For the students the session started off with an activity around checking out the internal 'weather forecast' of their feelings, and a discussion of how quickly the 'weather' can change. Although easy for some who were able to say for example that the weather was 'Foggy' (They felt sleepy) or 'sunny' (they felt happy and energetic), for others this was a tricky task.We had a good discussion about the idea that it was checking how you feel rather than the imagery that was important. For one group the discussion got on to the movie 'Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs 1+2' Some of the students said they could equate emotional states and mood to the food that came from the sky, or to the 'Foodimals' different moods and characters!
All the students got the idea that their mood affected how they felt during the day, but that this mood was as changeable as the weather i.e. they were unlikely to be angry for a whole day or happy for a whole day, and it was useful to notice how they were feeling at particular points.
All four classes had a great discussion about paying attention to routine things. I asked them all whether their parents asked them about their day when they got home? There was a unanimous raising of hands! and a pretty consistent set of stock responses that the students gave:
'So what did you do today at school?'
The student's approached the task of trying to see, hear, smell, touch and taste a raisin as if it was the first time they had ever seen it with a lot of interest and enthusiasm!
There was a lot of great discussion following around thinking about the food we eat more mindfully, in terms its appearance, taste, texture etc. We also talked a lot about considering the journey the food makes to be in front of us.
The students have been tasked to pick a mealtime this week and to try and eat mindfully during this meal or just for 5 minutes of the meal. I've promised them that if they do they are likely to notice new things about the taste of food they take for granted! You could join in with them if you want and have a discussion about your experiences.
Another suggestion is to take time on a walk you do regularly to stop for 10-20 seconds to consider what you can see, hear, smell and feel.
Next week, How we deal with situations when we long for them to change: Patience and faith and letting go
All the students got the idea that their mood affected how they felt during the day, but that this mood was as changeable as the weather i.e. they were unlikely to be angry for a whole day or happy for a whole day, and it was useful to notice how they were feeling at particular points.
All four classes had a great discussion about paying attention to routine things. I asked them all whether their parents asked them about their day when they got home? There was a unanimous raising of hands! and a pretty consistent set of stock responses that the students gave:
'So what did you do today at school?'
- 'nothing'
- 'stuff'
- 'writing'
- 'maths'
- 'break and lunchtime'
- 'I forgot'
The students really got the idea that it was hard to remember specifics about what they had done each day because it was encased in a routine framework that varied little on a daily basis. We talked about what parents could ask instead and they agreed that 'Tell me one interesting or exciting thing that you did today?' might be a question that got more information out of them!
Its interesting to think form a parental perspective what would you say if every day your children asked you 'So what did you do at work today?' How many days would you respond ' oh emails, meetings and reports' or just...'stuff'!
Illustrating our discussion around not paying attention to routine things we discussed the idea that most car accidents take place on roads familiar to a driver and close to their home. The next activity asked them to try and regard a very familiar object as if they had never seen it before, and describe it using the senses available to them.
The student's approached the task of trying to see, hear, smell, touch and taste a raisin as if it was the first time they had ever seen it with a lot of interest and enthusiasm! There was a lot of great discussion following around thinking about the food we eat more mindfully, in terms its appearance, taste, texture etc. We also talked a lot about considering the journey the food makes to be in front of us.
The students have been tasked to pick a mealtime this week and to try and eat mindfully during this meal or just for 5 minutes of the meal. I've promised them that if they do they are likely to notice new things about the taste of food they take for granted! You could join in with them if you want and have a discussion about your experiences.
Another suggestion is to take time on a walk you do regularly to stop for 10-20 seconds to consider what you can see, hear, smell and feel.
Next week, How we deal with situations when we long for them to change: Patience and faith and letting go
For those of you who missed the parent talk last Wednesday I mentioned a number of resources that can be used to explore mindfulness outside of this program if you wanted. For adults and older teens there is the Headspace program http://www.getsomeheadspace.com/index.aspx which gives an introduction to mindfulness through 10 minute meditations. For all ages there are free mindfulness programs available through The Smiling Mind website http://smilingmind.com.au/.
Happy to have any questions about these to tim.conroystocker@esfcentre.edu.hk
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