CHAPTER 7: OFF THE CUSHION: INFORMAL MINDFUL PRACTICES • 149teachers can guide students in a group, or one-on-one, to notice the first five sounds they
hear (e.g., the teacher in the adjacent room, a bird on a tree outside, the clock ticking, a
car driving by, and the breathing of the person next to them). A focus on sensations can
help downregulate the nervous system, helping students move from their reactive, stress-
responding mental set to a more open, curious, and engaged mental set. Sensate focus is
often used for individuals with emotion regulation difficulties for this reason.
Also in the classroom, the sense windows can be explored in informal mindful ways.
For instance, you can set up sensory stations and have students fill out response sheets that
ask the following (Greenland, 2010):
- Describe the sensory experience (e.g., taste, touch, smell).
- Categorize the experience (i.e., pleasant, unpleasant, neutral).
- Report your physical reaction (i.e., how did that feel in your body?).
- Describe your behavioral reaction (i.e., what did you do?).
- Report your emotional reaction (i.e., how did you feel?).
- Describe mental associations (i.e., what did you think?).
Students can review their sheets and notice any patterns. Observations can be written
down in their journals, shared in pairs, or shared with the class. Students can also notice
their patterns over time. Do things change if they breathe, work toward a positive or growth
mindset, or attempt bare awareness?
Time In, Not Time Out
David (2009) suggests giving students a time in. A time in involves taking time to check in
with yourself and refocus your awareness and intention. David (2009) calls practices like this
mindfulness boosters, because they take very little time and build on the more formal mindful-
ness practices you are already building in class. Examples of time in include (David, 2009):
- Taking 30 seconds to stop, drop, and breathe in the middle of a working session
- Focusing students on the process of opening and closing their hands, then giving them-
selves a brief hand massage - Inviting students to listen to the sounds in the room for 30 seconds
- Asking students to stand up and rock forward and backward on their feet, coming to
tippy toes as they roll forward - Guiding students through 30 seconds of breath work
Interconnectedness
Interconnectedness is the notion that all things are connected. Informal mindful awareness
involves an awareness of the interconnection of all things (Rechtschaffen, 2014; Willard,
2016). According to Hanh (2002), when we are totally mindful and in direct contact with
reality (not the images or ideas of reality), we realize that all phenomena are interdependent
and endlessly interwoven. When aware, we come to realize that there is no such thing as a
separate thing, event, or experience. We realize that no part of the world can exist apart from
others. Hanh calls it the principle of interbeing (Hanh, 2002), which he demonstrates using
a sheet of paper.