“Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.” – Mindful Staff
Picture this…
It’s a Wednesday morning. Your alarm goes off, you press snooze. You fall back asleep. Before you know it, you are behind but just by a few minutes… everything will be fine, as long as the kids can get dressed and ready for school.
You wake them up, get your coffee, tell them to get dressed but your little one doesn’t have the breakfast they were hoping for. They start crying. You quickly try to solve it while helping to pack lunches.
Now you are 10 minutes behind. Someone spills their milk all over the floor. Your little one is still crying… now the dog needs to go out.
Your partner wakes up sick, they can’t get out of bed to help. No one can find their socks! Now you are yelling, “If we don’t leave in 2 minutes, you will be late to school and I’ll be late to work!” “Where are your socks?!?”… “Forget it, just wear your shoes!”
“I can’t find my shoes!” someone screams.
“Just get in the car!” Everyone gets in. Someone forgets their water bottle…. You get the picture.
I am sure that we have all had these moments. Moments where we get in the car after a hectic morning, look in our rear view mirrors, and just hope that when our children arrive at school, things will all be okay.
Mornings like these, where we are all tired, all rushed, it feels like everyone is yelling leads to all of us starting our days off feeling just yucky. There are days when life feels really hard. Having moments like these make it difficult for us to attend to ourselves, our relationships, and our goals.
Mindful mornings have given our TVS learners a space to pause, tune out the chaos, and attend to whatever is going on inside of themselves without judgment. Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings, we provide a 10 minute mindfulness routine. The learners know that in this space, it is truly okay, not to be okay. We begin with a check in, on a scale of 1-10, how are you doing today? The learners share about how they slept the night before, what their mornings were like, and what they are most looking forward to.
Then we jump into mindfulness practices. Each routine supports the discovery of an emotion and how to cope when you feel uncomfortable. They have learned routines to cope with feelings of anger, stress, pressure, pain, and tension. One of the learners’ favorites is a relaxation technique (number 7 on this list), where you scan your body, holding and releasing each muscle group to find tension or relax before the day ahead.
Recently, we have been discussing our mind’s control tower, taken from Mindful Me: Mindfulness and Meditation for Kids by Whitney Stewart. The learners have eagerly shared about the emotions that sometimes “take off” in our brain’s without us in the pilot seat. When this happens, we often say or do things that we do not mean. In those moments, it’s important to practice mindful breathing and turn inward, asking ourselves about our emotions, thoughts, and what feels out of control. This way we can get back in the pilot seat and make choices that feel right for us.
There are many benefits to mindfulness. Some of these include a reduction in rumination and stress. Mindfulness can help us to better focus and find flow throughout the day, a goal that each of our studios have sought to achieve in session one. Mindfulness can also help with our emotional regulation. Whatever the emotion, however your day begins or unfolds, mindfulness is a tool to bring us back to ourselves. Mindfulness is a gift of patience and grace that we all need and a gift we all deserve.
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