3 Simple Ways to Incorporate Mindfulness Into Your Classroom

Mindfulness is defined 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, used as a therapeutic technique." 

Today, students are as distracted as they have ever been by their technology, cell phones, and social media. It is hard for them to be aware of how they are feeling and their environment because they rarely take time to stop, breathe, and be happy without having to check or do something. When we as humans are aware of our senses and how we feel, we are more productive and are able to better deal with stress and anxiety. 

Here are three simple ways to incorporate mindfulness into your classroom this school year to give students a break and get refocused. 

• Finger Breathing: You trace the five fingers of one hand with the index finger of the other. The in breathe goes up the side of the finger and the out breathe goes down. Do all five then reverse directions. 

• 3 Deep Breaths: This is a great way to reset in the middle of the day.  It is also a great way to realize how shallow you had been breathing and where you were carrying tension and anxiety. Breathe in slowly for 3 seconds, hold, and release for 3 seconds. 

• 5 Sense Check-in: Look at something new in the room you are in and then listen intently for sounds. What sensations does your skin and body feel? Breathe deep through your nose. Are there any scents? Are there any tastes in the mouth? This is a great way to pause and re-center your attention in the present moment. 

If you or your students are having a hard time dealing with emotions, stress, anxiety, etc. I encourage you to check-out the apps Calm and Headspace. They are free and very helpful with teaching the basics of mindfulness. 

A Week Without Facebook and Twitter: Liberating

If you have a Facebook or Twitter and are active like me, you probably are involved in the daily carousel of posts, comments, news, and shares. It starts when you awake. You wipe your sleepy eyes, grab the cellular device, open your social media apps, and check to see what you missed while you were dreaming about that bear chasing you. You get out of the shower, dry off, and check it again. Your just about at work and find yourself at a stop light. Instead of thinking for yourself, taking in the scenery, maybe being mindful for a moment; you habitually check social media once again to see what’s happening. This cycle goes on all day long for the majority of people who utilize these platforms.

As I was sitting on my couch last week watching tv, my wife brought to my attention how much I was checking Facebook lately. I would watch tv for a few minutes, check Facebook. Go to the bathroom, come back, and check Facebook. I was doing this probably 50-100 times a day. I feel that in our society today, I am not in the minority of people who live their lives like this. After a discussion, my wife and I decided to challenge each other to live as if it never existed. We were going to delete our Facebook and Twitter apps from our phone and see how it would feel after a week.

The first day was hard I must admit. My habit was to go to the social media folder, and open Facebook when I had a free moment. Not having the app made it a lot harder. Through days one through three, I broke down a few times and used the browser to peruse. After day four, I think I checked it one or two times for only a minute. As the week went on, I cared less about what others were doing and invested more time into my life. It honestly felt good to break my mind of the habit and think for myself again. Some of the things I noted about the week through reflection were:

1. Who cares what others are up to all the time. Spend less time worrying about them and focus on living your life to the fullest. I found I have had way more time to work on important things in life rather than wasting my life on worrying about what others are up to.

2. Honestly, anytime I did something fun in life, it was in my mind, “take a picture and share it on social media.” It was so temping during that week to share the places I went to, my new walkway I completed, where I was running, etc. I now realize that sometimes the best memories don't need to be shared with the world, only with the people who truly care.

3. Stop comparing your life to others. One of the worst things about Facebook is we look to see what others are up to and then we compare our life to theirs. Recently, I saw someone’s post say, "OK, you all can stop getting engaged now." Basically what that person is says is, "I am not happy in my life and I am tired of seeing others getting engaged." Stop wishing it would happen, put the device down, and live your life.

4. I didn’t miss out on anything. I'll say that again. I DID NOT MISS OUT ON ANYTHING. What I had been missing out on is doing things to make myself a stronger person like reading, learning to program, brainstorming ideas, exercising, etc.

After going through the process, I feel I have a new perspective on life that has been deprived from me since I bought a smart phone with these apps on it. Truly, I feel liberated. Liberated from the habitual cycle of wasting time caring about what others are doing that is more fun than what I am doing right now. I am now into week two and have no reason to install the apps back onto my phone. Do I plan to use Facebook again and post? Sure. Will I check it 50 times a day again? No way. Life has been more enjoyable and I am choosing to live out there instead of inside of device. Try it. How long can you go?

-RD