Counselor’s Corner: Mindfulness

by Shanna Kraai, Lower School counselor

This month students focus on remaining present and paying attention to their thoughts and emotions.
This year we will have monthly themes as a part of our Social Emotional Learning curriculum. Our hope is to deepen our conversations around these important life skills through our assemblies, morning meetings, counseling support, and everyday conversations.

The theme this month is mindfulness. It’s a buzzword in education, neuroscience, and the mental health community, but what does it really mean? Mindful Schools.org defines it as “maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment with openness and curiosity. It has a variety of research-backed impacts, including a reduction in stress, and improvements in job satisfaction, emotional regulation, and focus.”

Mindfulness is remaining present and paying attention in a particular way, non-judgmentally, with your own thoughts and emotions. I often tell children practicing mindfulness is like looking at an apple on a conveyor belt in a grocery store. As we try to focus, we are watching the belt roll by with many other food items: bananas, lettuce, cereal, milk. All are important foods for thought, but we instead allow our thoughts to come and go, just like the food on the conveyor belt. We are remaining aware of the conveyer belt moving and our need to stay present, simply watching that apple as best we can.

During SEL time, we will talk about two specific tools we can use:
  1. Breathing Tool: Touch thumbs and index fingers together in front of you as if holding a tape measure. Slowly pull hands apart while taking a breath. On exhale, bring hands slowly back together. Repeat three times.
  2. Quiet Safe Place Tool: Place your hands over your ears while bending head slightly forward, or go to the safe place, quiet corner, or chill out zone in the classroom. Close your eyes and go to a quiet place in your head.
Here are a few articles and videos to get you thinking about mindfulness:

Here are smartphone apps to help with mindfulness:
Biobreathing
Headspace
Insight Meditation Timer
YogaGlo
Stop, Breathe, and Think
Smiling Mind
Take a Break
Happify
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University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.