Mindfulness at Hoosick Falls CSD Mission To guide students in their emotional sphere to connect learning and emotional development so that the whole child’s growth and potential can be realized.

Do you ever feel your mind wandering? Do you ever wish you could be more calm?

Today, we are going to learn how to make this happen with mindfulness!

Mindfulness means paying attention to what is happening right now. It is calming your mind. There is research that shows mindfulness can help you improve your ability to pay attention, to calm down and to make better decisions.

We are now going to spend some time learning about Science and the brain, so we can understand better how mindfulness affects our brain. What is the brain?

Your brain is like a super computer. It controls just about everything you do, even when you are sleeping. You could say that your brain is the boss of your body.

The brain looks like a big, wrinkly, pinkish-beige sponge. It is about the size of both your fists together, fingers touching.

The brain sits in your skull at the top of your spinal cord. The brain has different parts that are in charge of different things.

We know the brain is boss, but it can't do it alone. The nerves and your spinal cord are the “helpers” so the messages flow back and forth between the brain and body.

The brain even runs your emotions. You might feel sad, scared, or mad, or happy. It's normal to feel all different kinds of emotions, good and bad.

Our emotions allow us to react to situations.

Part of the limbic system is a little bunch of cells on each side called the amygdala (uh-MIG-duh-luh). The amygdala look like an almond.

Scientists believe that the amygdala controls some of our brain functions. One of the most important jobs of the amygdala is to alert us to danger.

For example, what would you do if you were wearing flip-flops and saw a large bug about to crawl on your foot?

Most people would jump back or move away from the bug. Your amygdala causes this to happen, so you do not get bit. This happens because the amygdala is the reacting part of your brain. Part of your amygdala’s job is to keep you safe.

But sometimes your amygdala can “go nutty” and you may do or say things you normally would not, you may have a hard time making good decisions and have a hard time focusing on how to make things better.

There are things we can do to prevent our amygdala from “going nutty” or help it when it does. This brings us back to mindfulness. Mindfulness helps to re-train your brain in a good way!

Sesame Street: Common & Colbie Caillat - "Belly Breathe" with Elmo ?v=_mZbzDOpylA&feature=yout u.be

Over time, and with practice, you can change the way your brain responds and making yourself feel and be more calm!