Mindfulness Activities and Teaching Resources

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• Advice on Teaching Mindfulness 

Please start here if you're looking for mindfulness activities for a class but haven't taught mindfulness before and/or don't have an established personal practice.  (If you're simply looking for something like a song about gratitude or video about kindness, go ahead and scroll down to the activities.)

• Activities for Practicing and Teaching Mindfulness, Compassion, Gratitude, and Social-Emotional Skills

I've reorganized this section to make it clearer which types of activities might be more/less appropriate in different contexts.  

• Links to Mindfulness Resources  
• Links to Resources on Compassion, Social-Emotional Learning, and related topics        

Advice on Teaching Mindfulness and Complementary Practices 

Working with Specific Populations 

8 Principles of Teaching Mindfulness Meditation to Adolescents 

8 Principles of Trauma-Informed Yoga and Mindfulness Teaching 

Tips for Including Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students in Mindfulness, Meditation, and Yoga Classes

Some basic guidelines if you're new to teaching mindfulness:

• Please establish your own personal practice before teaching meditation or formal mindfulness practices to adults or children.  
• Please don't push anyone beyond their comfort level, for example if they don't want to close their eyes during meditation or prefer not to share personal information with the group.  
• The interviews with experienced mindfulness teachers and teacher trainers give a lot of suggestions for teaching different ages of students in different contexts around the world.
• The recommended mindfulness books will put the activities in context and help you prepare for the common challenges in teaching mindfulness and compassion, such as working with reluctant students or coping with strong emotions that might come up in meditation. (MindfulTeachers.org receives no financial benefit from books ordered through links on this site.)  

One further word of caution:

If you teach kids, you might want to discuss your plans with parents and school administrators before assigning mindfulness activities and homework.  Several teachers have been asked by parents to stop teaching mindfulness to their children because they believe it's against their religious beliefs.  (In the U.S., these concerns usually come from conservative Christians.) 

Many Christians do practice mindfulness; the objections are often based on a misunderstanding of the terminology.  You might want to share with concerned parents Mindful Teachers' interview with Christian mindfulness teacher Dr. Irene Kraegel:

"The practice is simply attentional training; students will never be asked to put their attention on something that would go against their religious beliefs. Rather, students will be practicing keeping their attention where they intend it to be... It behooves us to be intentional about our spiritual practices, and many people can benefit from an intentional integration of Christian faith and mindfulness practice." 

Practicing Mindfulness, Compassion, Gratitude, and Social-Emotional Skills

I've gotten a lot of requests to use these activities in various contexts, and I've recently found some of this content illegally copied onto other sites.  Please link to these activities; do not copy them to your own site.  (If you'd like to use them for anything other than your own personal practice or teaching your current students, please see the Frequently-Asked Questions for information on permissions and copyright issues.) 

Noncompetitive Games and Group Activities  
This might be a good place to start if you teach kids and don't have training in teaching mindfulness.  (You might also be interested in the gratitude and five senses activities for individuals or groups, in the section below.)

• Human Camera: a mindfulness activity to engage the senses    
• Marble Roll: a noncompetitive game for teaching mindfulness     
• No Winners or Losers: noncompetitive games for kids 

Activities for Individuals or Groups 
The following practices and activities should be appropriate or adaptable for most contexts: adults or kids, individually or in a class.  (Within reason: I'm obviously not advocating that groups of children start driving, but the 'Red, Orange, Yellow' practice best fits in the five senses category.) 

• 9 Simple but Powerful Gratitude Practices to Share with Your Students

• Mindful or Mindless? analyzing characters in books and movies (This is a worksheet for reflection/discussion about how characters in books and movies do/don't show present-moment awareness, compassion, and mindful speech.) 

Five Senses 

• Counting Sounds: a mindful walking practice 
• Five Contemplative Art Practices
• Noticing the Five Senses: a daily mindfulness log
• Five Senses Snack: a mindful eating chart
• Rainbow Walk: a mindfulness activity to move the body and rest the mind
• Red, Orange, Yellow: a mindful driving practice

Mindful Movement
Especially if you don't have training or experience teaching yoga or other forms of mindful movement, please try these movements yourself a few times before teaching them to others. 

