Mindfulness, since HED 350 (Spring 2013)

HED 350 was the Higher Education course in Mindfulness that I took during my last full semester at the U of A before graduating as a Bachelor of General Studies (BGS). I walked alongside my cohort in May of 2013 with one credit left to complete over the summer. I opted to do an independent study on mindfulness in education, hence this blog.

Here it is Summer 2016 and my journey with this Mindfulness business has been many things, least of all boring.

My grandmama Emeline "Midge" is a very mindful person which serves and has been developed through her artmaking. Mindful, in that she pays attention to the present moment without an agenda. She observes the tree, the leaves, the bark, the shadows, and curves, and shifting light, she feels the rhythm and aligns accordingly. She encouraged me to draw when I spoke to her on the phone last week, I was in Colorado on vacation touring mountain bike destinations. I needed that nudge. I sat on the porch and became frustrated rather fast with my imperfect attempt to capture the beauty before me. I calmed down realizing that I need but sit and observe, be moved and see what happens.


Progresss....


To be continued..

Yoga Cafe Canberra: Hanumanasana: Two Great Prep Poses

Yoga Cafe Canberra: Hanumanasana: Two Great Prep Poses: Hanumanasana, or the front splits, combines backbending and forward bending.  There are lots of ways to prepare yourself fo...

Important offerings...

So two and a half years later, I'm back to continue this blog and project.
Check this out:

@katiecouric: Race to Nowhere
https://youtu.be/1pDpPg29TJQ?t=18m9s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oidZ-XESijg

Oprah:

worked to get over the disease of pleasing

tells all to keep those who are rooting for your rise around

intention is what you get back, it is what causes cause and effect

if your intention is defaulting to desires of being likable over honest, perhaps this explains somethings...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8Pp7QB6GrE http://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/practice/mindfulness-10-lessons-in-self-care-for-social-workers/
Oh for the love of rabbit holes in the name of "research"

Personal Process/Progress

After allowing myself to drop this project completely for the last month and a half, I feel a stirring to pick it up again....

Stop. Shoot. Send.

During Fall 2012 I took a course called New Literacies (LRC430/530) and was exposed to a great resource:
Lesson Plans for Developing Digital Literacies
Edited by Mary T. Christel and Scott Sullivan (2010)

In it is a lesson by Louis Mazza named "Stop. Shoot. Send: Using Phone Cameras to Find Meaning and to Engage Students" and I created a presentation reflecting on the plan (see also companion Student Self-Evaluation).

It came to mind in relation to the work of Richard Burnett and colleagues (referenced in last post ".b").

And now, I'm considering ways of using these ideas in my own lesson plans.

.b

Mindfulness in Schools: Richard Burnett at TEDxWhitechapel

TEDx overview on YouTube:
"
Stop. Breathe. Pay attention. "Our mental health and well-being are profoundly affected by where and how we place our attention". In this enlightening talk, Richard guides through a short mindfulness meditation, and shares his experience of teaching mindfulness in schools. He reveals some of the amazing benefits being mindful can bring to the classroom and inspires the audience with simple ways to bring more awareness to how we respond to our everyday experiences.

Richard Burnett is co-founder of the Mindfulness in Schools Project. With Chris Cullen and Chris O'Neill, Richard wrote the highly-acclaimed 9 week mindfulness course, .b (pronounced dot-b), designed to engage adolescents in the classroom. He is a teacher and Housemaster at Tonbridge School, the first school in the UK to put mindfulness on the curriculum, an event covered by press, TV and radio in early 2010. Since then, thousands of young people have been taught .b in a wide range of educational contexts, from independent girls' schools like St Pauls to Young People's Support Services for those excluded from school. .b is now being taught in the UK, USA, Germany, France, Finland, Denmark, Holland and Thailand. For more information on the Mindfulness in Schools Project go to www.mindfulnessinschools.org
"

Mindful Eating vs. Mindless Eating

Gaiam posted an excerpt from "Savor: Mindful Eating Mindful Life" called Zen your Diet: Thich Nhat Hanh on 7 Ways to Eat Mindfully


Brian Wansink, Ph. D., author of "Mindless Eating: why we eat more than we think," offers extensive research on the psychology of consumption. The findings of Wansink's work provides us with many reasons to take up mindful eating practices as described by Thich Nhat Hanh and others.