Many schools are adopting mindfulness practices and the results are in: success! Students and teachers report a range of successes from greater concentration to better behavior to reduced emotional outbursts.

But where to start?

Starting a mindfulness practice in your school is not that difficult. To help your school and teachers start, you can show them all the ideas presented in these posts. After that, you and your teachers can review the ideas in this post and the ideas below, to brainstorm on just how your school will implement mindfulness into the school day. For instance:

-Can your school carve out 1-3 minutes a day? Many schools have morning announcements over the loud speaker. Why not prompt a mindfulness moment then?

-You might suggest that during PE class, students create their “personal space” and practice a mindfulness breathing technique for 2 minutes.

-Or, break up a series of exercises with yoga poses that focus on breathing in and out 5 times.

-Before any free writing drills, all students can put their heads down on the table and repeat the phrase, “I am a creative writer” for one minute.

-Before a math test, students might choose to walk silently around the classroom in slow motion visualizing all their stresses leaving their bodies.

-Before the end of school, or during any kind of transition, a class might have students stand perfectly still, close their eyes and in as slow a motion as possible, lift both hands over their heads, focusing on how slowly and gently they can do so.

The ideas are endless, but getting started is the key! So how will you introduce mindfulness to your teachers? Then, let us know how it goes!