Free MLP Resource Of The Month
Creating a Mindful Zone:
The Classroom The Mindful Zone is a trauma-informed strategy to support students in using mindfulness to self-regulate. A number of recent studies have found that mindfulness can be a very helpful first step in helping students learn how to self-regulate and come back to a place where they will be much more ready and able to process what happened and think through the impact and consequences of their actions. For example, a school in Baltimore successfully piloted the use of a Mindful Moment Room in place of detention and saw a drop in suspensions.
To start, we recommend using the Mindful Zone in tandem with, not instead of the discipline procedures you already have in place. The Mindful Zone is a place where students can feel safe to cool down, take a mindful break, and practice their mindful skills to come back to a place of greater self-regulation, stability, and self-awareness. We recommend having a computer and headphones on hand if possible where students can listen to some of our recorded mindful sits, accessible online at: www.mindfullifeproject.org
An ideal Mindful Zone would have:
● Copies of reflective worksheets
● Writing and coloring materials, (sometimes students prefer to color to process what they are feeling rather than write.)
● One or two tactile objects such as pipe cleaners, soft blanket, or stuffed animal.
● A timer
