As a clinical psychologist, I love to teach people mindfulness-based skills to help them emotionally regulate throughout their daily life experiences. And I had such a fun time teaching mindfulness skills to first, second and third graders at a Montessori school located in New Jersey. And to my surprise, a lot of the children had already had some breathing techniques that they were already familiar with and they were already familiar with doing meditation. And so my mindfulness session with them just helped to guide them through a more intentional breathing process using diaphragmatic breaths. We talked about ways to engage the senses in order to distract themselves in the environment if they needed to disrupt a thought process or a feeling that does not feel so great to them. And most of them caught on to it very quickly. They were very engaging and they surprised me. They knew already some of the importances of using your environment to engage your senses and pairing that with breath. We also talked about other short term forms of distraction when there’s something that we can’t change in the moment. And beyond that, we talked about some of the common feelings that we have throughout the day. That was a great mindfulness session with the Montessori School.
Cassandra Hutchins, PsyD
Clinical Psychologist
Founder, The Cass Center for Psychological and Holistic Wellbeing
Integrative mental wellness for clarity, balance, and intentional living.