Mindfulness:
Is the practice of being aware of your body, mind, and feelings in the present moment, thought to create a feeling of calm.
There are many ways to become mindful and present in your body.
The Sunshine Bears helped us to learn a few ways during the story you just read!
Square Breathing
Let’s Practice:
• Put one hand on your heart and the other on your abdomen.
• Close your eyes (this helps us to be attentive to our bodies)
• Breathe in for 4 counts, hold your breath deep in your abdomen for 4 counts, and release your breath for 4 counts.
• Try this 3 times and reflect on how your body feels afterwards!
Is your body as calm as the Sunshine Bear’s bodies were? If not, that’s okay, we can do it again! 😊
Mindful Eating
Grab a small food that is something that you would normally eat, just like Abigail grabbed a bite of pink salmon and Eddington a lobster puff in our story! One example would be a raisin or a small cookie.
Let’s Practice:
• The Goal with mindful eating is to use all your senses to experience your food.
• This will force us to slow down and be present and grounded in our bodies.
• It will also help our body to know when it is still hungry and when it is full.
• Make sure and take at least 20 seconds per step!
• First, use your eyes. What does your food look like? Examine the shape, color, texture. What do you notice?
• Next, use your sense of smell. What does your food smell like? Do you smell any ingredient more than others?
• How about your sense of touch? Does your food feel sticky, smooth, moist, dry? What do you notice?
• After taking a bite. Let’s close our eyes and notice what chewing our food sounds like. Does it sound crunchy? Can you hear yourself swallowing?
• How does your food taste? Sweet, savory, a little of both?
• Remember to take each bite with the intention of observing this experience through all your senses.
• Pay attention to your senses, your emotions, and what your body is telling you through this process.
• Reflect on what was different in your eating habits while using Mindful Eating, as opposed to what you experience normally?
The “5, 4, 3, 2, 1” Exercise
Let’s use our senses to help us feel calm and grounded in our bodies!
• Look around, what are 5 things that you see around you? What do you notice?
• Let’s feel. What are 4 things that you can touch around you. This could be something you are sitting on, leaning against, standing on, or that you can reach with your hands. What do those objects feel like?
• Let’s listen. What are 3 things that you can hear? Are these sounds from inside the room you are in, outside, and/or are the sounds internal to you (for example-is your tummy growling because you are hungry?).
• Take a deep inhale. What are 2 things that you can smell? Are these pleasant or unpleasant smells? What do you notice?
• Now open your mouth and move your tongue around your teeth. What do you taste? Is there a lingering breakfast taste still present in your mouth? Do you taste the toothpaste you used to brush your teeth with this morning? What do you taste?
• Notice what happens to your body and emotions while you practice this exercise?
Was this as calming for you as it was for the Sunshine Bears?
Let’s Reflect!
Do you remember our Square Breathing Technique that we learned from the Sunshine Bears? I hope so, because we are going to use it here too!
Let’s Practice:
• Begin your breathing. Inhale for 4 counts, hold for 4 counts, and exhale for 4 counts. Keep this up throughout the whole exercise.
• Close your eyes.
• With your feet planted on the floor and your hands on your lap palms up, let’s begin our body scan.
• First, we will begin scanning our bodies internally from head to toe while square breathing.
• During this meditation, you will notice what you feel in your body. Does your body have any needs that have not been met today? For example, do you feel hungry, thirsty, tired? What do you notice?
• Now, we will scan our bodies from our toes to the top of our head.
• Again, ask yourself the same questions. What are you noticing inside of you? What are your feelings, your thoughts, is this difficult or easy for you? What do you notice?
• Now, let’s repeat this exercise externally beginning from head to toe. What do you notice? Are there distractions around you? Do you feel cold or warm? Is there anything your body needs right now?
• And, lastly, let’s repeat this exercise externally from toes to the top of your head. What do you notice? Is this easy or hard for you? What does your body need right now?
• Following the completion of this exercise, let’s reflect on how we feel, what we are thinking, and what we would like to do right now. If we have identified any needs for ourselves, let’s think about how we can meet these today.
Body Scan Meditation
ABC Grounding Technique
Pick a topic, any topic! This could be something fun or silly, something interesting to you, or even something you don’t know much about.
With a friend, family member, or a group of individuals, let’s go around from person to person by naming something associated with our chosen topic letter by letter until we get through the alphabet!
For example, if our topic is “fruit,” the first person might say: A-Apple, the second person might say: B- Banana, the third person might say: C- Coconut, and so on.
Let’s reflect. How are you feeling after this activity? Should we pick another topic and keep going? You decide! 😊