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Deepak Chopra just opened a new meditation challenge (guided meditation in spanish) for 7 days only.

Here is the link
Enjoy!

https://choprameditacion.com/experience

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One of my favorites of all times! I just bumped into it and had to share it with you. If you haven't read this you MUST, if you already did, then you MUST read it again!!!

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Nice way to start with little ones . . .

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Sesame Street: Common and Colbie Caillat Sing "Belly Breathe" with Elmo

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Teaching Mindfulness to Preschoolers May Improve School Performance

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Teaching Mindfulness to Preschoolers May Improve School Performance

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Summary: When classrooms of preschoolers received weekly lessons in mindfulness, they became better at sharing and scored higher marks on their year-end assessments. The study relied on trained mindfulness instructors who visited the classrooms and followed a set curriculum, but there are ways anyone can incorporate mindfulness into their children's days (including living more "in the moment" yourself as a parent).
Training in mindfulness - the practice of focusing your attention on the present moment - is said to help lawyers stay calm in the courtroom, decrease pain and stress in patients with chronic disease, and make stressed-out workers everywhere feel more creative, less anxious and more compassionate. But does mindfulness, which can take adults years to master, have a place in the preschool classroom too? A new study says yes: 4- and 5-year-olds taught mindfulness techniques (like how to focus on their breathing) got higher marks in learning, social-emotional development and health, even months after the training.

"If this can be embedded into the kids' education, it can really have a long-term impact," says Lisa Flook of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, first author of the new paper, which was published in the journal Developmental Psychology. "A lot of times there's such a focus on the cognitive and performance aspects of school, but we know that these kinds of social and emotional qualities support that learning."

Flook and her colleagues worked with seven preschool classrooms at six different schools, assigning about half the preschoolers (30 students from three classrooms) to participate in a mindfulness-based "Kindness Curriculum" and the rest (38 students in four classrooms) to continue their normal activities. Trained instructors visited the participating classrooms twice weekly for 12 weeks, giving a 20- to 30-minute lesson during each visit.

"With kids, a lot of times they are already pretty present to what's happening in the moment," Flook says. But the mindfulness approaches that work for older students and adults (telling someone to sit quietly and focus on their breath for five minutes, for instance) can be difficult for preschoolers. "Some of the adaptations that were made for kids were using more hands-on activities and movement," Flook explains. One activity the kids particularly liked, she says, was called "Belly Buddies," which involved watching a stone move up and down on their stomachs as the kids lay on their backs breathing. But the curriculum also involved tasks that emphasized empathy and compassion - asking students to spend time thinking about the importance of other people in their lives, for example.

At the end of the study period, Flook's group gauged how willing children in both participating and non-participating classrooms were to share with their peers. Those who had been through the Kindness Curriculum were more likely to give stickers to someone else in the classroom rather than keep them for themselves. In addition, when end-of-the-year report cards were issued (a full three months after the curriculum had ended), students who'd participated ranked higher in the categories for learning, social-emotional development and health.

What this means to you. Even if your preschool isn't about to bring mindfulness trainers into the classroom, there are ways to integrate these ideas into your routine at home. Developmental psychologist Rachel Razza of Syracuse University has also applied mindfulness curriculum to preschool classrooms and found similar benefits to what Flook's group concluded.

"These mindfulness practices are ways to help your child pay more attention to the present moment and be more in touch with how their body feels, the senses they experience, and to understand both their own feelings and other people's feelings," Razza says. "It's not like your child is going to be full-fledged meditator or yogi, this is just giving them additional skills to promote self-regulation and manage stress and be more compassionate."

Razza says that one of the best ways parents can learn how to pass mindfulness along to their preschoolers is to practice it themselves. If you learn for yourself what it's like to be more mindful, you can better guide what aspects of that you'd like to teach your tot. If you've never tried before, many yoga classes teach mindfulness techniques, and some studios offer specific meditation classes.

