Engaging Mindfully Outdoors: Activities and Strategies for Kids
With greater amounts of screen time and indoor time these days, it’s more important than ever to cultivate healthy habits that get us outside to connect with our natural environment. Practicing mindfulness exercises can help us at any age to pay attention to the current moment and our surroundings. Intentional engagement with the world around […]
A Powerful Tool to Stay Grounded in Conflict
Early on in my role as a TREE facilitator, I was feeling preoccupied trying to juggle our lesson while keeping my attention on our time limit. I was inattentive to a student’s (let’s call him Phil) contribution to our discussion, which they had voiced in the chat window. I was engaged in mindlessness. Mindlessness is living […]
How to Become an Empathetic Listener
Empathy is one of the most important skills we can develop in ourselves and in our children. It helps us build more positive relationships because we have a better understanding of one another and an appreciation for different perspectives. Brené Brown, author and research professor University of Houston, describes empathy as, “the skill set to […]
Three Mindfulness Practices for Stronger Relationships
It’s the little things. Your child gets you out of bed thirty minutes before your alarm goes off. The car won’t start. You forgot about an important deadline at work. You don’t have time to make dinner, and your kids won’t eat it when you do. Suddenly, someone says one more thing out of line […]