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The Cooper High School Counseling Department would like to thank the Wayzata High School Counseling Department and Osseo Area Learning Center for inspiring us to create a virtual calming room and for sharing so many great ideas and resources.

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Virtual Calming Room - Visual Relaxation

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The Cooper High School Counseling Department would like to thank the Wayzata High School Counseling Department and Osseo Area Learning Center for inspiring us to create a virtual calming room and for sharing so many great ideas and resources.

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New Horizon - Meditation & Sleep Stories

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Guided Meditation for Children | THE GRATITUDE TREE | Kids Meditation for Happiness

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Nature Therapy: Relaxing Full Motion Forestry with Natural Sounds

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Play a musical instrument

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Touch Pianist is a musical toy / instrument that allows the user to perform hard-to-play classical piano music favorites (from composers like Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Satie, Debussy to name a few) just by tapping the rhythm of the piece's particular sound events on a computer keyboard or a touch screen.

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Even when you know how beneficial meditation can be for you, and that you should begin meditating right away, it can be a little overwhelming to get started.

To help you with that, I put together this quick and easy guide on how to get started with meditation, how to grow a meditation habit, and why it matters.

It only takes a few minutes to read, and is the perfect thing to read before starting one of the meditations above!
Learn about: How to meditate for beginners
Here's how to start:

Find a quiet, comfortable place to sit, with your back upright.

Put on headphones (this will help block outside distractions).

Select the meditation length that's ideal for you.

Press play and close your eyes.

Focus your attention on your breath, breathing in and out.

Tips for getting started How to meditate for beginners
Tips for getting started
Benefits of meditation
How to approach meditation Benefits of meditation

Decreased stress and anxiety

Increased mindfulness (the ability to be aware of what's occurring at any given moment, but being able to choose how to act, as opposed to just reacting)

How to approach meditation Building a meditation habit
Schedule for starting
Building a meditation habit Meditation for kids
Why I built QuietKit
QuietKit presents a very simple, direct type of guided meditation for beginners, perfect for anyone getting started: focusing your attention on your breath, and nothing else, as you sit quietly.

When you first start meditating, as you try to focus on your breathing, your mind is going to overload, and you'll start thinking about things other than your breathing.

That's okay.
Schedule for starting
A big part of meditating is, when that happens, letting those other thoughts flow out of you, and then trying to bring your focus back to your breath.

Week 1 - 2 minute meditation session each day

Week 2 - 4 minute meditation session each day

Week 3 - 6 minute meditation session each day

Week 4 - 8 minute meditation session each day

Week 5 - 10 minute meditation session each day

The real benefits of meditation (listed below) come from that practice: focusing on just your breath, and if you lose that focus, letting those new thoughts go, and returning to your breath.

Keep doing a 10 minute meditation session at the beginning of each day, and also do a meditation session at the end of the day (of any length).

Even people who have practiced for years lose their focus when meditating.

But they just accept that it happens from time to time, they don't worry about it when it does happen, and then they return to focusing on their breathing.

Using the guided meditation for beginners options from QuietKit is a great way to help you regain focus when you lose it, which is why we made them for you :)
Meditation for Kids Note: want to bring meditation into your school? Use our free Meditation in Schools resource!
The guided meditations from QuietKit offers three main benefits to anyone who uses them:

It can work for a child of almost any age. As long as they have the ability to sit still, listen, focus on their breath, and understand what is being said in the meditation, then they can learn to meditate. And there isn't a "too old" phase when they can't benefit from meditation.

Explain to them why meditation can be so helpful. Telling them to do it "because I said so" or "because it's good for you" won't convince anyone, regardless of age. Read through this page with them, and explain how meditating can help them deal with stress, learn how to focus (which helps with school and sports), and can help them from having their emotions overwhelm them.

Help them make it a daily habit. Just like teaching them to brush their teeth, having them meditate daily can do wonders. Don't even worry about advancing beyond the 2 minute meditation if they aren't interested, but just focus on having them meditate each and every day.

Meditate with them. Just like spending quality time with them, make meditation something you do with them. Find a time and context, such as before school or at night before they goto bed, when you can make meditation something you do with them.

Meditation is also great for schools. Not only can it help students decrease stress and increase focus, but it can also help hardworking teachers working hard in those schools. Use our Meditation in Schools resource to get started!

There's a simple way to approach meditation:
Why I built QuietKit
Treat it as a daily habit.