Mindfulness techniques are ideally geared toward 4- to 5-year-olds - though the study authors say you can probably start your child a little younger. The key is to make the activities fun and age-appropriate, not something that your child dreads. So try a few with your little one, and go with your gut about whether your child seems to be learning from them. Razza and Flook suggest the following ways to integrate mindfulness into your child's day:

Add glitter to a bottle full of water to help your child visualize their emotions. When she's angry or upset, show her how the bottle is shaken up.

When you pick your child up from school, rather than asking "What did you do today?" ask "Who was a good friend to you today?"

Use a visual aid to help them pay attention to their breathing. Flook's group used a stone on children's stomachs that they could watch rise and fall, while Razza's study included ''Take-5,'' in which the child inhales for the count of 5 as she raises each finger and then exhales for 5 as each finger is closed.

Pay attention with purpose and curiosity. Take a walk outside and try to notice sounds of all types. Or, try a mindful eating exercise: Slowly, with quiet attention, explore a food item with all of the senses before eating it - noticing the smells, colors, textures and any sensations of pleasure or displeasure.

3 things to read next:

Sarah C.P. Williams is a freelance science writer based in Hawai'i who covers medicine, biology, and anything else that makes her go "wow!" for magazines, websites, and scientific journals worldwide. Her writing can be found at www.sarahcpwilliams.com and www.facebook.com/sarahcpwilliams.

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STUDY: Teaching Mindfulness to Preschoolers May Improve School Performance | What to Expect

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Summary: When classrooms of preschoolers received weekly lessons in mindfulness, they became better at sharing and scored higher marks on their year-end assessments. The study relied on trained mindfulness instructors who visited the classrooms and followed a set curriculum, but there are ways anyone can incorporate mindfulness into their children's days (including living more "in the moment" yourself as a parent).

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super book to support a teacher's practice

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super book to support a teacher's practice

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and begin to incorporate into a classroom

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a good app to help you with a daily practice

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a good app to help you with a daily practice

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SHAYSANN WILL PAY FOR LIFE MEMBERSHIP... see her assistant!

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‎ZenFriend - Meditate daily. on the App Store

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‎Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about ZenFriend - Meditate daily.. Download ZenFriend - Meditate daily. and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

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Hi team, this is a way for us to communicate information.  You can post comments articles etc.. by double clicking.

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Hi team, this is a way for us to communicate information.  You can post comments articles etc.. by double clicking.

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how mindfulness can affect teaching.

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Garrison Institute looks a little like Hogwarts. The retreat center is housed in a former monastery amid tranquil green hills overlooking the Hudson River, 60 miles north and a world away from New York City.

Inside the airy chapel on a recent summer afternoon, about 35 educators from the U.S. and at least five foreign countries are seated quietly, shoes off.

"Just notice your breath, the sensation of your air coming in, going out," says Christa Turksma, a Dutch woman dressed all in white with silver-white hair. She's one of the co-founders of Cultivating Awareness and Resilience for Educators, or CARE for Teachers.

For the past nine years at this annual five-day summer retreat, and now within schools, CARE for Teachers teaches what's called mindfulness: calming the body and mind through breathing and movement, and using insights from psychology to better regulate your emotions.

They do a series of role-playing activities to practice listening and conducting difficult conversations with a boss, fellow teacher, parent or student. It's the first mindfulness program to be studied with funding from the U.S. Department of Education - and aimed at teachers, not directly at students.

Teaching is inherently a stressful occupation, and by many accounts, it's getting more so. Students bring the effects of poverty and trauma into the classroom. Administrators lay on the pressure to meet ever-changing standards. In the last few years, teacher job satisfaction has reportedly plummeted to a 25-year low, and turnover is high - almost 50 percent for new teachers.

Patricia Jennings isn't necessarily out to change all these factors. Instead, she aims to help teachers become the change they wish to see in the world.

