Mindfulness

What is “mindfulness”?

Mindfulness is "the intentional, accepting and non-judgmental focus of one's attention on the emotions, thoughts and sensations occurring in the present moment", which can be trained by meditational practices derived from Buddhist anapanasati. *Buddhist anapanasati is a core meditation practice in Theravada, Tiantai, and Chán/Zen traditions of Buddhism, as well as a part of many modern Western mindfulness-based programs. In both ancient and modern times, anapanasati by itself is likely the most widely used Buddhist method for contemplating bodily phenomena. Anapanasati means to feel the sensations caused by the movements of the breath in the body, as is practiced in the context of mindfulness.

Benefits of Mindfulness meditation: Recently there has been a large focus on researching the effects of mindfulness meditation on people and the researchers have found many positive results. Some are:

What does meditation do to the body? Meditation balances and strengthens the flow of the body’s energy. If one part of your body is out of balance then your whole system will become unstable. Ancient Indian traditions say that the body has 7 chakras and meditation is used to rebalance the chakras. Chakras: In Sanātana/Hindu and tantric/yogic tradit ions and other belief systems chakras are energy points or knots in the subtle body.SanātanaHindutantricyogicsubtle body

Other healing techniques : 1.Reiki 2.Acupuncture 3.Gurus 4.Native American and other indigenous cultures 5.Healing with essential oils 6.Massage 7.Karma Sutra 8.Yoga

Meditation:

Reading and Writing Activities Meditation activity: 1.Before the meditation have the students write down three things about their day, negative or positive. 2.Have the students listen and participate in the meditation. 3.After the meditation have the students write down three thoughts about their day. 4.Ask the students to reflect if the meditation changed their mood and or/stayed the same/became more negative after the meditation. Did they become more positive? Did they become more negative? Did their view of the events of their days become happier or sadder? Questions about the trailer: 1.Where does the family live? (Texas) 2.What disorder does the boy have? (Austism) 3.What kind of animal does he connect with? (horses) 4.Where do they take him for treatment? (Mongolia) 5.What are the people who do the ceremonies with him called? (Shamans) 6.What type of treatments does he receive? (typical mongolian healing treatments) 7.At the end of his trip to his parents say he has improved or gotten worse? (He has improved)

Reading activity: Article: mindfulness/ mindfulness/ Activity: Have the students read the article and then write a summary of what mindfulness is and how they can incorporate it into their treatments.