Mindfulness and Technology: An Unlikely Duo

Mindfulness continues to gain momentum as a practice that can be designed to combat the ever demanding world of technology and media. It is a way for us to "unplug" from the Ipads and emails that vie for our attention like rock star groupies outside of an 80's era Whitesnake concert. Using mindfulness can help us turn off the things that steal our attention and tune into the things that are happening in the present moment such as the way we feel and the sounds we hear. By redirecting out attention to the present moment we are able create space between what is happening and how we respond to it.

In a twist of irony it appears that there are an ever growing list of Applications for our smartphones that make it easier to employ mindfulness in order to unplug from the very smartphones that are helping us to be mindful. Yeah confusing I know... its kind of like trying to start a diet by going to McDonald's and ordering a chicken salad topped with fried nuggets. However, part of dealing with a world that is increasingly being taken over by technology is approaching the way we deal with that technology in a contemplative manner. By mindfully paying attention to how we interact with these technologies we can use them to our advantage and help increase and strengthen a daily mindfulness practice. I have compiled a list of "Mindfulness Apps" that I think can help us maintain our daily practice through fun interactive means.

Insight Timer- Meditation Timer ($2.99): This is my current favorite application for my smartphone. It is available for both Iphones and Android operating systems. With the Insight Timer you can try both guided meditations as well as silent self-guided sits. It has a handy timer that starts and stops your session with a variety of bells and singing bowls. It also has a journal feature to write about your experience after meditating. The app has an online community called Insight Connect that lets you connect with other people using the application.  According to Amazon "With the Insight Connect feature, you can become part of a global meditation community - seeing at a glance people around the world who are meditating with you." 

Conscious App by Makan Studios (free): This is another app that is available for both the Android and Iphone smartphones. This app pushes daily challenges to you that help you stay mindful of a certain goal. It also has a community of users to help you stay motivated. Every morning, everyone gets the same new challenge for the day. If you accept the challenge, you then try your best throughout the day to incorporate it in your experience. In the evening, you mark the challenge as finished and add a daily journal entry to keep track of your progress and share your insights with the others. I think it is a great idea I just am not too thrilled about the idea of more notifications being pushed through my phone.

ReWire by Seated Monkey (free): This free app tries to increase your inherent ability to pay attention. It is simple and easy to use. You listen to sound and when the sound disappears you tap the screen. I also find it to be a great precursor to a meditation session by helping to ready your ability to focus. I  like that you can import your own music or purchase the ReWire "brainwave tracks." Although not specifically meditation this is a great app to use with kids or other novices who may not be experienced with staying aware of their own attention. 

The Mind Gardner App ($.99): This app can be download on both the Android and Itunes platforms. It is based off the popular Mind Gardener website which focuses on positive thinking in the realm of positive psychology rather than mindfulness. It is another app that tries to help with mind training to increase attention and focus. However, it relies more on training your brain for positive thinking and motivation... kind of like a pocket sized Tony Robbins. According to the Android store "Mind Gardener Moments contains 20 topics, including the procrastination buster, the relationship smoother, the mood shifter, the busyness buster, the change embracer and the creativity booster. Each topic reveals 3 simple and practical exercises designed to hit the spot." I don't use this app and by the looks of the website its full of platitudes that can come off a little trite. However give it a shot it may be just what you need. 

Mind Hacker app ($1.92): Mind Hacker uses binaural beat technology to alter your though patterns by stimulating specific parts of the brain using various frequencies. Binaural beats are believed to lower brain frequency, decrease anxiety and increase learning (working memory). Theta waves specifically are supposed to help with meditation. The jury here at the Mindful School Psychologist is still out on this one, but if this is your thing its a great app. 

The Meditation Jar (free):  This app is only for the Iphone and is great for kids to practice "mindful seeing". The Meditation Jar app gives relaxation to your mind and helps you to focus on the simple settling of dots in a jar- similar to a snow globe. Just shake the jar and let the dots clear your mind in 10 seconds right where you are.

