welcome/pick up a cutie and
place dots on where I am with mindfulness right now:
"I am brand new to mindfulness"
" i know some info about..."
"i use mindfulness practice regularly but would like more"

introductions & background
SOO thankful that you decided to come here today, taking time out of your packed schedules because today, and especially THIS HOUR, is going to be an opportunity to just BE...to set aside the problem solving, suspend the objectives and the deadlines

We want so badly to experience peace and calm in our lives, and we want to instill it in our students and our own famiies...but you can't GIVE what you don't already HAVE...the cuties you picked up are a sensory reminder that you can only share what's already inside of you' oranges can onlu give orange juice, apples, when they are under pressure, release apple juice...so it is with us...when we are under pressure, we can only release what we have inside of us....whether that's our own stress, or frustration, or exasperation...or if we've developed our own center of peacefulness, awareness, and calm...
"cuties" analogy to begin

taking 60 seconds here to just pause, slow down, allow our minds to be right here, in the same place as our bodies, just focusing on what we're doing here today...letting the outside stuff be set aside and be present, right here, right now...

trying to help our students improve their self-regulation and coping techniques, but we can can't give what we ourselves don't have...

need to regularly fill our own reservoirs cuz you can't pour from an empty cup...

#3 mindfulness is not just warm fuzzy mumbo jumbo but there are DECADES of research showing the physiological benefits to improve and HEAL the body and improve emotional well-being

Creating a lovely life...

What kinds of things are you juggling? WHO are those hands reaching for a piece of you??
When do you feel the most stressed?

How can you tell when you are stressed?
What do you currently do to relieve stress? wine, massage, chocolate, time with friends (external fixes) but the antidote to stress can actually come from within...

That TRAP of "I'll be happy when..." If we're continually postponing our happiness and enjoyment until "THINGS SLOW DOWN" we find we NEVER get to the spot where things calm down, we are always stressed, and we don't get to just ENJOY the JOURNEY...That's the gift of MINDFULNESS.

paying attention to what is actually happening in the moment, appreciating life AS IT HAPPENS.

Can be applied to sensory experiences, thoughts, and emotions by sustaining attention and noticing our experience without reacting...

When you're in the shower, are you enjoying the sensations or are you time-traveling, with your principal and a few students in there with you????

Are you enjoying the sunshine or are you rehashing a conflict for the 50th time???

Are you listening to your spouse or child as you're driving or are you stressing out about tomorrow's evaluation?

figuring out what we can control, what's out of our control, and just staying in the moment of where we CAN have an impact

This picture is actually a bit of a SELF-PORTRAIT...when I was first reading about mindfulness and meditation, I had all these guided meditations and music and I felt like I was getting really good at just getting in the zone....but then I was taking a pretty intense on-line course through Mindful Schools and one of the early lessons actually said "Get rid of the music and the mantras..." and I was like "What?!?!?" and in my head I'm arguing this and i was still walking with one ear bud in, just enjoying a walk with the instrucmental music playing in my ear...and then I noticed the background of spring peepers, and I though, "I don't remember this song having nature sounds in it....and so I popped out the ear bud and realized....those were REAL nature sounds...I had been walking up and down this road for decades and never noticed the spring peepers because I was all about problem solving mode and multi-tasking...I was never just enjoying the present moment....

becoming aware of the present moment as it's happening...noticing your thoughts with curiosity, not beating yourself up, but gently redirecting yourself over and over again...like teaching a puppy to sit...

"Mindfulness give you time. Time gives you choices. Choices, skillfully made, lead to freedom.
You don't have to be swept away by your feelings. you can respond with wisdom and kindness rather than habit and reactivity. " (PRINT Larger version of this quote from power point)

1) Taking time for meditation or to practice mindfulness is perhaps one of the only activities that you get your TIME BACK in increased productivity and improved mindset to navigate your day more positively. Everything can flow more easily when you approach the day with a positive mindset.

2) Mindfulness can actually GIVE YOU ENERGY so that you can look ahead at your day with the perspective that you can take time out throughout the day to regenerate focus and energy with your relaxation and oxygenation of the body, not stressing that you have a limited amount of energy that is only depleted throughout the day/

Mindfulness is a way of being that can result in less stress, but relaxation is a benefit of mindfulness, not necessarily the goal...

The goal is actually being IN YOUR LIFE WHILE IT'S happening...owning and acknowledging the stress, but then also mindfully handling it and releasing it...

3 minutes...

settle in
begin to notice the body...body scan; hips, rib cage, shoulders
find the breath...noticing the quality and pace of the inhalation
bringing your focus to the breath where you feel it the most...

noticing the tempo of your thoughts and just allowing them to slow, noticing when they stray to the past or the future and just gently, lovingly, bringing them back to be where you are, right here, right now...

allowing the brain and the body to relax and recharge....

connecting with your inner strength

monkey mind, hard to focus?
TURN AND TALK 1 minute, share out loud to group...
distractions, wandering thoughts

Taking time each day to practice becoming more aware of your thoughts...YOU ARE NOT YOUR THOUGHTS...YOU are the observer of your thoughts...most of the time, your thoughts are just rantings from your brain trying to stress you out! Your thoughts are not GOD talking to you...Your brain is trying to protect you from overload, protect you from risk-taking, protect your ego from people who say mean or rude things...but when you're stressed, your brainis just in overdrive...Mindfulness meditation gives you the chance to build MUSCLE MEMORY so that in the midst of a stressful situation, you can find your center...
like the golfer...or the basketball player...the more you practice bringing your mind back to the present moment, over and over, the more likely you will be able to find your CALM in the MIDDLE of the CHAOS..

DISTRIBUTE PACKETS
brain physiology- make two fists

from the most primitive part of the brain
- amygdala- fight flight or freeze/shut down
hippocampus- memory forming, organizing and storing, is BLOCKED if the amygdala is firing
pre-frontal cortex- problem solving, regulation of complex cognitive, emotional and behavioral functioning. shut down when amygdala is firing.

without mindfulness stopping the stress response, NO emotional processing is happening to reactions are REACTIVE and unconscious rather than thought out RESPONSES

* stress reduction
*improved ability to focus attention
* lessens emotional reactivity
*improves working memory
* improves sleep quality
*supports weight loss, less cortisol

refer to research listed and articles

past present future You can never go back and make a difference in something that has already taken place. It is finished. Replaying past hurts only keeps them alive in your present reality- your mind doesn't know the difference.

There is nothing to gain by obsessing about what might never come to be... of COURSE, we take time to deliberately plan for what's coming up, but the difference is that we are INTENTIONALLY taking time to productively PLAN, not allowing worry or stress to take over and rob the joy from our present experiences.

Teachers with strong SEL skills have classrooms with healthier CLIMATES, stronger student Relationships, more effective Management, leading to postive outcomes for students; social, emotional, and academic

Compassion fatigue research from Mindful Schools (Secondary Trauma affecting people who work with students in schools, Figley, 1995) Higher in women, newer teachers, high poverty schools, can also be caused by parents or administrative pressures and school climate.

mindfulness can create the bridge, allowing us to respond thoughtfully rather than to react---and often regret how it turned out...

DISTRIBUTE THE SELF_CARE PLAN