Mindfulness and Yoga in Schools A Guide for Teachers and Practitioners

CHAPTER 7: OFF THE CUSHION: INFORMAL MINDFUL PRACTICES • 143

TABLE 7.1 Mindful Morita Table Template

Intention/Purpose:
(e.g., To create a life I want to be present in)

Present Moment Choices

Things I Cannot Control

(Immediate Thoughts, Feelings, Events)

Things I Can Control

(Awareness, Breath, Focus, Behaviors)

Source: Adapted from Astrachan-Fletcher and Maslar (2009); Cook-Cottone (2015); David (2009).

I use a simple story to help students understand the Morita Table. I believe it is the
simplicity of the story that helps students see the silliness in cultivating thoughts that don’t
serve them (Cook-Cottone, 2015). See Instructional Story 7.1.

INSTRUCTIONAL STORY 7.1: THE ICE CREAM SANDWICH WRAPPER

Imagine that you are standing in a park on a hot summer day. There is a cart near you selling ice cream
sandwiches. People have been eating ice cream sandwiches all day and the garbage can is full. Some of
the wrappers have fallen out and are now blowing in the wind. One of the wrappers blows onto your
leg and sticks to your skin. Do you stand there and think, “Oh well, this is the way it is going to be.
I now have an ice cream sandwich wrapper stuck to my leg for the rest of my life”? No, of course not.
That would be silly. You look down. You see clearly that the ice cream sandwich wrapper is garbage and
not part of what you want on your leg. Knowing this, you peel it off your leg and throw it away. Done.
Your automatic thoughts, feelings, and sensations are this way. There are things people have told you
during your life, messages you have heard in the media, perhaps even things you have told yourself that
do not serve your life purpose. There are feelings and sensations that don’t serve you to cultivate. How
do you know which ones are which? You ask yourself, “Does this thought, feeling, or sensation help me
to create a life in which I want to be present?” If your answer is “No,” see it for what it is then let it go.
Shift your energy to cultivating thoughts and actions that serve you, that work toward your life purpose.

Source: Cook-Cottone (2015, pp. 152–153); used with permission.