Mindfulness exercises for the classroom by Dhaval Patel

Research has shown that exercising mindfulness in the classroom helps you as a student to enhance attention within the classroom. It can also lessen your stress. Also, it is proven that mindfulness can control your emotions and give you the ability to become compassionate and empathetic. And most significantly, it is an effective psychotherapy treatment. It is beneficial for children, students like you, or people with ADHD, and even those with mental health issues like anxiety.

As you’ve noticed, mindfulness has a lot of benefits, particularly for you. Hence, the significance of mindfulness can’t be ignored. If you’ve observed that you’re experiencing too much stress and anxiety right at this moment and you want to learn about mindfulness, then you must read this entire article as we will give you the top 8 classroom mindfulness activities that you’ll definitely enjoy.

Mindful Breathing Exercise

This activity allows you to be in the present moment, develop your attentiveness, and clear up your emotions. You can accomplish it in 5 minutes.

How to Apply:

• Select whether to sit or stand in this activity.
• Place your two hands on your abdomen. If you like a twist, you can provide wooden chunks or related objects to put on your stomach as well.
• You can shut your eyes, look at the ceiling, or eye at your hands.
• Try to have three gentle deep breaths heedfully to observe if you can sense your hands or the item on your abdomen moving forward with the air circulating down to your body.
• You can count up for every inhale and exhale you would do. You count one for inhale and two for exhale. Don’t forget to use a timer to check the time. Then, end your counting after 5 minutes.

Mindful Walking Exercise

This activity guides you to settle your own thoughts and emotions while soothing your mind. It also assists you in lowering anxiety and distress. Do this for 10 minutes.

How to Apply:

• Choose a small place where you can walk in a line for around 5 or 6 steps and going back to where you began.
• Then, perform three intensive breaths or employ Shark Fin breathing exercises.
• Walk 5 or 6 steps in a single direction, and carefully move to the different way, then move again for 5 or 6 steps off to your point of origin.

Holding a Ball

Using a ball as a medium for the mindfulness activity, you can follow the following step below.

• Clasp your arms in a round or circular shape in the forepart of your chest along with your fingers nearly touching, like handling a ball.
• Then shut your eyes and imagine energy moving in a counterclockwise way round in the circle your arms have formed.
• Visualize that the energy resembles a stream of water in a big hose, heavy and unpredictable.
• Last, try to focus on the force of energy running across your arms.

Music and Mindfulness

You can do this activity when you want to deeply relax your mind and be at rest for a moment. You just have to select and play an instrumental piece of music.

• Shut your eyes and listen to it.
• You can ask these questions to yourself upon listening to the music: What kind of musical instruments do you hear? What emotions do you feel? What image can you imagine as you listen to the music?

Visualize a Place

You need to choose a place that you know well. It could be your bedroom, your favorite coffee shop, in the school library, etc.

• Shut your eyes and imagine yourself moving around in that place carefully. You can do this activity with one of your classmates or friends.
• You can simply transform this into a speaking exercise by letting yourself visualize your experiences and imaginations to your friend or classmate once you open your eyes.

Five Senses Exercise

• Observe five things that you can see

Focus your eyes everywhere and divert your mind to five things you might not usually see. Select something you wouldn’t normally notice, for instance, a silhouette or a minor break in the concrete.

• Observe four things that you can feel

Take your consciousness to four things you currently perceive, such as the surface of your pants, the warmth of the air on your skin, or the soft texture of the table in front of you.

• Observe three things that you can hear

Listen to the sounds of the background. This question may help you to greatly enhance your hearing ability; what can you perceive in your surroundings? This could be a bird chirping or the indistinct sounds of traffic from the nearby highway.

• Observe two things that you can smell

Adapt to your senses to smell those two things you ignore normally, either good or nasty. Probably the air is bringing the fragrance of pine trees if you’re outside or the scent of coffee from the sidewalk.

• Observe one thing that you can taste

Concentrate on one thing you can taste right at this moment. You can drink a cup of coffee. You can also eat some chocolate and imagine its taste in your mouth.

Making Mindful Observation

• Look for a space at the classroom window.
• Notice the surroundings and everything you might see.
• Observe the motion of the grass and the leaves of trees in the breeze. Observe those various shapes you’ve noticed in the surroundings and those people unfamiliar to you.
• Pay attention, but not too seriously. Be conscious, but not too focused.
• If you become preoccupied, just slowly drag your mind away from those things and observe a shape or color again for you to be back again in focus.

Positive Affirmation

You can do this activity with some of your friends and classmates.

• Stand around in a circle-like shape.
• One of you will have to read or say a positive affirmation aloud.
• Then let him point out another one from our friend to read his/her affirmation aloud.
• The process repeats until all of you have said your affirmations to one another.
• You can as well include a movement by throwing a ball to whoever turns to talk next.