Jennings is the second co-founder of CARE (Richard Brown is the third). She has gray hair cut straight across in bangs and a beatific smile. Jennings had a difficult childhood; she was orphaned at age 14 when her mother committed suicide.

Then, as a college student in 1970s Arizona, she discovered Zen meditation. "I started realizing that a lot of the suffering and anxiety I was feeling - that those thoughts were not me," she says. "That was a huge revelation, to go oh, this feeling of dread is a result of this experience, but it's not who I am and I can let those thoughts go."

Jennings studied at the Buddhist Naropa Institute (now Naropa University) in Boulder, Colo. She earned a degree in psychology and a teaching degree, then founded a Montessori school where she taught kids meditation as early as 1980.

In the classroom for over two decades, she also used mindfulness techniques moment-to-moment, whether to smooth transitions between activities or when figuring out what was really going on with a student who was acting up. Later, she took a position teaching teachers, and realized that other teachers could benefit from these tools as well.

Jennings is now an associate professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, where she conducts research on the CARE for Teachers program.

In a soon-to-be published study, Jennings and her co-authors provided an extended version of CARE training to 224 teachers in high-poverty schools in New York City, with several two-day sessions spaced over the course of a year. The participants reported that their anxiety, depression, feelings of burnout, being rushed and perceived stress all went down compared with a control group. Their sleep improved, and the teachers said they felt less judgmental.

Even more interesting effects came from classroom observations. When teachers were more mindful, "yelling went down," says Jennings. Classrooms were rated more emotionally positive and productive. Students were more engaged.

Among the students who rated lower on social skills at the outset of the study - presumably some of the most vulnerable - reading scores also improved. Again, these effects came from working with the teachers, not directly with the students.

Bonnie Kirkwood and Michele Coyle-Hughes work at P.S. 279 in the Bronx. They spent the school year that just ended helping teach CARE techniques to their colleagues.

They are back at the CARE For Teachers retreat to figure out how to spread it further. As part of the student support staff, "I deal with teachers in crisis," says Coyle-Hughes. "I can see that they need more tools."

About a third of the students in their K-8 school come from homeless shelters. A large percentage have incarcerated parents or are in foster care. Most are English language learners, including a refugee population.

"Our kids gravitate to our building because they want structure and routine," says Coyle-Hughes. Kirkwood, a reading specialist, says the CARE techniques have improved her relationships with students and colleagues. "I'm learning to let go and let God," she says.

(Although the practices taught in CARE draw on many different traditions, Jennings makes clear that the program is entirely secular and suitable for public schools. For example, they use the term "mindful awareness practices" rather than "meditation.")

Like Coyle-Hughes and Kirkwood, Nicole Willheimer has also agreed to help facilitate CARE training for her colleagues, at P.S. 140 in the Bronx. Jennings and Turksma are trying out this expansion this year, called CARE Coordinators, with the idea that these techniques will best spread from colleague to colleague, not as a top-down push from administrations.

Willheimer says the program has helped her be more attuned to her students. For example, rather than be set off by a kid who is tapping on a desk, she can recognize if he or she is trying to cope with attention difficulties. And like other teachers, she says CARE has been most helpful in dealing with her bosses, not just with students.

"When administrators call you, you never know what they want. It could be a parent is upset with you, or you forgot something," she says. "I used to rush to meetings, grab a seat, and jump in. Now, I practice mindful walking. I think about where I'm going. When I arrive, I'm not revved up. I'm able to receive criticism or conversation without being triggered."

In the training, CARE participants talk a lot about "triggers" and "scripts" and being "reactive." Past experiences may shape your perception of a situation, and bring on too-strong or inappropriate emotions. If you are "reactive," you'll succumb to those emotions, following the unconscious script in your head. If you are "reflective," you'll be able to pause and get a more accurate read on the situation.

