Get More Out of Your School Day

“Mindfulness means being awake.
It means knowing what you are doing. ”

— Jon Kabat-Zinn

Seeking Focus and Emotional Regulation?

Emotional Dysregulation, Impulse Control, Inability to Cross Midline, Lack of Empathy, Lack of Focus, Hyperactivity…the list goes on and on. If your child struggles with any or all of these, these resources are worth your time!

Recently we started a mindfulness curriculum called “MindUp”. It helps foster emotional and social awareness and enhancing psychological well-being. I really like this book because it is short, to the point, and cheap. It does require quite a bit of planning and creativity. These are not my gift! We started off learning the anatomy and function of the various parts of the brain. We are enjoying being able to “talk” to the different parts of our brains when we experience feelings of happiness and enjoyment or anger and fear. My youngest, who has significant anger issues, will say “you are not in charge, amygdala. I am fine!” My developmentally challenged daughter sings a song “PFC (pre-frontal cortex) – Queen of the brain.” There is such power in learning what is happening to your body when certain emotions come and go. Understanding the science is helping them control their emotions and behaviors when they come!

Here are some “mantras” that we try to say often:

· I am smart. Today, I plan to ___________!

· God loves me just how I am!

· I can do this!

· I am special and my ______ loves me!

We combine mindfulness training with brain exercises. A wonderful, short, and easy to use resource for brain exercises is the book “Brain Gym ”. This well-worn book has hand-drawn illustrations of easy brain exercises you can do with your children. Many of these exercises are crossing midline exercises, which have been proven to help modulate all sorts of brain functions.

Doing brain exercises, including those that require them to cross their midline, can impact these kiddos’ executive functioning, impulse control, focus, challenging behaviors and emotions significantly over time. Couple these with mindfulness exercises, and slowly but surely these kiddos start to transform.

Our family has started doing these exercises every morning before we start our academic day. We all enjoy them and often laugh because the exercises are silly! The kids and I start our day with a brain that is awake and ready to learn.