Day 1: Introduction to the Mindful Life

    

Welcome to our first of mindfulness and meditation! Today was a day of introduction to the world of meditation and yoga. As well as that we learned real world applications of mindfulness and practiced techniques that could be used in and out of school. There were also some challenges from today, such as sitting still when we meditated and talking about race. 

    The first part of the class in the morning we went over introductions and did our first meditation. It was interesting to meditate for the first time. Dr. Beth Reese described the brain as a muscle, and our muscles were not used to lifting the weights of meditation. During our meditation we participated in a body scan and payed attention to our feet to keep us grounded. 

    After our first meditation we went over the rules and expectations of the class and then participated in a yoga class. Many of us were unfamiliar to yoga, so certain positions were difficult. However, in our final position, shavasana, we felt very well rested and our minds were clear. After each yoga class we journaled and wrote down any questions or "Aha! Moments." When we were finished, we went for lunch. 

    When our lunch was finished we came back to class to create our zen gardens and color. The zen gardens were boxes full of sand where we would create our own designs using rakes, stamps, and other objects. After that we colored in our coloring books mandalas, while Maestra told us about the significance of the circle in mindfulness. 

   

 When we were finished with our coloring we had a seminar with Dr. Reese about racism and how we can use mindfulness to combat racism. This was a really interesting discussion as the shooting in Atlanta happened last week, and we all understood that these were important issues of the time. When we finished our conversation, we did one last meditation before we were released for the day.