IGG INTEREST BADGE Guide Healthy Mind Option 06 (Mindfulness)

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Description

List ways of dealing with those stresses, and reflect on how talking can help you cope with stress.

Resources

Laptop, clear jar/mason jar, dry glitter, water, glitter glue or glue.

Instructions

Practicing mindfulness

There are three parts to this activity. Prior to starting the activity, it could be useful to start a short conversation/discussion around the various ways in which the Guides experience stress and how they deal with it. Remind them that Guiding is a safe and supported space where they are always welcome to talk, share, and seek solace.

Step 1: Introduction/Discussion points

Mindfulness, a practice that has its origins in Buddhist thinking and meditation, is increasingly being adopted as a popular tool to tackle anxiety and stress, as well as inculcate a healthy and positive mindset at large. In order to encourage the Guides to practice and embody mindfulness in their day-to-day lives, it will be helpful to start with describing in simple terms what mindfulness is, and how it can help them - especially as it possibly can seem quite an otherworldly and complicated concept - before delving into the specific activity. This discussion is in fact the first important step to the activity.

The following are some pointers which can be a useful template to start this discussion with them:

• Mindfulness can be described as a simple - yet powerful - practice of paying attention to the present moment in an accepting, non-judgemental manner. As Headspace describes it,

“Mindfulness is the quality of being present and fully engaged with whatever we’re doing at the moment, free from distraction or judgement and aware of our thoughts and feelings without getting caught up in them.”

• It’s all about the beauty of being in the present moment.
• Mindfulness is centered around the following idea: “Live the actual moment. Only this actual moment is life.” (Thích Nhât Hanh, Buddhist monk)
• The following explanation, offered by Barnardos, can be used to further draw upon the meaning of mindfulness:
“Mindfulness is really about awareness – being aware of our thoughts, our surroundings, our emotions and how we feel physically. It is about simply pausing and noticing what is happening. Too often, our minds are preoccupied with memories, plans or worries, which, while a necessary part of being, can at times feel overwhelming. Creating moments in our day to practise mindfulness can help to tame those thoughts. In doing so, we are better able to process them and think more clearly.”

Step 2: Explaining briefly the benefits of mindfulness

Studies have found that the amygdala, the ‘fight or flight’ region of the brain associated with stress response, fear and anxiety, tends to be less active after mindful practice.

Other benefits of mindfulness:

-Self-regulation of emotions
-Responding more calmly to situations
-Bringing a mindful attitude into conversations and relationships with friends and family
-Introduces children to the habit of focusing on the present moment and ignoring distractions (and not getting overwhelmed)
-Improves attentiveness and impulse control
-Improves cognitive control and working memory
-Promotes patience
-Lowers anxiety and stress
-Equips children with better ability to deal with challenges

Ask the Guides to guess how many thoughts go through our minds every day.

Did they know that it is estimated we have 50,000 to 70,000 thoughts going through our minds every day? This fact alone illuminates why mindfulness is key in dealing with stress or anxiety. Remind them that doing this activity also means they are fulfilling the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal-3 – it’s important that they know that the activities they do weekly are part of a bigger story.

Tip: It’s important to remind the girls that mindfulness is to be approached more as a way of life/part of their everyday lives, as opposed to a one-off technique only undertaken during times of distress/a quick fix for stressful situations. It would be helpful to present it as a practice that can offer relief to the girls while dealing with stress and challenges.

Step 3: The mindful jar

Show this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVA2N6tX2cg&t=12s

Ask the girls to share their thoughts on this. Now, it’s time to do this activity themselves!

This activity can teach children how strong emotions can take hold, and how to find peace when these strong emotions feel overwhelming.

First, get a clear jar (like a mason jar) and fill it almost all the way with water. Next, add a big spoonful of glitter glue or glue and dry glitter to the jar. Put the lid back on the jar and shake it to make the glitter swirl. Shaking up the glitter jar can enable the girls to see a representation of how our minds might feel when we’re stressed and/or anxious.

Use the following script or take inspiration from it to form your own mini-lesson:

“Imagine that the glitter is like your thoughts when you’re stressed, mad or upset. See how they whirl around and make it really hard to see clearly? That’s why it’s so easy to make silly decisions when you’re upset – because you’re not thinking clearly. Don’t worry, this is normal and it happens in all of us (yep, grownups too).

[Now put the jar down in front of them.]

Now watch what happens when you’re still for a couple of moments. Keep watching. See how the glitter starts to settle and the water clears? Your mind works the same way. When you’re calm for a little while, your thoughts start to settle and you start to see things much clearer. Deep breaths during this calming process can help us settle when we feel a lot of emotions” (Karen Young, 2017).

Some prompts you can use during the activity:

-Tell the Guides that sometimes we have really big feelings.
-Your mind may feel swirly and mixed up because you are mad, angry, confused, sad, or something else.
-When you have these feelings, you can take a mindfulness break, watch your feelings, and then let them settle.
-Breathe with whatever is going on, be still and watch your big emotions as they gently float down.
-Just like your big feelings, shake up a glitter jar and watch it swirl all over, crazy-like.
-Then set the jar down, watch it swirl, and breathe.
-As you breathe and are still, the glitter starts to slowly settle and become calmer.
-Watch until you can see through the jar again.
-We don’t want our feelings to disappear, but we don’t want them to block our view of what is really going on.

This exercise not only helps children learn about how their emotions can cloud their thoughts, but it also facilitates the practice of mindfulness while focusing on the swirling glitter in the jar.

Try having the Guides focus on one emotion at a time, such as anger, and discuss how the shaken jar and the settling glitter is like that emotion.

It is important to stress that mindfulness is not about making our thoughts go away. Rather, it is about recognising that these thoughts and feelings visit our minds, that they come and go, and are constantly changing, as well as the benefits of slowing the thoughts down.

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IGG INTEREST BADGE Guide Healthy Mind Option 06 (Mindfulness)

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