Hi Mindful Schools Community! I’m Em Morrison, my pronouns are she/her. In the following video I’ll take you through a few of my favorite simple mindful movements to incorporate into mindfulness classes for young people (and adults love them too). You’ll also learn a game you can immediately use in your classroom.
Mindful movement practices are really important to me when I’m teaching mindfulness in schools because our students sit so much during the day. After a long day of sitting still in classes and doing complicated mental tasks, I love to open mindfulness classes with some mindful movement to help students get back in their bodies.
All the movements I’m going to offer you can do wearing regular clothes. Your students don’t need yoga mats. You can do it right in your classroom even if you don’t have a ton of room, and all the movements can be adjusted for students who don’t want to stand or might have a physical limitation––they can do them seated if they prefer.
To offer this practice in a trauma-sensitive way, make sure that students have choice if there is a movement they don’t want to do. They can pick another stretch so that the whole class is moving together and engaged, while allowing students to interact and engage with a physical practice in a way that feels safe and comfortable for them.
5 Simple Mindful Movements for Your Classroom
So let’s get started. In this video, I’ll take you through four mindful movements and a game.
1. Beach Ball Breathing
2. Smile & Shake
3. Drawing the Bow
4. Qi Showers
5. Quarter Pass Game
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Em Morrison (pronouns: she/her) loves nothing more than creating safe, fun, and healthy spaces for teens and adults to flourish, which she has been doing in Washington, DC and throughout the US for over thirteen years. She’s taught conflict resolution, mindfulness and restorative justice at schools, workshops, camps, and young adult and teen retreats. Em is a member of the Mindful Schools faculty in the Mindful Teacher Certification Program, where she trains educators in mindfulness techniques so that they may effectively teach them to young people. She approaches all her work from an empowerment and liberation perspective that holds that we already have all that we need to make the changes we want in our lives.