Now, bringing your attention to the top of your head. Closing your eyes if that’s comfortable, or else just gazing downward toward the floor. Your hands resting comfortably in your lap. (silence) Body Scanįind a comfortable position with your feet flat on the floor. We’ll see if we can leave just a little bit more room of silence of noticing the inhale and exhale until we hear the sound of the bell. Just noticing whenever that happens, inviting our mind back to our breath, whenever that occurs. And you might find that as you’re doing this, your mind begins to wander, which is okay. So, again, just leaving a little bit of time for us to settle in on the natural rhythm of the breath. (silence)Īnd then seeing if we can even release that control that we have over the breath, allowing the breath to simply settle back into its natural pace, but perhaps this time, we’re just a little bit more aware of the movement of that air. And then maintaining that same pace, seeing if you can now drop the count in your mind, and yet still maintaining that same rhythm of a long inhale and a bit longer exhale, just seeing if we can maintain that same pace now without the count. So as we breathe in, going ahead and seeing if you can count to six in your mind, allowing the inhale to last those six counts, and then seeing if we can allow the out-breath to last eight counts so that the out-breath becomes just a bit elongated, seeing if we can do two or three of those breaths. And we’re going to take a few deep breaths, but as we take these deep breaths, I invite you to use your mind’s voice to help guide these deep breaths. And closing your eyes, or simply lowering your gaze down to the floor, and just simply checking in with the body for a moment, noticing what it feels like to simply sit, noticing that the only place is here and the only time is now. We can become like mango trees, changing ourselves and the environment around us in ways that contribute positively to the world.”īegin by settling in, sitting comfortably but also feeling supported. We can fundamentally impact the business decisions we make, the ways we raise our children and interact with our neighbors and community members, even how we plant our gardens. “By teaching students at all levels basic mindfulness and compassion techniques, we can start to create new generations of students with the attention, social-emotional maturity, and systems-thinking skills they will need to flourish. “Mindfulness and compassion are about changing ourselves to become the kind of person who other people want to be around-the kind of person who makes space for others and shows them kindness, respect, attention, and empathy the kind of person who isn’t always trying to assert personal views but can listen, and be curious and receptive,” said Roeser. Unfortunately, modern educational practices, from kindergarten through post-secondary education, are often designed to produce people who are like coconut trees. For Roeser, a person who practices mindfulness and compassion in their daily life is becoming like a mango tree, and the world needs more mango trees.