LESSON 5 - Youth Mindfulness€¦ · Lesson - 5 Youth Mindfulness Ltd 2. BODYSCAN 10 MINS Before we go into the rest of the lesson let’s just stop for a few moments and do a short

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© Youth Mindfulness Ltd

LESSON 5BEGINNER’S MIND

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PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING:

The following lesson is the 5th lesson in the Youth Mindfulness Kids programme. In the first four lessons, the children have developed both a conceptual and experiential understanding of mindfulness. They’ve also had the chance to explore how the brain can change and grow, why it’s helpful to be mindful, what attention is, and the allowing / non-reactive aspect of the mindful attitude.

At this point in the course, the children will have practised approximately 8 to 10 different mindfulness practices over the first four lessons (breath, body scan, simple movements). As such, some of the initial freshness and interest that is natural with anything novel, begins to wane. This lesson is designed to re-ignite that enthusiasm and curiosity - a vital facet of the mindful attitude.

The lesson that follows is the digital version from the printed manual. If you have any questions about our Kids Programme or would like to learn more about our training please get in touch: youthmindfulness.co.uk

http://youthmindfulness.co.uk

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BEGINNER’S MIND

LESSON OVERVIEW

For many children, the practice of mindfulness often begins with a natural curiosity – what has been called the beginner’s mind. By lesson 5, however, the novelty of paying attention to the present moment – to sounds, to the breath, to sensations in the body – can begin to wane, as does the accompanying sense of wonder. This lesson seeks to re-ignite the children’s curiosity and interest. We introduce Qi gong movement practices, practise mindful eating, and explore the “don’t know” or “beginner’s” mind.

LESSON OBJECTIVES

1. To encourage more graceful/collected mindful movements. 2. To review the mindful attitude (allowing/letting be)3. To introduce the “beginner’s mind” and encourage a sense of wonder in the present moment.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. The children will develop their attentional control through mindful movement, the bodyscan, and mind ful listening. 2. The children will learn the concept of the beginner’s mind as well as practise its cultivation. 3. The children will learn that the beginner’s mind / “don’t know mind” is something that we can develop.

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LESSON FLOW

1. Qi gong movements.2. Bodyscan.3. Discussion / lecture on the mindful attitude.4. Box of mystery. 5. Malteser meditation.6. Lecture on beginner’s mind.7. Video of Jonathan. 8. Listening with a beginner’s mind.

MATERIALS NEEDED

• Maltesers individually wrapped in foil and placed in the “box of mystery”.• Powerpoint: Lesson 5.

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1. QI GONG MOVEMENTS 7-8 MINS

We’re going to begin today’s lesson with some mindful movement. In fact, we’ll be doing a lot of mindful movement throughout this course. And one important reason for this is that in everyday life we’re mostly moving – we’re rarely very still. And mindfulness is something we want to be able to do all the time – not just when we’re sitting still. So learning to be mindful when moving really helps us be mindful in our every day life: when walking through the corridor, when waiting in a queue, when eating…Also…when we do mindful movement it can be helpful to do it slowly so that we can really pay attention. It’s a bit like Kung Fu. If a Kung Fu fighter is in training or about to spar, they don’t hold their body in a slovenly, unmindful way.

Let your body go loose, almost like a drunk looking for a fight.

Instead they hold their body in a calm way. Their body and mind are collected.

Stand in an erect, dignified posture, demonstrating a sense of self-mastery.

This allows them to really train well. Their body and mind are collected - both focused on one task. So when we practise mindful movement, we want to do it with this same care and attention – fully concentrated on the present moment.

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Mindful movement 5 mins

Beginning by standing with your feet hip-width apart, your arms resting by your sides… And taking a few slightly deeper breaths to bring the mind and body back together… Really coming into the here and now…noticing how it feels to stand here in this moment… how your body feels… your legs… your feet… hands and arms…

1. Moving hands from belly to eyes.

And now gently bringing your hands to a point just below the belly-button… And on the in-breath bringing them upwards to about the level of your eyes… And then on the out-breath bring-ing them downwards… In-breath, bringing them up… Out-breath, bringing them down… Really paying attention to how it feels to move your arms in this way… Can you feel the air brushing against your skin… How does your breath feel as you combine it with the movement of the arms?... When the mind wanders away, or you notice you’ve become distracted, just simply bringing the mind back to the feeling of the arms moving… In… Out… And now the next time you breathe out and bring your hands down… twisting your body round to one side and then on the in-breath bringing your hands up on that side of the body… On the out-breath bringing your hands back down and then twisting your body round to the other side… As you do