As mindfulness continues to "go mainstream" more and more of these apps will continue to be developed. From websites that are dedicated to tracking the growing movement of technology in contemplation/ meditation, as well as podcasts that discuss their utility, the lines between awareness and technology will continue to blur. As a practitioner who is  excited to be apart of the growing mindfulness movement I am optimistic about how these apps can help us to strengthen or daily practice as well as bring mindfulness to those who have not found it. However, I am cautious and always mindful to approach my relationship with this technology in a inquisitive and introspective manner. What apps do you use? Are there any you would recommend. Leave your recommendations in the comments section. 

The Benefits of Meditation

Your Mind at Work

Here is a great link and PDF document from Mindful magazine that give some easy ways to use mindfulness when you are dealing with everyday frustrations in the workplace. I like the idea of using little mindful tips to help combat work place frustrations. I know I am someone who often gets easily frustrated. It usually leads to me losing track of my focus as I contemplate the many ways an annoying colleague is making me feel. I especially can relate to the advice about others who gossip, which is one of my biggest pet peeves. Although not a panacea to all problems of the work place, I think these little tricks can be a great way to further a mindful practice if you already have one.


https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B81L8Ptq2gu-S0RDYXZtbTZiSWc/edit?usp=sharing

3 Activities to increase Mindful Awareness

I am trying to get back to updating this blog on a regular basis regarding my work with mindfulness and children. I wanted to write about a few activities that I have been doing that seem to be fun and well received by my kiddos.  I am currently working with 4th grade boys that struggle with attention and focus. Although they are not all diagnosed with ADHD, they have been recommended for my group as children who "struggle with attention and self-control." Recent studies have suggested that  mindful training not only helps children with ADHD increase attention skills, it also helps with developing executive functioning skills. Executive functioning skills are the skills necessary for us to control our behavior as well as  plan and self monitor our actions. Due to this growing area of research (which I recently contributed to and will write about on this blog) I have started to focus more on building mindful awareness with my students. One of the ways we do this is to focus on sensory exploration. Whether its exploring breath, pulse or the sense of touch; focusing on sensory input is one way to build the awareness needed to stay in the current moment. Here are three recent activities I have been doing with my students to build sensory awareness.

Tactile Awareness

Our hands are one of the most sensitive parts of the body. Our fingers have over 100 touch receptors in just their tips. All of this information is rushed to our brain and relays messages within a blink of an eye. However; we are often unaware of the sensations our fingers and hands send to our information processing system and having the sense of sight to go with this information we often take tactile sensation for granted. One way to increase tactile awareness is to play the "What is it?" game. In this game you gather a random assortment of small toys (race cars, action figures ect.), office supplies, coins and anything else that is lying around your office or room and throw then into a sack or tote bag that can not be seen through. Write the names of all the objects on note cards and shuffle the cards. Have a student pick a card and then try to find that item in the bag without looking. They must only use there sense of touch. I like to set a timer or have a song play (students choice :))  for 15 seconds while they search. Before I set the timer I have them describe what the item may feel like. Is it smooth? Rough? Round or Soft? If the student finds the item they get to keep the card. The first student to get to 3 cards wins the game. I got the idea for this game from this amazing educational activity called the the Touch Game, which appears to no longer be in production #sadface. The Speech/ Language therapist at my school had one that I borrowed and the students loved it. It even has a timer built into it. You can buy them on Ebay, but 80-100 dollars seems a lot for a game you can recreate with random objects laying around the office.

Awareness of Breath

Often times when I have students focus on their breath, they start to breath in a loud and labored manner, which is not only unsustainable it also causes a distraction to the group. I began to realize that children may need a fun way to practice sustaining and modifying their breath. The old fashion Floating Ball Game is a great way to facilitate breath awareness. These floating ball games can be purchased for a cheap price on Amazon. I bought one for each of my students. I start by demonstrating how to make the ball go up and down, as well as sustaining it at a certain height. I then show them how to get it to land back in the cradle. After the first demonstration the children are given a couple minutes to practice making the ball go up and down and getting the ball back into to the cradle. We talk about how one must modify their breath to make the ball go up or down as well as focus on the rate they breathe in order for the ball to get back into the cradle. After the students spend some time practicing and focusing on their breath, I then turn the game into a competition. Each person gets two tries to see how long they can keep the ball in the air and get it back into the cradle. The trial only counts if they get the ball back into the cradle. Who ever was able to keep the ball up longest gets a prize (by the way I kept my up for 15 seconds and its not as easy as it looks). After the game we do a 1 minute silent meditation. The students try to focus on their breathing in the same manner they did during the game so they can "practice their breath" for next time.