• Giant Strides: a seated walking practice   

• Jungle Yoga Adventure for Kids

• Trying on Different Shapes: mindfulness of mood and posture  

Effective Communication/Mindful Speech/Relational Mindfulness    
These are particularly appropriate for teens. (The 'case studies' are short examples of skillful and unskillful speech.)

• Changing the Script : a mindful way to handle annoyance  
• Power Struggles: case studies in mindful communication  
• T.H.I.N.K. Before You Speak: case studies in mindful speech  
• T.H.I.N.K. Before You Speak 2: case studies in mindful speech      

Emotions and Thoughts      
These are appropriate for teaching kids if you have an established personal mindfulness practice.

• Emotion Improv: an exercise for developing mindfulness of feelings  
• Harnessing the Four Elements: a mindfulness activity for facing challenges  
• Pebble Meditation: a mindfulness activity to cultivate peace   

Meditation and Formal Mindfulness Practice

These are appropriate for personal practice or for use by  teachers with an established personal practice and preferably some training in teaching mindfulness.  

• Body Scan: awareness of the body
• One-Word Labeling : thoughts, emotions, sensations, and urges  
• Relaxed Abdominal Breath: stress reduction through mindful breathing  
• Tense and Let Go: yoga nidra relaxation practice
• Time to Breathe: awareness of the present moment   

   

Practicing and Teaching Compassion and Self-Compassion
These are appropriate for adults or mature teens. They involve a pretty high degree of personal awareness. Use cautiously in teaching, and please respect participants' decisions about how much they want to share with the group.

• Building Narratives of Inclusion: Mitigating Implicit and Explicit Bias

• Compassionate Image: a guided visualization practice  

• I Wish You Peace: a simple lovingkindness meditation 

• Next Time I'll Do Better: recognizing and learning from mistakes  

• Personal Triggers: recognizing the causes of problematic behavior
• Restless Mind: typical strategies for denying stress
• Wise Elder Visualization: a practice for parents and teachers      

Quotations with Discussion Questions

• Mindfulness and Happiness (quotes about  appreciating the present moment, letting go of attachments, embracing moderation, and finding meaning.)
• What is Mindfulness? (quotes about mindfulness meditation, informal mindfulness practice, and nonjudgmental awareness)

Video Playlists with Discussion Questions
Any of these videos would be appropriate for adults or teens. Most of them are also appropriate for younger kids, but please watch the full video before deciding what to share with your class.

• Creative Ways to Make a Difference:  short videos about people with unique abilities and inclinations supporting the community in creative and unusual ways, including a dancing doctor, monk/photographer, and Magicians and Clowns Without Borders.
• Videos about Kindness, Compassion, and Service (part 1):  short videos about small acts of kindness and large acts of philanthropy, including a third grade 'kindness boomerang' and a ballet about a young woman who's in distress because she has only one arm… until a young man with one leg offers her his crutch.
• Videos about Kindness, Compassion, and Service (part 2):  short videos about empathy and aid for people from different backgrounds, including Japanese boys helping older neighbors survive the destruction of their village, and Muslims, Christians, and Jews helping each other.

Song Playlists with Discussion Questions

The first playlist is appropriate for young children:

• Great Children's Songs about Mindfulness, Self-Acceptance, and Gratitude  

I've tried to include something for everyone on the other playlists, and I try to avoid offensive content... but please read the lyrics and watch the full video before deciding what's appropriate for your class, especially if you teach young children or in a more conservative context.  

