Tagmindfulness for students

Practicing Mindfulness With Family

Practicing mindfulness has many benefits for all areas of life. It affects physical, emotional, mental, and social well-being. It’s an even more powerful tool when that intention and awareness is shared with others – in this case, our family. A Family that practices mindfulness together, stays together.

A mindful family is:

  • Aware of each other’s wants/needs
  • Emotionally available
  • More likely to take responsibility for how we are feeling
  • Less likely to project negative feelings onto others

Cultivate Curiosity

Mindfulness can be a new and odd subject to those who are unfamiliar. To avoid awkward interactions like in the comic, we want to introduce mindfulness in a way that instills curiosity. Questions that may get others to be curious about mindfulness are:

  • Are you present?
  • How do you feel right now? Do you want to change anything about that?
  • Have you set an intention (for the day/activity)?
  • What do you think of taking a few minutes to be mindful with ourselves and each other?

Starting a Practice

A family that practices mindfulness together, stays together.

Start Small – try a short mindfulness minutes activity and reflect on the experience as a group (perhaps before/after a meal). Most of our mindfulness activities include the following steps which can be used as a basis for your own activity!

  1. Close your eyes. Take 3 deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth.
  2. Name an emotion – what word best describes how you feel right now? Take note of it and let it go for now.
  3. Observe the senses (can be just 1 sense: i.e. Listen to the sounds around; or engage each of the senses if time allows: hearing, smell, taste, touch, sight).
  4. Observe the breath – Let it happen naturally without thinking about it.
  5. Set an intention. If nothing specific comes to mind, set an intention to be present and express gratitude throughout the day. The more you are specific about your intentions, the more likely you are to act on them without even thinking about it. We subconsciously achieve our goals or desired state of being.
  6. Name an emotion – what word best describes how you feel right now? Take note of it. Open your eyes.

Discuss your experience with your family. Here are possible discussion questions to get you started.

  • How do you feel? Do you want to change that? Remember we can hold on to, or let go of any emotion. It’s a choice.
  • Especially with family, be accountable for your own emotions. Don’t use crutches or deflections such as “I feel like you…”, or “You made me feel…” Own your feelings.
  • What are you working on?
  • Do you need support?

Try this activity with your kids, parents, spouse, or close friends. It is a great way to connect and share perspectives.

What’s the ROI on Mindfulness?

Mindfulness – What’s it worth? With busy schedules, taking time out of our day to practice mindfulness may seem counterproductive. The key is that practicing mindfulness improves everything we do. Mindfulness helps us to be at peace. Among many benefits, it helps us focus, increases productivity, reduces stress, improves the immune system, and reduces risk (physical and emotional) by virtue of being more aware.

Until recent years the benefits of mindfulness were not well tracked. As stress and distractions become more prominent in an overstimulated world, we are realizing that there is a real dollar impact of mindfulness (or lack thereof). We are now starting to see how mindfulness is connected to everything we do. The simple explanation is that by letting go of stress, we can process more of our experiences through the rational thinking part of our brain and less through the instinctive/reactive regions. We literally become more mindful and experience more moments of our life.

90-95% of participants in our mindfulness sessions reported a reduction in stress and an improvement in mood.

Insurance companies are realizing the importance of mindfulness. Aetna discovered that they earn $3000 more per employee (by gaining about an hour in productivity each week) and reduced expenses by $2000 per employee (yearly). SAP, a German technology has started rolling out mindfulness programs for its employees and noticed an ROI of 200% per employee.

The numbers are there for those who need to see them. My own work at JAH Advisory has found even more enlightening results. While practicing mindfulness with children and adults, we have made some interesting observations. Everyone (about 95% of participants in mindful sessions) reports reduced stress and an improvement in mood. Students are more engaged throughout the day. Relationships improve – between peers, teachers/students, and leaders/team members, and families. I can’t list all the amazing changes that a mindfulness practice can bring about.

Classroom Mindfulness Image

That’s the truly amazing thing. I already knew it, but seeing it in practices shows that the real value of mindfulness is priceless. You can’t measure the final impact on another person’s life and the positive impact they may have on others and so on. It is priceless. We can transform lives and create ripples by simply being aware. So remember to stay present.

6 Minutes of Mindfulness