Mindfulness
What is 1 way mindfulness can help you throughout the day?
Mindfulness includes paying attention to:
• Things that are happening around you
• What your senses are telling you
• What you are doing
• What you are thinking about
• How you are feeling
What is the "Think-Feel-Do Cycle"?
This cycle shows how our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors work together in a cycle.
The think-feel-do cycle shows that in every situation (something that happens to us) we have thoughts about what is happening.
Thoughts influence our feelings, and our feelings affect how we behave.
Our behavior can make situations better or worse! Understanding how the think-feel-do cycle works can help us learn about ourselves, make helpful decisions, and get through difficult moments
No! Everyone has unhelpful thoughts, and it is normal to have them. Unhelpful thoughts often happen without us realizing it!
What are some behaviors a person might feel like doing at school when they are frustrated, mad and/or upset?
Sometimes we want to raise our voice, do nothing, make an unkind comment, argue, throw something, etc. We need to always stop and think: will this action action make the situation better, worse, or no different?
YOUR TEAM RECEIVES 500 EXTRA POINTS!
MRS. NISSEN AND MR. JACKSON ARE THE BEST!
Give an example of a time you used mindfulness
Great work!! For many of us it is hard not to get distracted by our thoughts or other things going on around us. Sometimes our minds feel like a snow globe when it’s shaken up! We have a lot of thoughts and they’re moving very fast.
Use this example to walk through the "Think-Feel-Do" cycle: Your teacher has just asked you a question and you don’t know the answer.
Great work!! All feelings and thoughts are okay and give us good information about what matters to us!
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AWESOME!
We can use skills to help us with our strong emotions. We have learned a few skills already through our mindful check-ins and check-outs. What is 1 coping skill you can use at school?
Taking a break, getting a drink of water, talking to an adult, naming our emotions, practicing mindfulness, and using our breathing, etc.
What is self-care?
Things we can do to take care of our minds and our bodies. If we use self-care, we are more likely to have more helpful thoughts, more balanced feelings, and feel healthier
YOUR TEAM RECEIVES 200 EXTRA POINTS!
WOW!
The Think-Feel-Do cycle is complex including situations, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. What are thoughts?
Thoughts are the words we say to ourselves in our minds. We have thoughts all the time, about everything we see, hear, and experience. Because these thoughts happen so quickly, sometimes we don’t even notice them.
Take this unhelpful thought ("I have no friends") and catch, check, and check this thought.
• What is another way to look at it?
• What is the evidence that this thought is true?
• What would you tell a close friend?
Everyone has unhelpful thoughts sometimes! Unhelpful thoughts can lead to strong feelings and unhelpful behaviors. Practice makes progress over time. Be patient with yourself.
YOUR TEAM RECEIVES 400 EXTRA POINTS!
EXCELLENT!
Self-care includes activities we can do to take care of ourselves to stay healthy. What are the 3 types of self-care (we created self-care plans)?
Mind: Taking care of your thoughts and managing strong feelings
Body: Taking care of your physical body
Heart: Doing things that make you feel good and connected to others
We practiced mindfulness together by taking Mrs. Nissen's stuffed animal ( ) and really paying attention to it. What were the 5 senses we used to practice mindfulness?
- Sight
- Sound
- Touch
- Smell
- Taste
Mindfulness skills help us focus our attention on the present moment. Focusing on the present can help us feel more in control and make better decisions. We can be mindful when we do anything!
How can mindfulness help us with our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors?
Mindfulness helps us notice unhelpful thoughts and challenge them with a more helpful thought. As we’ve learned, if we can change our thoughts, we can impact our feelings and our behavior. If we choose to focus on a helpful thought, then our feelings and behaviors are likely to be more positive and helpful.
What are the 3 steps to you can do to manage unhelpful thoughts?
1. Catch (notice) the thought.
2. Check out the thought. After we’ve noticed our unhelpful thought, we can ask some questions about it to learn the truth:
• What is another way to look at it?
• What would you tell a close friend?
• What evidence supports this thought? What evidence doesn’t support it?
• If the thought ends up being true, what skills can I use to cope with my emotions?
3. Change the thought. What is a more helpful way to think about the situation?
When people are upset, feeling angry, frustrated, or sad, it’s very common to want to choose a behavior that lets that feeling out, or makes that feeling go away. Sometimes, though, when we try to make the feeling go away, we act in ways that can make things worse.
What might happen if we keep on acting in unexpected ways?
Loss of friends over time, feelings of sadness/disappointment, less trust with teachers, visit to the main office with Mrs. Thelen, and call home, etc.
What kinds of things make it hard to take care of you?
Not sure what to do or how to do it, not enough time, not having resources, don’t feel like it, etc.
What is 1 mindfulness activity we have done as a group at the end of our classroom lessons?
Deep breathing, finger tracing, using our chair to take deep breaths, etc.
YOUR TEAM RECEIVES 300 EXTRA POINTS!
YOU'RE AMAZING!
GREAT JOB! It is hard sometimes to think back to unhelpful thoughts. The better we are with catching unhelpful thoughts, the better we get with checking and changing them.
When we experience strong emotions (anger, frustration, fear) at a level between 7-10 on our thermometers, it can be hard to calm down enough to challenge unhelpful thoughts. Name a time you were at a 7-10 (big feelings with high intensity).
Nice job! Everyone is learning skills to help them choose positive behaviors when their feelings rate high on our thermometers.
Share 1 activity you have done to take care of yourself.
Self-care is VERY important. We need to fill our own buckets before we can fill someone else.