Mindfulness Muscle Activity by Discovery Education

In this 45 minute activity, students in grades 7-12 will contemplate how mindfulness can help regulate emotions. Ultimately, the students will create a plan for practicing mindfulness regularly.

To begin, ask students, in either a large group setting or small groups, a series of questions about well-being and emotions. Allow students time to process the questions and document their thoughts.

From there, define mindfulness as a group and share research about how mindfulness can help us manage our emotions. Discuss different ways of practicing mindfulness including eating meditation, focusing on sounds, experiencing routine activities mindfully, and experiencing nature.

Ask students to practice this by finding an object and observing it such that all your energy and focus is on the object. Have a discussion on what they noticed during this exercise. Once the discussion has wrapped up, distribute the mindfulness muscle capture sheet and play the Mindful Breathing meditation.

Ask students to spend 5-10 minutes after the meditation, writing down steps they could use to build their mindfulness muscle. Follow that up with a conversation around the meditation exercise – what was the experience like? What did you like? What was challenging?

Finally, wrap up the activity by reflecting on their initial impressions with either a group discussion, break off into pairs, or individual reflection. 

For full and complete details, download Discovery Education’s activity.