Secular Mindfulness in Schools: Benefits and Practice Sessions

1. Mindfulness Matters In Schools Megan Hook

2. What To Expect Tonight • What is secular mindfulness and why it matters • How secular mindfulness comes to be in schools • The brain and mindfulness • Practice sessions • Information about family night, November 9th

3. Secular Mindfulness What do you know? What do you want to know?

4. What Is Mindfulness? Paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and without judgment. Jon Kabat-Zinn (sustained attention - stamina) Three aspects of mindfulness: concentration, sensory clarity, equanimity. Shinzen Young

5. Non-Judgment/Equanimity • Nonreactive, Spacious • Openness, Curiosity • Heartfulness

6. Mindful Schools www.mindfulschools.org

7. Mindfulness Definition for Children Mindfulness is noticing what is happening right now. • What you’re seeing • What you’re hearing • How you’re feeling • What you’re thinking • As complex or as simple as they are able to understand

8. Does Mindfulness Matter? Relevance

9. Have you ever: • Said something you later regretted and wished you could take back? • Felt angry or out of control? • Felt nervous about a test or performance? • Been in a bad mood and weren’t sure why? • Been in a bad mood but not even sure what the emotion was? • Had trouble falling asleep? • Felt overwhelmed, needing a break from everyone and everything? • Noticed that you do much better at something when you’re able to focus? • Sports teams, mindfulness coaches Socratic Method*

10. Benefits of MindfulnessSupported by 30 years of research and current neuroscience • Better focus and concentration • Decreased stress and anxiety • Improved impulse control • Increased empathy and understanding of others • Increased sense of calm • Increased self control and regulation • Ability to be present to life, self, and others

13. Jon Kabat-Zinn • University of Massachusetts Medical School, 1979 • Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) • Psychology, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) • Research and Rigor • Results

14. What Mindfulness Isn’t • Isn’t rigid control • Isn’t a disciplinary tactic • Isn’t only calmness and happiness • Isn’t a silver bullet for everything that ails • Isn’t the absence of thought • Isn’t meditation • Isn’t religious

15. What Mindfulness Isn’t (2) • It isn’t something else to do, it’s a way to be • Instructions: stop whatever you are doing, sit, breathe • It isn’t about putting something else on top of everything else, it’s about stripping away • It’s a natural state or openness, presence, and clarity • Moments of beauty in nature • Moments with exercise • Moments with music • Moments before a car wreck • Moments of very good or very bad news

16. Practice Session 1 Mindful Bodies and Mindful Breathing

17. Body Language/Posture Amy Cuddy, Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are Ted talk – www.ted.com Social Psychologist – Harvard Business School

18. Practice Session 2Anchor Breathing

19. Neuroscience There is currently an explosion of research at major universities, medical centers, and beyond regarding mindfulness…

20. What Creates A Healthy Brain?

21. Leading Research Centers • Stanford University, Centre for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, within the School of Medicine, Dr. James Doty • University of Wisconsin, Madison, The Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, Dr. Richard Davidson • UCLA, Mindfulness Awareness Research Center - MARC, Dr. Daniel Siegel • Benson-Henry Institute of Mind-Body Medicine, founded by Herbert Benson, M.D., Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School • Harvard Department of Psychiatry, Meditation Research Lab, Massachusetts General, Sara Lazar • University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Division of Preventative and Behavioral Medicine, within the School of Medicine • NIH – National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine • Oxford Mindfulness Centre, part of Oxford University’s Department of Psychiatry • Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany

22. Dr. Daniel Siegel, M.D. • Harvard, UCLA, MARC • Mindsight • The Mindful Brain • Brainstorm, The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain • Parenting from the Inside Out (Mary Hartzell) With Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D. • The Whole-Brain Child • No-Drama Discipline

23. Neuroscience and Mindfulness • Neuroplasticity • 1990s, 2005, 2010-2011 Sara Lazar • What fires together wires together • Hebb’s axiom, psychologist Donald Hebb • Mirror neurons • 1990s • Emotional contagion • Emotional Regulation

24. Neuroscience • You’re always practicing, what are you practicing? • Neuroplasticity – the brain is always changing • Brain Hack, hack: to modify in skillful or clever way • Self-directed neuroplasticity • Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz • What fires together wires together • Becomes strengthened and fire faster with repetition • Connections become “kindled” • Synaptic pruning • Creating new patterns weakens and delete old patterns

25. Brain and Central Nervous System

27. The 9 Functions of the PFC • Body Regulation • Attuned Communication • Emotional Balance/Affect Regulation • Response Flexibility • Empathy (Mindsight) • Insight of Self-Knowing Awareness • Fear Modulation/Fear Extinction • Intuition • Morality

30. Practice Session 3 Mindful Conversation

31. Talking to Kids About Their Brain The greatest supercomputer they’ll ever possess… Taking ownership Hand Model of the Brain youtube.com – Dr. Daniel Siegel

32. Practice Session 4Working With Thoughts

33. Can We Separate Thoughts and Emotions?

34. About Thoughts • The brain thinks, that isn’t a problem • It is impossible to stop the brain from thinking, that isn’t the goal • The goal is to notice you are thinking almost all the time • Then notice the quality of your thoughts • Are they helpful? • Are they true? • 90% of thoughts are repetitive • 80% of thoughts are negative • Cleveland Clinic • 74% of statistics are made up

35. Negativity Bias Psychologist Rick Hanson: “Your brain is like Velcro for negativity and Teflon for positivity.” Hardwiring Happiness

36. Weaving Goodness In

37. Techniques for Working With Thoughts • Breathing In, Breathing Out • In, Out • Counting 1-5, 1-10 • Labeling • Thinking Thinking • Labeling Sad Sad, Bored Bored, Excited Excited • Past, Present, Future • Fantasy/Fearful/Day Dreaming/Catastrophizing

38. Practice Session 5 Body Scan

39. Practice Session 6 Sending Kind Thoughts

40. Kind Thoughts • May you be healthy and strong • May you be happy • May you be at peace

41. Going Deeper Sending Kind Thoughts • Traditional Practice of sending kind thoughts to: • Yourself • Someone you care for deeply • Someone you are neutral towards • The unseen masses • Someone you have difficulty with • Minor difficulty • More serious difficulty

42. Fruits of Practice • The positive benefits of Mindfulness • Compassion • Gratitude • Generosity • Well-being

43. Jar of Goodness-Practice

44. How to Integrate Mindfulness at Home • Pick a specific time and practice – for instance gratitude • Dinner time • Bed time • Integrate it into an existing modality/or replace • Timeouts, anchor breathing • Family discussions, start and end with 5 mindful breaths, or ring a bell • Jar of gratitude • Read once a week on Sundays or once a month • Trigger experiences • Sending kind thought when someone is struggling • Self-implementation of anchor breath • Parents lead • Sharing your tools/transparency

45. Consider This • Do I have time for mindfulness? Do I have time to introduce practice at home? • Hygiene, brushing teeth, showering • Every day • Several times a day • Mental, emotional hygiene “You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes every day, unless you’re too busy; then you should sit for an hour.” Zen proverb

46. Family Mindfulness • Wednesday, November 9th – 6-7 PM • All ages welcome, sweet spot is 2nd to 5th grade • We will practice together • Exercises developed for kids

47. Question and Answer

48. Closing Thoughts • Practice • Curiosity and openness • Experimentation • Precision, gentleness, letting go • Start a conversation

49. Thank You! www.mindfulnessmattersinschools.com megan@meganhook.com facebook/mindfulnessmattersLA

50. Practice Session 2Directing Attention