In one session Jennings tells a story recounted in her book, Mindfulness for Teachers, of a previous CARE participant who was immensely bothered by a 7-year-old student who was late every day and disrupted the whole class with laughter. On reflection, the teacher remembered that in her own family, there had been severe punishments for being late. She sat down and talked to the girl and learned she was the daughter of a single mother who worked nights, so the little girl was responsible for getting herself to school every morning. And her giggling wasn't intended to be disrespectful - it came from embarrassment.

After a lunch of beet salad, quinoa and garden greens, the teachers disperse outside for a walking exercise and paired discussions. Here amid the wildflowers and butterflies, it's easy to feel tranquil.

But in a few short weeks a new school year will be starting. "I can feel my heart start to race when I think about September getting closer," one teacher says in a session. "In September there is NO space. If you were walking into an inner-city urban school this September, what two CARE practices would you bring?" she asks Jennings.

Jennings replies that she has an empirical answer, from the forthcoming study, where they asked all the teachers the same question. Their top answer was simply stopping yourself, whenever needed, to take three deep breaths.

And the second answer was cultivating a daily practice in breathing, mindful walking, yoga or other relaxation discipline. "That helps you remember to take the three breaths when you need it!"

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When Teachers Take A Breath, Students Can Bloom

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Garrison Institute looks a little like Hogwarts. The retreat center is housed in a former monastery amid tranquil green hills overlooking the Hudson River, 60 miles north and a world away from New York City. Inside the airy chapel on a recent summer afternoon, about 35 educators from the U.S.

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The program is a blend of neuroscience, social and emotional tenets like empathy and perspective taking, and mindfulness, a practice which many schools have already started exploring. Several programs teach mindfulness in schools, including Mindful Schools.

After implementing the MindUP program at Marysville, Penley saw the difference. "We've seen this huge shift in the overall tone and civility of the school culture," she said.

Penley and her staff soon realized that when the counselor taught the class, students were getting the benefit, but teachers weren't. Soon teachers started coming to Penley, asking to teach the class themselves, as part of their regular classes.

"After our first year we began to think about how we could bring this to the overall health of the school," Penley said. As a staff they decided to teach the MindUP lessons concurrently, at the same time every week, so there would be a sense of synergy. "Everyone is in a classroom except the custodian and secretary," Penley said. "Imagine all of us hearing about gratitude and asking ourselves how we can integrate it throughout everything we do."

Penley says the real shifts in school culture came when they started implementing the program school-wide. Teachers now start class in the morning with a few breaths to help students feel present. The middle school has breathing exercises after passing periods. Penley described how kindergarteners used to come into their classroom for free breakfast while their teacher was already directing them to look at what she'd written on the board. Students were having a hard time learning that way because they didn't feel settled or safe.

Now, teachers greet kids at the door and play soft music with the lights down; they talk about the practices the whole school is working on at that moment. In this low key environment, the teacher is taking roll and checking in on students.

Gradually the practices in the MindUP program became part of how the school operates. "These are the ways we treat each other and that happens all the time throughout the day," Penley said. The switch to thinking about every interaction and learning moment in the school day as one of mindfulness has dramatically changed the tone of the school, according to Penley. She says discipline referrals have dropped and students are using their mindful seeing practice in classes like English, art and science to make better observations. An eighth grader recently noted that he'd been watching the presidential debates and that the candidates weren't doing a good job of listening to one another's perspectives.

And this more human approach hasn't stopped at the classroom door. Teachers get a "brain break" at the start of staff meetings in recognition that they're coming from a hectic teaching day and need a moment to ground themselves in the present before starting another task. The staff also practice whatever skill they'll be teaching through MindUP with one another before rolling it out into the classroom.

"Our teachers are happier, which is really important, and we have a ton of people applying to our school now because they're interested in mindfulness," Penley said. Before they started the MindUP program, Marysville, like many other Title 1 schools serving a diverse population of learners, struggled to attract teachers. Now, Penley said she has 100 applicants for every open position, which also allows her to hire teachers who are in line with their vision.