Pulse Awareness

Our pulse is a great barometer of how our body is feeling in the present moment. Just as a barometer tells us about the future weather patterns our pulse can also tell us how we are about to act or feel in any situation. When there are sudden changes in barometric pressure there may be a storm brewing. When we have sudden changes in our heart rate or pulse, dynamic and unpredictable emotions or behaviors may be coming. However; the great thing about a barometer is that by watching for changes in pressure (or pulse in this case) we are better able to prepare for the coming storm. Listening to the waring signs in our body can lead to improvements in our mental health. Teaching children to listen to their pulse is an easy way for them to gauge how they are feeling. I begin this activity with first teaching students how to find their pulse. There are three different easy ways to find your pulse. The first is by placing you index and middle finger just below your wrist.

If the children have trouble locating their pulse here then they can also try to locate it by placing two fingers just above and to the right of their adam's apple. Finally if this is not working they can lay their hand over their heart, which seemed to work for a couple of my students. Once they find their pulse, I have them count how many heart beats they feel while just sitting. We record each persons heart beat. Next we have 2 minutes of active time. I usually let them pick a song to listen to and we do jumping jacks, run in place and pretty much just run around crazy. For my students who know Yoga, we do 5 sun salutations in row. After two minutes is up we again find the pulse and count how many beats are in 10 seconds. After we record each student's number we then talk about the difference in number of beats as well as how it feels when your heart is beating so quickly. I have them share times when they became nervous or angry and their hearts started beating quickly. Finally we do 1 minute meditation where we focus solely on our breath. After the one minute has ended I ring a mindful bell and the students raise their hand when they can no longer hear the sound. The students then find their pulse again for 10 seconds and notice if focusing on their breath has made their pulse go up or down. We then discuss ways to use breath awareness when we may be faced with times that make our pulse go up.

The great thing about teaching mindfulness to children is the many different activities one can use to help facilitate awareness. Whether it is mindful walking, mindful eating or mindful breathing, teaching children to slow down and be mindful of their actions helps them to cultivate their ability to actively pay attention to the world around them. These three activities alone will not create perfect executive functioning skills or laser sharp attention skills in children. However, my goal  is to help children start to become aware of themselves and aware of their ability to control and regulate behavior. This will help them achieve what ever goals they have for themselves, whether it is passing a math test or getting through a parents' divorce. Hopefully the skills I teach them will turn into future techniques for self regulation. Or as Thich Nhat Hanh puts it, "planting seeds" of effective emotional tools for creating future peaceful, happy lives.

Resources:

Thich Nhat Hanh (2011), Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children, Berkley: Parallax Press

Classroom Brain Break!!!

Here is video the Hawn Foundation posted on Facebook showing how quick and easy a Brain Break can be implemented in the classroom setting. I can't say enough about the Mind Up program. Its quick easy and very understandable for both children and teachers.

Interesting Links

As a School Psychologist I think is imperative to stay informed regarding research, current events and the current psycho-educational zeitgeist. I keep a word document on my computer with all the links I didn't get around to reading from the previous day. Yesterday, I started to realize that the document was growing out of control so I took some time out to catch up  on some reading. Here are some interesting tidbits from what I found.

• A recent study pretty much confirms what most Educators have already suspected: Children's school performance correlates with parent income and education levels. However, what makes this study so interesting is that these correlations are based on differences in volume of key brains regions - like the Hippocampus and Amygdala- which are involved in learning and processing emotions. You can start the obligatory is it the "chicken or the egg?" discussion below. One of my favorite books points out that parent income levels and stress levels often have prenatal consequences before environmental factors can even impact neonatal development. 

