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Mindfulness

According to Mindful Schools, Mindfulness means paying attention in the present moment to our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, or surrounding environment. For the sake of simplicity, we can define it as noticing what’s happening right now in an open, balanced and curious way. It also includes intentionally nurturing positive states of mind such as empathy and kindness.

Mindfulness strategies are great ways for adults and children to help regulate our emotions. Many of our Fairport students have learned some of these techniques in their Health classes. Below are some resources you may be interested in exploring.

Resources

    • Video #1  is an introduction to the videos and reducing worried thoughts.
    • Video #2 is about why mindful breathing is important. She offers three ways to do it (various ages): buddy breaths with stuffed animals, balloon breaths, and Lazy 8.
    • Video #3 is about gratitude.
    • Video #4 is about mindful eating.
    • Video #5 is about grounding.
    • Video #6 is on setting intentions.
    • Video #1 focuses on the different emotions we may be experiencing and then offers a mindful listening practice. 
    • Video #2 is about when we practice focusing on our breath, we are building our mindfulness muscle! Using an anchor spot helps us feel our breath in our bodies and bring our attention back to our breath when our mind wanders off.
    • Video #3 is about sending kind thoughts; a brief practice of sending well wishes to others and ourselves. This practice can help us feel more connected to others and compassionate towards ourselves.
    • Body Scan
    • Thank You Practice
    • The Waves of Emotion: By placing our attention on our body and breath, we can learn to ride the waves of emotion and sink below the surface to a calm place.
    • Butterfly Body Scan
    • Video #1 and Video #2 and Video #3 guide you through some basic steps in taking a Mindful pause to find stillness, quiet, breath and awareness. You are then given two minutes with some instrumental music playing to help you create this pause for yourself.
    • Video #4 and Video #5, and Video #6 guide viewers through some basic steps in taking a Mindful Walk, a kind of walking that helps us practice becoming more aware of the present moment.
    • These videos (Video #7, Video #8, Video #9) remind viewers of the basic meaning and purpose of Mindfulness, then guide you through a familiar Mindful Movement (Yoga flow) to help you practice becoming more aware of the present moment.
    • These videos (Video #10 and Video #11 and Video #12) remind you of the basic meaning and purpose of Mindfulness, then guide you through some primary steps in taking a Mindful Pause. In a Mindful Pause, we seek to find stillness, quiet, breath and awareness. You are then given three minutes to create this pause for yourself, and hopefully to find some peace and calm.
    • These videos (Video #13, Video 14 and Video #15) is about how the practice is intended to guide families through some simple steps to help in reflecting on uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. You will be asked to consider how those thoughts and feelings manifest in your body, in addition to what moments bring about this discomfort to begin with. This seemingly simple and basic practice is deeply rooted in Mindfulness, the ability to notice how we think and feel about things as they are happening in an effort to, among other things, get to know ourselves better. We also hope that this will feel like self care, not asking you to eliminate uncomfortable ways of thinking and feeling, but to practice the art of just noticing, with the hope that in time we can slow down our discomfort enough to make more intentional and solution-based responses. This is one way to bring more joy into our everyday lives.