a still quiet place

by Amy Saltzman

“Mindfulness is paying attention here and now, with kindness and curiosity, and then choosing your

behavior”

Introductory Activity

The What…

Major theme: Children can be taught to be mindful and it

will have a positive impact upon their everyday lives

Subtheme 1: If you do not have a dedicated mindfulness practice in your

own life, do not attempt to teach mindfulness

Qualifications for teaching mindfulness

Qualifications that DO require a personal

mindfulness practice

Qualifications that do NOT require a personal

mindfulness practice

• A daily mindfulness practice• Five years of mindfulness

experience• Extensive mindfulness

retreat experience (multiples five- to ten-day, or longer, retreats recommended)

• Extensive experience teaching yoga or some other movement practice within the context of mindfulness

• An ongoing affiliation with a community of mindfulness peers

• An ability to translate mindfulness into ordinary, everyday language

• Professional experience working with youth

• Process-oriented group facilitation skills

Subtheme 2: Through practicing mindfulness, you can positively change

your brain’s composition Executive function

Inhibitory control Working memory Cognitive flexibility

Emotion Theory and Emotional Intelligence

Social Development Aggression Impulsivity Perspective taking and

moral behavior Interdependent

Competencies

Subtheme 3: It’s ok to have emotions we would consider to be negative; it’s noticing your

emotions and choosing to respond as opposed to reacting that’s important.

“… mindfulness is not about controlling thoughts and emotions. Mindfulness is meeting our thoughts and feelings with kindness and compassion; there is no need to control them.” (p. 27)

Subtheme 4: The “still and quiet place” exists in the natural pauses

in your breath.

Finding your Still Quiet Place Activity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJq6pgfAxbA

Subtheme 5: We can influence the level of our suffering by choosing to

embrace, rather than resist, the unpleasant situation

Mindfulness Activity: Holes and Different

Streets

So What…

Course connection: Mindfulness is not analogous with the school

system

School Implementation

CSI

Trained facilitators

Supports beyond school

Staff exhaustion – pro and con

Students

Course Connection: Mindfulness is about being,

not doing

Now What…

Lingering Questions Can you really learn mindfulness from a mass marketed book?

Can a secularized mindfulness practice be as effective as one that is rooted in tradition and spirituality?

In terms of popular culture and popular consciousness, does mindfulness have staying power? Is mindfulness, indeed, a paradigm shift, or is it just a passing fad?

Do the qualification espoused by the author and other mindfulness practitioners keep mindfulness from the very people who could most benefit? Is Saltzman, with all of her stringent qualifications and prerequisites for teaching mindfulness, in fact, keeping mindfulness as something exclusively for people who can afford it?

Should we really being selling mindfulness?

Does the cost of introducing a “watered down” version of mindfulness, as promoted by Saltzman, outweigh the benefits of introducing it in schools?

Concluding Mindfulness Activity