When your brain veers to all that’s bad, that’s where thoughts tend to stay. Anxiety and stress take over. Peace eludes us. These are trained responses to unpleasantness. We don’t just ride out the storm; we dive into it head-on and suffer the consequences.

If we could resort to mindfulness to calm ourselves, navigating the waves of life would be easier. We are typically not programmed that way because we did not learn when we were children how to respond positively to what overwhelms us.

Related content: Mindfulness instruction is here, in a big way

Taming the amygdala: Staying calm with mindfulness
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Teaching children how to stay inwardly calm and centered enables them to practice self-regulation and relaxation and develop an appreciation for what is positive in and around them. In the edWebinar “Happy and Calm: The Best Tools for Mindfulness Now,” children’s yoga expert and award-winning recording artist Bari Koral introduced mindfulness exercises that can help children reduce the “noise” of negativity to improve their well-being over the long term.

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About the Author:

Michele Israel writes about the ideas and best practices that are shared in edWeb’s edWebinars so they can spread innovative and best practices to the education community. Michele owns Michele Israel Consulting, LLC, which serves large and small educational, nonprofit, media, corporate, eLearning, and blended-learning organizations to bolster products and programs. Her rich career spans over 25 years of successfully developing educational materials and resources, designing and facilitating training, generating communication materials and grant proposals, and assisting in organizational and program development. In addition to lesson plans and other teacher resources, Michele’s portfolio includes published articles covering a range of educational and business topics.

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