• It looks like a school district in San Diego that offers free Yoga classes to it's students twice a week are under fire from parents who believe this amounts to indoctrination into Hinduism and a violation of "separation of church and state." Along with this being a completely ridiculous argument, I also think it opens a "Pandora's box" with regards to the mindfulness and Yoga movement that has yet to really been ironed out in education, i.e. how comfortable is the "Mindfulness in Education" movement in becoming a secular movement. I have been meaning to write an entire post dedicated to this discourse but keep procrastinating. Stay posted for that. In the mean time here is a post called "Occupy Mindfulness" that got me thinking about the coming storm of traditionalist vs secularists. Then another one stressing that religion is not part of Yoga in schools. #foodforthought 

• Here is a great interview with Christopher Willard, which deals with some of the themes I mentioned in the previous bullet. If you teach mindfulness or meditation to children in schools, it is a great read and highlights the importance of finding balance between religious philosophy and secular pragmatics. 

• I found inspiration from this post  as I often struggle with negative thoughts which I label as "realistic." However, what I have come to realize is that focusing on the positive (which in not always reality) creates a better feeling within you, and  also makes one better equipped to deal with the inevitable "sturm and drang" of the human condition. These ten easy steps are great ways to stay positive and "keep it moving." 

• Here are a bunch of benefits to meditation from the APA. 

• Here is a nice "Mindfulness 101" post. I remember when I first started practicing Mindfulness I found it to be an abstract concept that was difficult to explain to others. I also had trouble practically labeling something that really ends up being a state of mind. I think the more one reads basic definitions of Mindfulness from others, they not only crystallize their own Mindfulness practice but they also become more fluent and comfortable explaining it to others.... so read away!

• I love www.edudemic.com. Its a great website that helps educators and schools incorporate technology and social media into their classrooms.  I also love Twitter. Here is a link combining both. As educators we have a responsibility to spread knowledge. We must gain knowledge through growth and study. Creating our own personal learning network is a great way of doing that. This list will help you know who are best to follow when creating a personal learning network on Twitter. P.S. Follow ME!! ;)

Great Video Highlighting Johns Hopkins Research

Here is a great video showing the research that is being completed at Johns Hopkins University with regards to Mindful Meditation and Yoga in schools. The more research that is done, the more schools will begin to accept the possibility of a Mindful curriculum as a viable and sustainable Social Emotional Learning (SEL) intervention.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Mindful Documentary and more links

• Great documentary about the work Mindful Schools is doing in the Bay Area.... love the way the girl looks at the bell the first time she hears it.

Room to Breathe Official Trailer from Russell Long on Vimeo.

• Interesting article about the effects of pot usage on the developing adolescent brain.

• Here is a great video showing how to incorporate mindful awareness and it links to memory using rocks (This again is apart of the awesome MIND UP curriculum)

• Are toddlers susceptible to peer pressure ?????

• Looks like schools in Memphis are finding success in meditation... maybe there is hope for the South.

• Interesting research regarding the different neural pathways activated during pleasure reading vs. critical reading

• A great quick intervention that I like to use for Anxiety

Quote of the Day

"The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature."

Joseph Campbell


I really enjoy Joseph Campbell, and base my Mindful Heros curriculum off his " The Hero With a Thousand Faces" collected works. This quote exemplifies the need to fulfill our inner goals and desires. Each of us are born with potentiality. By paying attention to the universe and staying in the realm of what is happening now, we are able to find synchronicty in the world around us. Once this happens we function within "our lane" or inherent nature. I believe the younger we find our lanes and follow our nature, the more successful we will become as adults. One of my favorite interview questions to ask children during evaluations is "What do you want to be when you grow up?" This seed, when planted in organic soil, can be the key for a healthy development and fulfilling life.

5 minute Loving Kindness Meditation for children and other Links

• Here is a series of Blog Posts about the Mind Up Curriculum, which I use and love...

• More evidence suggesting that are brains are pre-wired for language

• Great advice on how to start a loving kindness meditation with your children... loving kindness meditations have shown to increase people's ability to experience positive emotions and we all know the benefits of Positive Psychology

• Here is an interesting research study involving implicit and explicit theory of mind... it purports that implicit theory of mind is observed in children as young as 7 months old but is partly impacted by executive processing...

• Brain scans appear to suggest separable parts of the brain are impacted by puberty (hormones) and age with regards to activity within the social network of the brain.