On a teacher survey administered in the 2013-2014 school year 95 percent of the adults in the building said they were satisfied or extremely satisfied working at Marysville. And all of the adults reported that teaching MindUP has carried over into their personal lives and extends into the classroom throughout content areas.

Despite the success of the program, it hasn't been all smooth sailing. Some teachers initially pushed back with the inevitable "initiative fatigue" that plagues many schools. But Penley said she kept them engaged in conversations about what made them uncomfortable and how they could work through those issues. "Once you are on the ground and realize that what it's teaching are just basic human practices, we've seen that even our most resistant teachers have come a long way with it," Penley said.

Penley said the program has also helped her personally. "It's helped me find the joy in my job," she said. "Being a principal is a really hard job. A lot of principals don't like their jobs." She's learned to be more present in each meeting and to think of her main job as being a listener. She used to rush about trying to solve every problem, but now she tries to stay focused and present in each moment, giving her staff her full attention. It's helped her remember why she loves working in education and being around kids.

"It really is a shift in the heart," Penley said. "It's a way of being. Instead of compliance, we call it moving more towards compassion. It's going to shift the feel of the school."
RESEARCH BEHIND THE PROGRAM

University of British Columbia professor Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, who was one of several researchers consulted on the development of MindUP, conducted a randomized controlled trial on fourth and fifth graders participating in the program in Vancouver public schools. Students reported many positive benefits of the program: 82 percent of children reported having a more positive outlook, 81 percent learned to make themselves happy, and 58 percent of children tried to help others more often.

Schonert-Reichl also tested children's saliva for cortisol levels and found those who participated in the program had healthier levels. Peers also rated students in the program as more prosocial. Schonert-Reichl says teachers in British Columbia were involved in developing the curriculum based on evidence-based neuroscience and psychology principles, which helped ensure the lessons were hitting home for educators.

"When the MindUP program was developed it was an iterative process between researchers and teachers," Schonert-Reichl said. Teachers would teach a lesson, give feedback and help the researchers improve on the program.

"When teachers see it they're like, oh yeah I can do this," she said. "It wasn't something foreign because it had been developed by teachers." The program also came out in 2005, just after British Columbia had included social and emotional learning as a part of the curriculum. Schonert-Reichl said the high level recognition that these skills are valuable made it much easier for schools to get access to training money and to implement with fidelity.

In Vancouver there is a district-level person who coordinates trainings and materials, supports teachers in classrooms, and connects them to one another. "Instead of it just being this outside person who drops in and does the professional development and leaves with no follow-up, you have this core district support," Schonert-Reichl said.
A TRAINER'S EXPERIENCE
Jonathan Weresch became a MindUP trainer after seeing the results in his own classroom. He taught students with learning differences and disordered behaviors, who were especially hard to teach after lunch.

Weresch said it took about six weeks for his students to get on board with the program and there were plenty of times they tested his patience as they got used to it. In the beginning when he'd ask them to focus their attention on their breathing with their eyes closed there would be a lot of silly noises. But he modeled patience and continued to teach them about what these exercises were doing for the brain, and in time students stopped joking around. Although he's a principal now, he still does MindUP trainings on the side because he believes in it.

As a trainer, Weresch answers a lot of questions from teachers who are either having problems getting results or who don't see how three minutes of focused breathing three times a day can make such a big difference. Weresch explains that it's like any other skill.

"First we have to practice things deliberately, and then what happens -- just like learning to play the piano or something like that -- we practice and then with enough practice it becomes a habit. And the habits become character traits after a while."

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What Changes When a School Embraces Mindfulness?

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The program is a blend of neuroscience, social and emotional tenets like empathy and perspective taking, and mindfulness, a practice which many schools have already started exploring. Several programs teach mindfulness in schools, including Mindful Schools. After implementing the MindUP program at Marysville, Penley saw the difference.