1. Play music while participants are entering the room.
Session #2

2. Review: Taking Note of Stressful Situations
Share one situation and your:
Body sensations
Thoughts
Emotions
Did you notice any patterns or triggers?
Did this change how you responded?
Have participants pair up and discuss the information on this slide. Becoming aware of your reactions to stressful situations is the first step in change. Often we find ourselves in situations that we cannot change.
We have two choices:
We can either REACT automatically, which might cause us to get worked up more or we can…
With awareness, CHOOSE to RESPOND in a way that can calm us down.

3. Dimensions of Wellness Wheel
Let’s look at the Dimensions of Wellness Wheel and the handout. The handout provides ways we can take care of ourselves in each dimension.
One thing that can prevent us from taking care of ourselves is saying “yes” to too many demands.

4. Say “YES” to YOU
When life is most demanding, stressful or challenging, we need to, more than ever, take care of ourselves.

5. What I Value in My Life… Life is too short to...
Life is too short not to...
This activity focuses on Spiritual Health as we discussed in the Dimension of Wellness Wheel. On the left side of this handout list the things that you feel life is just too short to waste your time doing. For example, for me, life is too short to read junk mail, watch commercials or wear shoes that don’t fit. Maybe we should call this our “ignore list.” Would anyone like to share what they wrote?
Now, on the right side of the handout, list the things that life is too short to not spend your time doing.

6. Say “YES” to YOU
These lists make you more aware of what you say “Yes” to and what you need to say “No” to. Start saying “No” to things that you do not value, and start saying “Yes” to things you do value.

7. Learning to Play Again http://www.wikihow.com/Do-Laughter-Yoga
When we think of “playing” we may think it is something only children do. As we get older, we play less and may stop playing altogether. We forget that life should include time to just have fun.
Let’s try a little Laughter Yoga. Repeat after me: He He Ha Ha….. Let’s try a more physical form of play (refer to curriculum for ideas).

8. Just Breathe
As we settle down from our “playing,” let’s focus on our breath. Throughout this program, you will notice that we keep coming back to the breath as a way to calm us, bring us peace, and help bring us back into the moment. (One-minute breathing from curriculum)

9. Joy List Activity
Remembering a happy memory releases in our brain the same “feel-good” chemicals that flooded it at the time of the actual experience. We can practice mindfully recalling favorite memories as a strategy to achieve a variety of goals: Cultivating optimism, alleviating negativity, priming our brain for learning new material, generating ideas from past experiences and boosting our physical health.
We are going to make a joy list. On your joy list you should include things that make you happy, you are passionate about, that bring you joy, that give you energy, that inspire you and that elevate your mood.
Once you have your joy list complete, circle one to three things that you are confident you can do in the next week.

10. Break
Play music
Play music

11. Living Your Joy List: Will you be able to fit joy list activities
into your week? Why or why not?
What did you notice about yourself
after you did this...body sensations,
mood changes, emotions, thoughts?
Ask participants to pair up with someone. Have them discuss the questions on this slide.

12. Monkey Mind
Let’s talk about “Monkey Mind”. Monkey Mind is when your thoughts jump from one thing to the next. Sometimes this is more noticeable when we are trying to fall asleep and can’t stop our thoughts. You may also notice it when you are under a lot of stress or have to many things to do. It is similar to this bottle of stuff….when we shake the bottle up all of the contents moves around. When we make it still, the contents calm down.

13. Your Brain
Explain the different sections of the brain, emphasizing what happens under stress and then what happens as we are calmer and more mindful. You can pull out the poster from the back of the MindUp Curriculum and/or use this slide.
Three important parts of your brain help you think and react to everything that happens around you: the prefrontal cortex, the amygdala, and the hippocampus.
The prefrontal cortex uses important information to focus, decide, compute, analyze, and reason. Here’s the catch; the prefrontal cortex gets information only when the amygdala is calm. Then it passes on to the hippocampus any information worth remembering.
Feeling frightened? Upset? Your amygdala is on alert! It regulates and blocks information from going to your prefrontal cortex, so you can react in a flash. When you feel safe and happy, the amygdala will pass information on to the prefrontal cortex so you can think.
The hippocampus creates, stores, and processes all important facts and memories the prefrontal cortex passes on to it, such as birthdays, your friend’s addresses, and the brisk, salty smell of the ocean.
Anytime you’re stressed out, breathing can come to the rescue. Deep, full breathing calms your amygdala and helps you think and remember clearly.