Yoga may help children with Autism and other links

• In honor of Yoga awareness month this post helps to nicely summarize some of the recent research that exhibit positive effects of Yoga with children who have Autism Spectrum Disorders. I for one enjoy the Occupational Therapist taking the lead with this as Yoga delivered through Individualized Education Plan (IEP) goals may be a very practical manner of service delivery in schools.

• Great Op-ED in the New York times discussing how advancements in epigenetics have started to link father's health to the development of their unborn children. It appears that a child's development is not solely linked to mother's prenatal health care.

• The second annual Mindfulness Day is this Wednesday September 12th.  I would suggest taking the advice Iyanla Vanzant: "Pause Boo... Take a Breath"

• Not sure how I feel about this one. It looks like companies are starting to use Mindfulness practices in order to decrease multi-tasking and increase productivity/revenue. This seems a bit counter intuitive to the movement. What would Buddha say??

• Hooray !!! Scientists have used Artificial Intelligence to shorten the Autism Diagnostic Interview- Revised (ADI-R)... maybe I will start giving it now.

4 Steps to Prevent Unhelpful Narratives

As I sit in my office and review a file for a meeting I will have in the next half-hour, I am making every effort to use non-judgement to prevent pre-conceived notions about a parent. I have not met the parent. I have observed their child for a concise 20 minutes. However,  I have been exposed to a narrative that has come from everyone from the teacher all the way to the janitors... "Oh you are meeting with her?" "You better bring a Lawyer with you." "She is a piece of work." "I think she just want to make our lives hell."

Working in a school constantly exposes you to narratives and assumptions from personnel regarding parents, students and other teachers. Listening and processing these narratives feeds our left- brain.The left brain is responsible for logic and is in charge of verbalizing internal thoughts and feelings. The left hemisphere is also responsible for creating our life story, or autobiographical narrative. As such, when we process negative verbal information that we also begin to create our own narratives e.g. "Ugh I don't want to talk to that teacher", "That parent doesn't care about their child", "This student is just lazy".  You can't fault your left brain for stringing together this verbal information, as its doing its job. The left brain is really amazing and gives us novels, movies and the ability to put our feeling into words. However, the left brain's drive for giving verbal context to sensory information is so strong that it can often confabulate a story, taking cues from what it knows and putting them together in an answer that makes sense, even if it leaves out important information.  For this reason alone we must be able to stop serving it and call it a cab before it gets drunk on power. Not doing so can create opinions or judgments about things that may not take the whole picture into account.

Creating false narratives can be a disadvantage in a field that requires empirically based observations and data based decision making. The word empirical in its self implies that which is acquired through sensory experience, rather than left brain concocted theories. Therefore when making decisions, completing observations or going into a situation that already carries a narrative (most meetings), it is imperative to take these steps to stay in the moment and making informed observations about what is happening in the now.

1. Take a 3 Deep Breathes: Mindfulness and breathing are inseparable, and deep breathing is suggested ad nauseam  as a means to anchor yourself. Well it works and focusing on your breath will help you prepare to identify those pesky narratives with they jump into your head.
2. Take a quick body scan and notice how your body is feeling in the moment. Are you nervous? Is your heart beating faster than normal? Are your shoulders or jaw clenched. Noticing these somatic triggers will help you stay aware of the mind body connection. If your body is in a state of stress it will more likely grasp for any narrative it can in order to explain why you are feeling as such, even if this narrative has no basis in what is actually happening.
3. Notice the narrative when it arises: Here is where non-judgement comes into play. Notice judgments,  preconceived notions and assumptions when they pop-up. Acknowledge them as such and move your sensory awareness back to the task at hand, whether it be listening, writing or observing what is happening in the moment. 
4. Creative a new narrative: In the moment of acknowledging a toxic narrative it can be helpful to label it and creative a new narrative in a non-judgmental fashion. For example if a teacher says something along the lines of "I don't think this student's parent cares about school, he never returns his homework." Instead of using this information to create a theory of why homework is not returned, you can just repeat to yourself "listening", or "helping". These anchor words will help to create space between what is actually going on and what the toxic narrative is explaining is going on. I had a teacher same something similar to me once. We later found out that the student was doing all the homework; however he wasn't turning it in. Weeks of homework and assignments were crumbled up in balls at the bottom of his back pack. 