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these movements, really paying attention to how it feels to twist the body and move the arms… When the mind wanders away, just coming back to the feeling of the movement… [repeat the side to side movements about 4-6 times]And now coming back to rest, and just noticing how your body feels after those movements… tuning into your breathing… And now easing out your body in any way that feels good to you… moving your hands and arms…

2. Between trees.

And now, bringing your hands in front of your chest as though you’re holding a football… And on the in-breath stretching them out to either side… And then on the out-breath bringing them back to hold this imaginary football… In-breath – stretching them out… Out-breath, bringing them back… You can imagine that you’re standing between two trees, and with the in-breath you’re stretching your hands out to touch them… And again, really feeling these sensations in the body… in your chest, and back… arms and hands… noticing if you’re attention goes out of your body and becomes distracted by thoughts or other people… and then just gently coming back to the sensations of breathing and movement… And now imagining that the trees have moved just a couple of inches further apart and you have to stretch even more… and noticing what that feels like… really paying close attention to this feeling of stretching…And once more coming back to standing and breathing, and

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again noticing how you feel after that movement... How do your arms feel? Your hands? Your back and shoulders?

3. Wake Up Stretch.

The last mindful movement we’ll do is called the wake up stretch… So just like the first one, beginning with your hands just below the level of your belly button… On the in-breath bringing them up, above your head, and on the out-breath bringing them round and down making a large circle… Really enjoying that feeling of letting go and relaxing as you bring your arms round and down… On the in-breath bringing them up… On the out-breath making a large circle… And really stretching… And again, noticing how it feels to move in this way… feeling the hands… the shoulder joints… the elbows… the stomach… really tuning into how your body feels…

Practice about 8-10 of these stretches.

And once more coming to rest and just standing noticing what the body feels like after that movement… and when you’re ready, easing out your body in a way that feels natural to you.

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2. BODYSCAN 10 MINS

Before we go into the rest of the lesson let’s just stop for a few moments and do a short bodyscan.

Sitting Practice 5 mins

Turning your chair to face the front, and finding a solid strong posture. Placing your feet flat on the floor, your hands on your lap, and – if you’d like to – taking a few slightly deeper breaths just to calm the body and bring the mind into the here and now… And then allowing your breathing to return to normal… Just feeling the breath come in and go out… When the mind wanders away, just very simply bringing it back… And now, gently bringing your attention down into the soles of your feet… With a real sense of curiosity in how your feet feel right in this moment… Are they warm or cold?... Can you feel the sense of pressure as they rest downwards onto the floor?... Or maybe the contact with your shoes and socks… Noticing how your toes feel… the arches of your feet… and the heel… And now expanding your attention throughout your legs… Just checking in with each part of the legs to feel what’s happening… your ankles… your calves… shins… knees… and remembering there’s no particular way to feel – just noticing what sensations are present… and if there are no sensations that’s OK – just noticing that… feeling the contact with the chair… and having a sense of the whole of the legs… do they feel heavy or tired… or comfortable?... And now moving your attention to your hands… and again having a sense of interest in how your hands are in this moment… First of all, noticing what they are touching… How are they placed?... Bringing your attention into the palms of the hands… and the finger tips… do they feel cool or warm?…

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Are they dry or is there any sense of moisture or clamminess?… Maybe being aware of tingling or buzzing sensations… or a pulsing… and now moving your attention to the backs of your hands and noticing whatever feelings, whatever sensations there are here… maybe a sense of the air against the skin… And now moving your attention gently up your arms…noticing how the wrists feel and the forearms…and now checking in with the elbows…And upper-arms…Can you feel the weight of the upper-arms resting downwards…and maybe the gentle pull on the shoulder joints?... And now zooming your attention out to embrace the whole of your body… Just having a sense of your whole body resting here in this moment… Feet… Legs… Hands… Arms… Back… Head… the whole body resting here in this moment, breathing in and out… if the mind wanders away just gently coming back to the feeling of the body in this moment… noticing how as soon as you come back to feel the body, your mind is in the present moment …in … out… nothing to do, nowhere to go… just enjoying the feeling of breathing and being alive in this moment…

Enquiry 5 mins

Teacher-led Inquiry – inquire into both the movement and the sitting practice.

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3. DISCUSSION ON THE MINDFUL ATTITUDE. 4-5 MINS

The mindful attitude is a subtle concept for primary school children to understand. It is important to reinforce this throughout the course. This discussion exercise reinforces the key learning points from the last lesson: Master Oogway is calm and accepting of what is happening and so is able to respond effectively; resisting what is happening often makes it worse; and the mindful attitude is allowing the moment to be as it is.