A lot of times meditation is talked about by how long you can do it in one sitting.
In searching for some way to deal with stress (other than the unhelpful advice of "be less stressed"), I came across meditation.
But there's a lot more to be gained from short meditation sessions done each day.
Once I was sold on the very real benefits of meditation, I found that figuring out how to get started on meditation was surprisingly difficult.
Start small: instead of trying to jump right into 10 minutes, start with 2.

Build slowly: there's no rush, so take your time (we'll give you a simple schedule below).

Build consistency: try to meditate every day, in the same place, at the same time. Meditate at home, before you start your day. That might mean before going to work, school, running errands, or even before you start a day of relaxation.
It was incredibly discouraging, and out of frustration I ended up building the guided meditation for beginners tool I wish I had when I first heard about meditation.
But maybe beginning of the day doesn't work for you, and that's completely okay. What you should look for are natural break points in your day. Maybe that means taking time right before lunch, or right after getting home from work, or before dinner, or before bed.

Play around and experiment to see what context and situation works best for you.

Every day in small amounts beats large amounts infrequently: think of it like exercise. Would you benefit more from working out really hard only one day a year, or from doing a little bit every day?

Here's a schedule you can start with (do a guided meditation for beginners from QuietKit at the start of your day):
Something this powerful should be available for free to everyone in the world. So I built it out and released it as QuietKit.
After week 5:
- John Turner, creator of QuietKit
Adding a second meditation session to your day is a great way to provide another "reset" time to your day.

Try doing this second session either when you get home from work, school, errands, or before you are about to go to bed.

The benefits from meditation come from doing it consistently over time, so keep going!

A few of the users of QuietKit have said they use it to help their kids meditate. Here are some quick tips for helping your children develop a meditation habit:

If you have any tips that we should add to this section, send me an email :)

There seem to be new tools and services to help us with every little thing in life, but there's one thing that isn't being dealt with that we all have a lot of: stress.

That was the problem I found myself facing. Even when things were going well there was still a lot of stress, and it started getting to me.

Certainly not a new idea, but what's happened recently is there have been a number of scientific studies uncovering just how helpful meditation is in decreasing stress, increasing focus, and increasing mindfulness (even in as little as 100 cumulative minutes of meditating).

Most resources were dense, overly long books that seemed to hide any good advice, or training programs that demanded huge "all or nothing" commitments before you even knew if they were helpful, or apps and websites that required signing up and payment before you knew if it would help you understand meditation.

Even if you could find a free option, they all seemed to be free only so they could immediately sell you something else, and wouldn't be that helpful on their own.

None of the tools, services and resources felt like they catered to the real challenges a beginner faced with meditation.

And it worked!

Not only did the tool I built work perfectly for a beginner trying to get into meditation, and help me deal with stress better, but it quickly improved every part of my life.

I couldn't believe, after just a few weeks, how great I felt and how much my meditation tool improved all aspects of my life.

It made me wish I had this tool when I was 20. Or 15. Or 5.

Now I'm on a mission to help everyone on the planet gain the same benefits from meditation that I gained.

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QuietKit: Guided Meditation for Beginners (for free)

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Learn to decrease stress and increase focus with our simple guided meditation for beginners (for free).

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Autism Sensory Therapy Magic Meltdown Remedy™ Second Edition

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30 min relaxing ocean waves - high quality sound - no music - HD video of a beautiful misty beach

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Custom Bluworld Bubble Wall - Private Residence - Show 1

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The Cooper High School Counseling Department would like to thank the Wayzata High School Counseling Department and Osseo Area Learning Center for inspiring us to create a virtual calming room and for sharing so many great ideas and resources.

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The Cooper High School Counseling Department would like to thank the Wayzata High School Counseling Department and Osseo Area Learning Center for inspiring us to create a virtual calming room and for sharing so many great ideas and resources.

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Guided Sleep Meditation for Kids and Parents | Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety

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New Horizon - Meditation & Sleep Stories

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Guided Meditation for Children | Your Secret Treehouse | Relaxation for Kids

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Beautiful Relaxing Music for Stress Relief ~ Calming Music ~ Meditation, Relaxation, Sleep, Spa

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A 60-second meditation tool to help clear your mind

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A 60-second meditation tool to help clear your mind

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The Cooper High School Counseling Department would like to thank the Wayzata High School Counseling Department and Osseo Area Learning Center for inspiring us to create a virtual calming room and for sharing so many great ideas and resources.

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The Cooper High School Counseling Department would like to thank the Wayzata High School Counseling Department and Osseo Area Learning Center for inspiring us to create a virtual calming room and for sharing so many great ideas and resources.

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How To Meditate For Beginners (Animated)

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Animal Themed Yoga