By having a consistent mindfulness practice we are better able to create the awareness necessary to not only notice maladaptive narratives when they arise, but also use our sensory experience to gain empirical information about what is actually happening in the moment. We can become better practitioners, consultants and team members if we stay in the moment and work with what is actually happening now, rather than continuing a story that our drunk Uncle Left Brain started weeks ago.

Monday Morning Poem

Along with starting the day off with an intention, I like to start the week off with an overarching manifestation. This one comes from the  book Tao Of Jeet Kun Doe, by Bruce Lee, which among technical martial arts instructions, lies zen musings and teachings. People and athletes who are at the height of their craft often speak about being in the "zone." They intuitively feel and respond to what is happening around them with little cognitive mediation. This awareness is what being in the moment is all about. Thanks to Pocket Mindfulness for the link. The author is reportedly a Tao Priest and the poem has no title.

Into a soul absolutely free

From thoughts and emotion,

Even the tiger finds no room

To insert its fierce claws

 

One and the same breeze passes

Over the pines on the mountain

And the oak tress in the valley;

And why do they give different notes

 

No thinking, no reflecting,

Perfect emptiness;

Yet therein something moves,

Following its own course

 

The eye sees it,

But no hand can take hold of it -

The moon in the stream

 

Clouds and mists

They are midair transformations;

Above them eternally shine the sun and the moon

 

Victory is for the one,

Even before combat,

Who has no thought of himself,

Abiding is the no-mind-ness of Great Origin

Bits and links

• Apparently meditation decreases the duration of the common cold

• Meditation (mantra-centered) as an intervention for the sensory processing deficits seen in Autism seems to be growing.

• Good news you don't have to drag the family to go see Grandma in the old peoples home anymore, as Carnegie Mellon found that an 8 week MBSR course reduces loneliness

• Recent research has shown that heart and lung health has been linked to better reading and math scores in middle school students. This is great because it just so happens that meditation and yoga may also help fight acute respiratory infections and asthma

Back to School.....

Alas back to school has a arrived. After swim lessons and sports camps students line up outside in their new shoes and shiny book bags in order to start a new year of learning and growth. Or, if you are a teacher/administrator, to start a new year of budget cuts, angry parents and ballooning class sizes. Just as its important to start every day with an intention, it is also a good time to start a school year off with an intention. The cacophony of politics and opinions can often be so loud in education that it may cloud your perception of what exactly it is you are trying to accomplish. I'm going to take this first week of school to embrace the dynamic nature and events of a school system and set a goal of what I want to accomplish this year. Whether its being more organized, staying motivated, or remaining patient in the face of adversity, I'm going to set this intention as a "north star" for my year.

Taking a moment to ground yourself and set an intention helps you to be confident in your actions and prevents you from straying from your path (which you ultimately created). Remembering this each morning before students and staff come hurling through those school doors will not only help you stay in the moment, but will also provide peace and steadfastness in moments of stress.

Even short amounts of Mindfulness are effective...

Part of what makes Mindful meditation so interesting is the Neuropsychological impact it has on the brain. Our brain has the uncanny ability to form new connections and strengthen grey matter through Neuroplasticity. Through this process we are able learn new languages, recover from accidents and overcome mild psychological disorders. A recent study suggested that experienced meditators who have been practicing anywhere between 4 and 46 years exhibited increased grey matter in areas associated with increased attention and focus, working memory and impulse control.

 WOW this sounds great, in about 4 years we can see increase in grey matter. I barely have time stop at Chik Fil-A for dinner and you are telling me that I have to spend four years being mindful before I can see results? Luckily new research  from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that the positive neurological effects of Mindful Meditation can be seen in just two weeks. The Chinese study from Dalian University of Technology randomly assigned participants to "30 minutes of either integrative body-mind training or relaxation training over a two-week period. The training totaled five hours for each group." This is encouraging news for implementing mindful meditation training within systems that are usually "strapped" for time, e.g. schools.