We’re going to do a little pair/share activity. You have 30 seconds to come up with an answer to this question:

30 seconds paired discussion.

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And here’s the next question:


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And finally...

30 second paired discussion.

So what answers did you come up with?

Teacher-led whole-class discussion going through each of the three questions.

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So the mindful attitude is really quite simple: rather than fighting against our experience or getting lost in impatience or frustration or constant reactivity, we can just smile to what is happening and really let this moment be the way it is. So to be mindful… in the present moment, just notice and allow. We see what’s happening, whatever it is, and then we don’t need to do anything else. We just let it be there. We just notice and allow. It could be an itch when we’re practising mindfulness of breathing, or maybe it’s a feeling of annoyance with a friend when we’re on the playground. The interesting thing is that when we can be mindful of what is happening – in our body and mind – often positive changes will come all by themselves. Try it out, see what happens!

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4. THE BOX OF MYSTERY. 3 MINS

Today we’re going to explore another aspect of what it means to be mindful, and to do this I brought something with me. This is called the box of mystery…

Bring out the box of mystery (Tadaaaaa!)

What do you think might be in the box of mystery?

“toys”

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“more boxes”

“nothing”

What else do you think might be in the box of mystery?

Really allow the children to use their imagination and become excited about all the possibilities of what might be inside.

And before we open the box of mystery, let me ask you, what is your mind like right now? How do you feel?

“very excited”

“curious”

“interested”

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We all have what is sometimes called the “don’t know mind”. Most of the time we think the mind that knows something is better than the mind that doesn’t know, but you’ll notice that right now your mind is very concentrated, it is very interested and focused and this is because you have the “don’t know mind”. Now…would you like to see what is in the box?

“YES!!!!”

It’s hard to resist pretending to put it away and leaving it for another lesson.

In this box I have a little gift for each of you. I am going to hand out these little gifts to each of you, but it is very important that you just leave it on the table in front of you and don’t touch it. Is that understood? We’re going to open these little gifts but we’re going to do it in a mindful way so you need to be as quiet as possible and listen to my instructions.

Hand out the foil parcels.

Now that you each have a little gift, how do you feel right now? What is your mind like in this moment?

“excited”

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“anxious”

“impatient”

“curious”

Again we have the “don’t know mind”. What I’d like you to do now is open the foil and then leave what you find on the desk in front of you.Now we are going to eat this malteser, but we’re going to eat it mindfully. That means we’re going to eat it as though it’s the first time we’ve ever eaten a malteser. If you like you can imagine you are an alien from outer space and you’ve never seen a malteser before so we’re going to be very curious and pay close attention to the malteser, and to do this we need to be very quiet so you can hear my instructions.

5. MALTESER MEDITATION 10 MINS

Sitting practice: Mindful eating 4-5 MINS

Let’s begin by taking a really good look at it… We might think it’s a perfect round sphere, but when we look closer, we can see that its actually not a perfect round sphere at all… There may be little bumps on it… it may be a little squashed looking… Really looking closely at your malteser and noticing everything you can

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about it… How many different shades of brown do you notice?... Does the way the light shines on it change the colour?... And now, picking up the malteser between 2 or 3 fingers and paying attention to how it feels… Does it feel sticky or warm or cold… Placing it on the palm of one hand and noticing how heavy it feels… Is it beginning to melt?… Do you notice any reaction in your mind or body as it begins to melt?… And now putting it up to your nose, and smelling it… Really noticing all the smells that it gives off… Does it seem like a pleasant or an unpleasant smell to you...? Are there any memories or thoughts that arise in your mind as you smell the malteser… just noticing …Now you can put it in your mouth… but just placing it on your tongue without biting or chewing… and noticing how it feels to rest it on your tongue…Can you taste the chocolate?.. .Is it beginning to melt?... Is the texture of the malteser beginning to change?... And when you’re ready, taking a bite… and noticing the flavour… and taking another bite… and noticing if there’s any impulse to swallow… and once you’ve swallowed the malteser… noticing the aftertaste… and how your mouth feels now…

Enquiry 5-6 MINS

What did you notice?

Teacher-led enquiry.

Some questions that can be useful… • How does that compare to how you normally would eat sweets? • What was the taste like compared to how you would normally eat maltesers?

