Building a Daily Mindfulness Routine

 Building a Daily Mindfulness Routine

Image Citation: (Kabat-Zinn, n.d.) Alt. Text: An illustration of a person sitting cross-legged in a meditative pose, surrounded by icons representing daily routines: a bed, an alarm clock, clothing, a cup of coffee, and a toothbrush with toothpaste. The image emphasizes mindfulness and balance in everyday habits.

Learning Objectives: The Student Will Be Able To…. (TSWBAT)

  1. Identify the 5 facets of the daily mindfulness routine
  2. Master at least two positive mindfulness practices.
  3. Understand the critical role of the daily mindfulness routine for mental health, stress management, and focus
  4. Perceive the details of their surroundings and recognize the value of focusing on the present moment rather than fragmented information.
  5. Pay attention to their breath, bodily sensations, and thought processes as they go about their daily tasks.
  6. Create a mindfulness practice plan

Resources/Materials: List all the materials and resources that are needed for this learning activity/lesson plan. (i.e. reading, video, podcast, access to internet, computer, pen/paper, etc.)

  1. A short mindfulness practice video: showing how the breathing exercises and body scans actually work.

      Video:

     MINDFULNESS - 3 MINUTE MEDITATION - YouTube
  1. An emotional management chart: 3Fs+3As (Fight, Flight, Freeze+ Awareness, Acceptance, Action).
  2. A page of emotional quadrant per person.
  3. Electronic devices and digital tools allowed.
  4. Additional notebooks and markers provided to accommodate different students’ recording habits.
  5. Personalized mindfulness practice record sheet: schedule + practice category + short reflection.

Learning Activity/Lesson Outline: Write a step-by-step learning plan for your activity

  1. Introduction

Establish a daily mindfulness routine: Practice conscious awareness to block excessive external information and cultivate inner focus.

Pose open-ended questions: Have you felt overwhelmed by stress lately? Are you paying attention to your inner feelings?

Explanation:

  • Mindfulness practice is a way to cultivate attention and awareness. It not only gives people the opportunity to connect with their inner self, but also helps them to live in the real present.
  • In order to incorporate mindfulness into daily life, it is necessary to understand its 5 facets: Observing, Describing, Acting with Awareness, Non-judgment of Inner Experience, and Non-reaction to Inner Experience.

These 5 facets provide specific directions for practice, namely

  1. Primary: Observing (increasing awareness of the present), Describing (expressing your feelings and state in words), Acting with awareness (focusing on the present and avoiding becoming a slave to emotions).
    • What new sounds did you hear?
    • What feelings did this sound evoke in you?
    • When you focus on listening, does the emotional tension ease?
  1. Intermediate and Advanced: Non-judgment of inner experience (not rushing to judge your inner feelings), Non-reactivity to inner experience (not being dominated by strong emotions).
    • Describe your recent experience of failure in a neutral way
    • Can you try to observe your emotions from a third person’s perspective?

Course Focus:

  • Respecting inner feelings
  • Improving awareness and concentration
  • Improve emotional regulation

     2. Instructional Content

Part 1: Observing, Describing and Acting with Awareness

  • Present the 5 facets of mindfulness with slides that clearly show the role of each part.
  • Focus on observing and describing first and guide students to notice and describe the environment and inner feelings：
  1. If you close your eyes and listen carefully to the environment around you, you will find some sounds and even feelings that you have never noticed before.
  2. Now close your eyes and experience your sensory feelings.
  3. Open your eyes, what feelings do these sounds remind you of?
  4. Close your eyes again and this time we will adapt some deep breathing. As you take a deep breath, imagine a beam of energy emanating from the universe, entering from the top of your head all the way down, scanning every part of your body. Feel all your stresses and burdens being released under the scanning of the energy beam.
  5. Open your eyes, do you feel more relaxed than usual?
  6. If you wish, stand up and move around. Feel the sensation of your feet touching the ground. Do you feel any more physical feedback than usual?
  7. Do you usually think about other things when you walk? When you step away from the noisy ocean of information and focus on the present experience, you will feel better.

Part 2: Non-judging of Inner Experience& Non-reactivity to Inner Experience

  1. Distribute the emotional management chart: 3Fs+3As (Fight, Flight, Freeze + Awareness, Acceptance, Action).
  2. Let’s think of some scenarios and fill in this chart: Suppose there are 20 minutes left in the exam, but you have to write a 300-word essay. Observe and feel your emotions at this moment.
  3. Don’t try to judge this emotion, just feel it, is your tension easing?
  4. Now remember your last moment of anger. Try to jump out of your body and look at the emotion at that time, or press the pause button.
  5. Compare your performance on the Emotion Management Chart. Think about whether your decision would have been different if there was a pause button in your life.
  6. The benefit of a daily mindfulness routine is that it helps us accept our emotions with a neutral attitude and avoid being manipulated by them. When necessary, try to restrain unnecessary impulsive reactions as much as possible and everything will be different.

3. Interactive Activity

  1. Encourage students to form groups of 2-5 people, give each person an Emotional Quadrant and Emotion Management Chart, and encourage them to locate their own emotions.
  2. Use open-ended questions to encourage thinking: How do you locate the most recent strong emotion on the Emotional Quadrant and Emotional Management Chart?
  3. First, each student will use a sentence to describe the most recent strong emotional experience, mark it on the Emotion Quadrant, and share it with the group members.
  4. Next, each student will think of a situation that can trigger strong emotions and mark it on the Emotion Management Chart.
  5. Remind students to be mindful of the neutrality and objectivity of their words. For example, use “I don’t feel well” instead of “I’m an emotional person and I haven’t developed any emotional management skills at all.
  6. Each group summarizes the key words and shares their views or reflections.
  7. The teacher responds to each group’s sharing from the perspective of the 5 facets of the daily mindfulness routine and offers some suggestions for improvement.

4. Conclusion

The exercises and activities in this class revolve around the 5 core facets of mindfulness: Observing, Describing, Acting with Awareness, Non-judgment of Inner Experience, and Non-reaction to Inner Experience. We learned that mindfulness is an effective way to manage fear because it not only helps us perceive the environment and internal emotions more acutely, but also gives us the ability to cope with stressful events and extreme emotions. It is the practice of mindfulness that pulls us out of our busy daily lives and overloaded information and focuses on our feelings at this moment. This is an effective way to establish a connection with our inner selves and cultivate inner focus. In the next class, we will explore Resources for mental health support, which can provide more external practical tools to cope with challenges.