• Are You Happy? (songs about feeling happy, looking on the bright side, and pretending to be happy while hiding our true feelings)
• Change the World (songs about diversity, unity, love for humanity, and making a difference)
• Songs about Kindness and Compassion (part 1 of 2) (songs about treating each other with compassion, empathy, and kindness) 
• Songs about Kindness and Compassion (part 2 of 2) (songs about discrimination, understanding people from different backgrounds, and taking action to help others)
• Songs about Gratitude (part 1 of 2) (songs offering thanks to specific people; songs expressing appreciation for life itself)
• Songs about Gratitude (part 2 of 2) (more songs about appreciating our circumstances and our loved ones)
• Songs about Self-Acceptance (songs about being true to ourselves and recognizing our own strength and vulnerability)
• What is Love? (part 1 of 2) (songs about friends, parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren)
• What is Love? (part 2 of 2) (songs about healthy and unhealthy romantic relationships)

Links to Resources on Mindfulness

1,500 Free Mindfulness Exercises from MindfulnessExercises.com

Sign Language Resources on Mindfulness, Meditation, and Yoga

Calming Young Minds CD


Mindfulness for Children app

Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure, developed by Dr. Ruth Baer   

  

Do’s and don’ts when teaching mindfulness, by Deborah Schoeberlein at Huffington Post      

  

Eight Tips for Teaching Mindfulness in High School by Patrick Cook-Deegan at  Greater Good     

Five Tips for Teaching Mindfulness to At-Risk Teens, by Karen Bluth at Greater Good

  

Guided Meditations for Teens from MindfulnessforTeens.com    

Guided Meditations in English and Spanish from the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center

  

How to teach mindfulness, by Emily Drabble at The Guardian     

Mindfulness and children: 6 lessons for teaching the joy of the moment, by Bill Gerlach at The New Pursuit           

Mindfulness can make you popular: How to get your teen to meditate, at Mindful Hub 

  

Mindfulness Activities for Children from JoyfulMind.net    

  

Nine Awesome Mindfulness Videos on YouTube, from Mrs. Mindfulness   

  

Self-Guided MBSR Course: Free 8-week online course in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction   

  

Teaching Mindfulness to Teens: 5 Ways to Get "Buy-In"  from Left Brain Buddha

  

Tips for teaching mindfulness to kids  by Meghan Cowan at The Greater Good     

  

Links to Resources on Compassion, Meditation, Social-Emotional Learning, and related topics    

Benefits of Meditation from learnrelaxationtechniques.com

Bullybust.org has film clips about different types of bullying, with discussion questions and teaching guides.   Plus videos of ‘Upstanders’—bystanders who stand up for those who are bullied.

The Center for Adolescent Studies blog:  tips for working with resistant teens, setting appropriate boundaries, deciding when to disclose personal information, etc.     

Classroom Lessons on Social-Emotional Learning and sensitively teaching current and controversial issues, from the Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility.

  
The Coalition to Support Grieving Students: "The site covers a range of grief-related topics to provide training resources specially designed for school professionals."                     

Fables to Grow On, to promote social and emotional learning, as well as literacy skills    

Five Reasons We Can't Ignore Social-Emotional Learning by Sasha Briggs at InformED

Guided Meditations from Against the Stream: Buddhist Meditation Society

Guided Meditations from Mindfulness and Psychotherapy

Here's What Will Happen to You When Your Body, Mind, and Soul When You Meditate, from BookMeditationRetreats.com

  

Lesson Plans on civil rights, immigration, and discrimination from Teaching Tolerance    

Love Is Respect has resources on healthy relationships vs. dating abuse.

No Stigmas has a directory of mental health resources  and a peer support group.    

  

Online Yoga Resources for Every Body: This is a list I put together of the best advice on teaching yoga to those of us who don't fit the profile of a "typical" yoga student.  (For example, because of a larger body or a disability.)       

  

7 Tips for Positively Managing Student Behavior from Quill.com    

If you like this page, please share it using the social media buttons below. And if you have any suggestions or know of additional resources that you'd like to see included on this page, please post a comment or contact me at mindfulteachers[at]gmail[dot]com. (I will only include links to resources related to mindfulness, compassion, and social-emotional learning. I don't accept sponsored/affiliate links.)