have been hearing more and more about “mindfulness” and instantly think of someone sitting cross-legged on the floor in flowing white clothes, with long hair and peace signs around their neck. Even the Oxford Dictionary describes mindfulness as “a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations…”  Pretty “new agey”, right?

Well, maybe, but it doesn’t have to be. Mindfulness practices can be playful and engaging while help our nervous systems get the much-needed calm they need to learn, create, and problem-solve – all the things we need to be successful in our home, school, and work lives. Many kids (and the adults around them) are really struggling with online learning right now but there are ways to incorporate mindfulness into those virtual settings.

A great resource for teaching mindfulness to children and youth is Blissful Kids. They offer simple ways to explain how the brain works, what mindfulness means, and what the benefits are. They also have a number of easy, fun, engaging activities that can be incorporated into everyday practice including recently released ideas on how to incorporate mindfulness into the virtual classroom.

Practicing these with students isn’t just good for them in the moment, they begin to learn skills that will help them manage adversity for a lifetime. And teachers get to work in some self-care at the same time! We would love to hear from you about how you are incorporating mindfulness or other self-care strategies into your daily lives. Please use the comment section below to share your thoughts or send them to me at TISCTeam@wichita.edu.  We can’t wait to hear from you!