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Often, when I am eating sweets or nuts and working at my computer, I’m eating and eating and eating and not paying attention, and then eventually I put my hand into the bowl or the bag and there are no sweets left, and I’m like “who ate all my sweets??” Of course it was me, but I wasn’t paying attention. So when we pay attention to our experience, to what we’re doing, or to what we’re eating, we enjoy it a lot more. This is especially true if we can pay attention the way we just did with our maltesers – with a beginner’s mind.

6. LECTURE ON THE BEGINNER’S MIND 2 MINS

A beginner’s mind is the mind that doesn’t know what our experience is going to be like, it’s the mind that’s curious andinterested. It’s the kind of mind we have whenever we encounter anything new. Like we did with the malteser there – we ate it as though for the first time.

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Think back to the first time we were doing mindfulness. What was it like when you had no idea what this was all about? You were naturally curious and interested. Think back to when we didn’t know what was in the box. This is the beginner’s mind. And a lot of the time we don’t have this kind of mind. When we think we know what’s going to happen, life can become very boring. This is what can happen with mindfulness – we can think “in/out – in/out – I know how to breathe”. But actually the present moment can always be interesting. We’re always standing on the verge of the future. There are countless possibilities in every moment. We never know what is going to happen in the next moment…

Jump up and down three times and clap each time – this jolts the children into paying attention.

You see… you had no idea I was going to do that. And in actual fact we never know what is going to happen in the next moment… And when we realise this, we can practise having this beginner’s mind – this sense of curiosity – and everything can become very interesting.

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7. VIDEO OF JONATHAN 5 MINS

I’d like to show you a video now of the perfect beginner’s mind. This video shows a little boy called Jonathan hearing for the first time. In this video he’s about 8 or 9 months old. He was born deaf, but doctors were able to give him a cochlear implant so that he’s able to hear. This shows the moment the cochlear implant is turned on and Jonathan hears for the first time.

Show video.

What did you notice in this video?What did you notice about Jonathan’s attention?Was Jonathan happy?Why did his dummy fall out?

To watch this video go to www.youtube.com/youthmindfulnesstube/videos Here's the direct link www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk3c6WLmf0s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk3c6WLmf0s

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Teacher-led class discussion.

8. LISTENING WITH A BEGINNER’S MIND 10 MINS

Now I’d like us to listen as though it’s the first time we’ve ever heard anything. I want us to listen just like Jonathan – with a beginner’s mind.

Sitting Practice: Mindfulness of sounds 5-6 mins

Taking a few moments to settle yourself into a strong posture… feet flat on the floor… hands on your lap… and as always, if its helpful to you, you can take a few slightly deeper breaths, just to allow your mind and body to calm down a little bit… really come into the present moment… and then just letting your breathing return to normal… And now very gently and simply, bringing your attention to the sounds that you can hear from moment to moment... Just simply sitting and listening to the sounds as they come and go… Noticing the sounds that are close to you… noticing the sounds that are farther away… maybe even sounds outside of this room or this building… And noticing if the mind tends to fixate around one sound… And seeing if we can open our mind up a little bit to take in all the sounds that you can hear in this moment… Almost like your taking in the whole view of a beautiful landscape, but rather than sights, you’re paying attention to sounds – the whole soundscape… just listening to every sound that arises and passes from moment to moment… and then when the mind wanders away, just noticing that and coming back to listening again… listening to the bare texture of the sounds… the harshness, quickness, smoothness of the sounds… whether they’re soft, or low or high… and also noticing that we have no idea what sounds might come up in the next

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moment… what sounds might arise… so really sitting with this “don’t know mind”… this sense of curiosity and interest… and noticing how some sounds can give rise to thoughts or images… and when the mind wanders away, just coming back and listening to the bare texture of the sounds you can hear in this moment… right now… right now… And maybe noticing sometimes your attention really is with the sounds… and then sometimes it’s not… it’s maybe quite dull… and then just coming back to listening… this amazing capacity that we have to sense the vibrations in the air… as sounds… and then for the last few moments… coming back to your breath… and just bringing your mind to rest with the movement… breathing in… breathing out… breathing in… breathing out… experiencing your breath as though it’s the first time… paying attention to your breath as though your life depends on it – which of course it does… in touch with the air… in touch with the trees…

Enquiry 4-5 mins

What did you hear? What did you notice? How do you feel?

Teacher-led enquiry.

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NOTES:

Documents

LESSON 5 - Youth Mindfulness€¦ · Lesson - 5 Youth Mindfulness Ltd 2. BODYSCAN 10 MINS Before we go into the rest of the lesson let’s just stop for a few moments and do a short