(press play to hear today’s lesson explained to you)

Goal: I can practice mindfulness.

Very simply, mindfulness is a way of thinking. It’s training your brain to pay attention and focus. It’s learning to direct your attention to what is happening in your present experience, including your mind, body, and environment.

First, some thinking for you – What activities do I enjoy and love to do? 

Next, take some time to colour, read or simply spend time in your favourite space in your home. As you do so think about all of the things you are enjoying in that moment. It may be picking the colours as you colour in, the movement of the pencil across the page. It could be curling up with a new book, or picking an old favourite. A book where the characters or events in the story are new and exciting, or as familiar as your own family. Or it could simply be sitting in your favourite comfy chair, wrapped in your cosiest blanket, as the sun streams through your window.

Either way relax into the moment and just pay attention to what is happening in your present experience. The thoughts in your mind, the sensations in your body, and the sounds and movements in your environment. All the while just let your breath simply flow in, and then out, in, then out.

Finally, if you are looking for some follow up mindfulness activities, check out the following pages on the MPPS mindfulness blog:

• http://sites.mpp.vic.edu.au/mindfulness/mini-mindfulness-exercises/
• http://sites.mpp.vic.edu.au/mindfulness/mindfulness-books-read-alouds/