14. You Always Have Your Breath
This Buddhist Monk shares how easy it is to pay attention to your breath and refocus or meditate in a minute or two. He says, “Feed your Monkey Mind”.

15. Mindlessness Being on “automatic pilot” A sense of living mechanically
Living in the past or the future
Living in the present, but in a struggle with what is here
Separation from self
Sleepwalking through life
Mindlessness is like being on “Automatic Pilot” (preoccupation with memories, fantasies, plans, worried and/or behaving automatically without awareness of one’s actions); or a separation from self (denial, avoidance or a sense of sleepwalking through life).
Think of all the stuff you’ve worried about that didn’t come true!

16. Mindlessness
“The average person looks without seeing, listens without hearing, touches without feeling, eats without tasting, moves without physical awareness, inhales without awareness of odor or fragrances, and talks without thinking”
- Leonardo da Vinci

17. Mindfulness “Paying attention/being aware in a particular way”
On purpose
In the present moment
Nonjudgmentally
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
Being mindful of what is actually happening, while it is happening. Being aware of the present moment, on purpose, in a non-judgmental way. Various forms of meditation are formal ways of practicing mindfulness.

18. Mindfulness
Mindfulness is about being aware of our thoughts, emotions and sensations, and accepting them as they are without criticizing or judging them. Our thoughts are like this waterfall. We can stand on the outside and observe our thoughts.

19. Why Practice Mindfulness?
Responding Versus Reacting
External stress
Internal stress
Give participants the handout, “Responding versus Reacting” and refer to the left side of the handout.
Explain, stress can be caused by things happening externally and internally.
External stress is caused by things from outside of ourselves, such as things that happen to us from others, the environment, or life situations.
Internal stress is caused by our own thoughts and emotions. Internal stress is a result of our reactions to external stressors.

20. Triangle of Awareness
Let’s take a look at this handout, “Responding versus Reacting.” (review the handout as written in the curriculum)

21. With awareness comes CHOICE
You can choose to walk into the waterfall and immerse yourself in your thoughts or walk away. There is power in having a choice.
Without awareness, we prevent ourselves from seeing the problem clearly, solving the problem, or communicating effectively about our emotions in a way that can help us.
Ultimately, these reactions prevent us from getting over stress and attaining peace of mind. Being aware of stress and how it makes us react: body sensations, thoughts and emotions. This awareness allows us to respond to a situation with choice.

22. Mindful Eating
We rarely take the time to be present and enjoy the food we eat, because we are thinking about other things, especially when we are stressed. Eating is one thing we do regularly that can be very enjoyable if we are fully aware of the taste, aroma, texture, satisfaction and enjoyment food can bring us.
Eating without awareness can lead to overeating, cravings and overindulging in our comfort foods. How many times do we eat without paying attention to the fact that we are eating? For example, when we pass by a candy bowl, we eat a piece and before we realize it the food is gone from our mouth; or eating while working, reading or watching TV. (Conduct the mindful eating activity.)

23. Learning to Live in the Moment
During the next week, I encourage you to try some strategies to help you live more in the moment. You can come up with your own strategies, choose some from the “Living in the Moment” handout, or you may choose to eat at least one meal per day more mindfully.
Think about what you would like to focus on during the next week. What situations would you like to bring more awareness to in your life?
Try to come up with one situation.
(Read “I’ll Take Mine Hand Cranked” article.) Share that this is a good example of living in the moment, savoring the memory and mindfully tasting the food.