Emotion UNO* is a fun and easy therapeutic activity to foster self-expression around feelings.

Therapeutic goal: Self-expression
Objective: To provide an opportunity for self-expression by discussing emotions and thoughts.

Age group: School age/Adolescent

Materials needed: UNO deck of cards

Procedure:

Tell the child that you all are going to play UNO, but add in a few new rules. If time allows, it may be appropriate to play a normal game of UNO before adding in the new rules to provide the child with a refresher on how to play the game.

Explain the new UNO rules to the child:

• Each time someone changes the color of the deck, they must talk about the emotion related to the new color. For example,
  • Yellow=happy
  • Blue=sad
  • Red= angry
  • Green=jealous or envious
• Can use prompts such as: “Talk about a time when you felt ____ while [in school/at home/with friends].”

Adaptations:

New rules (or prompts) can be adapted for each child depending on their developmental level as well as goals for therapy

You can also come up with different prompts for the extra cards in the deck, e.g.:

Wild card: talk about a fun memory

Reverse card: talk about a change you have liked or disliked; talk about an opposite feeling

*Adapted from Childlifechick.wordpress.com

Somatic Activities for Kids: Using Performing Arts to Explore Emotions in the Body

By Andrew Jordan Nance
July 10, 2019

On my first day of preschool I was apparently not having it. My mother had to drag me to our station wagon as I stubbornly asserted that I was not going to school! My beleaguered mom did the best she knew how, convincing me that I was going to have a good time and telling me to be a big boy. As my tears dried, she eventually coaxed me to get in the car and go to Calvary Nursery School.

These days, as a Mindfulness Instructor, I am using different techniques than my mom.

Somatics and Emotions

Whether we notice it or not, our emotions cause sensations in our bodies. Difficult emotions can make us feel uncomfortable: our bellies tighten, our heart races, we might feel hot. The body dislikes discomfort, sees it as a threat, and wants to expel or run from it. When we have a cold, we sneeze or our nose runs. When we have a tickle in our throat, we cough. When we are full or nauseous, we remove it in some manner. The body engages with emotions in much the same way. When we are nervous, we might shake or laugh. When we are angry we might punch, yell, or run to release the discomfort it creates. When we are sad, we expel tears and sounds.

One definition of somatics is “the body as perceived from within.” Looking inward allows us to start noticing and labeling our internal experience. Then we can realize that we have been hooked by, and identified by, both our internal and external experiences. We actually become anger or sadness and are at the mercy of that emotion. A kind of desperation takes over. Our minds and bodies think of ways to shake off the difficult emotion.

In these emotional moments, if we can name how we are feeling and notice the corresponding sensations in our bodies, then we can tame and have some distance from it. As a result, we can think more responsively, rather than reactively. Then, we can decide what to do next in a more measured way.

Somatic Activities to Try in Your Classroom

Mindfulness training and Performing Arts training are very similar: both invite you to be in the present moment, using your mind, heart, and body to do it, so that you can more fully connect to the given circumstances. Here are a few fun, performing-arts-inspired activities to help you and your students become familiar with the sensations that come with emotional states.

Name That Feeling

A game about naming what we are feeling and where we feel it in our bodies.

Before class, (or with your class) write down as many emotions as you (or they) can think of on separate slips of paper. Put each strip of paper in a bag or a bowl. Here are some examples of feeling words that you can use.

Explain to your students that our emotions are like storms that pass through our bodies and if we can notice these storms brewing in our bodies, we can tame the storm, so it can pass through us more gently and quickly if we choose.

Start by demonstrating how to play the game:

1. Pick a piece of paper with an emotion on it. Make sure the audience cannot see through the paper (perhaps covering it with your hand).
2. Strike a pose or do a movement that shows how that emotion makes your body, face, and heart change. Ex: Anger might make your shoulders high, fists clenched, face tight and pinched.
3. See if they can guess what emotion you are trying to convey, saying things like “warmer” or “colder”. If it is an unusual word, give them the first letter, etc.
4. Describe where you feel this emotion right now: I feel this emotion in my face, belly, legs, etc.

After one or two times of you leading, have one of the students who quietly raised their hand to guess your emotion come up and act out another emotion. Once they’ve assumed the position, you can ask the “actor” where he/she feels this emotion in their body. Then ask the audience what emotion they think is being shown. Bring up the guesser, or a person who has not yet gone. Most students will want to be the “actor” but don’t force anyone. Discuss as a class as desired.

Mindful Breathing Game

Mindful Breathing Activities: Download

• Divide the class into three or four groups of four to five individuals each.
• Ask them to select four our five Breathing Activities, depending on how many people are in each group.
• Give groups 5 to 10 minutes to rehearse how to demonstrate each breathing activity.
• Invite one group at a time to go in front of the class and perform what is written on their cards.
• Invite the audience to guess what breathing activity they are demonstrating.

Emotional Musical Chairs

In this video, I demonstrate another fun game of emotional musical chairs that uses singing and drama to explore emotions.  {link at Mindful Arts San Francisco}

Supporting Students and Big Emotions

We can take these newly learned skills and apply them to supporting students having big (and small) emotions.

Before responding to a child’s needs, remember to first put on your own oxygen mask! Take a deep breath, wiggle your toes, and check-in with your body, heart, and mind to proceed skillfully.

When working with kids, well-meaning adults, including myself, instinctively try to get right to the “story.” “What happened?” The child usually responds, “That kid took my toy/ made fun of me/ or called me a name.” In that moment, the child can be built up as the hero and the other child, the villain. This further attaches them to the story rather than more deeply understanding the emotions that led to the moment in the first place. While getting to the bottom of the story might be important, I’ve learned that in order to really get to the bottom of what’s going on, we first have to go inward.

I’m careful not to minimize a child’s experience or get rid of the emotion. Instead, I approach them with a sense of curiosity and care. Rather than saying, “it’s not that big a deal that the other child is bothering you, just ignore them,” we can be in the moment with the student, and gently invite the student to explore their internal experience.

When working with a child who is having big emotions, I first try to get curious about what they are experiencing. I might say something like, “looks like you’re feeling really frustrated.” Or I might invite them to tell me what they are feeling. “Do you feel that emotion in your face? Or hands? Or in your belly?” “Do you feel warm or cold?” “You want to try to take a few deep breaths with me?” “Nicely done!” I always praise them for this awareness of their internal landscape.

This technique has a somewhat remarkable effect of validating what the child is experiencing without trying to get rid of it so that they feel seen, heard, and safe enough to calm themselves down. Yes, the child’s mood often dissipates, but that is not the goal. The goal is to be with what they are experiencing in the present moment. It usually creates the outcome of them being able to make more skillful choices on their own as to what they want to do next. In these moments, I try to remember that every emotion is ok, every action is not. We can be as angry or as sad as we want, but it is not in our best interest to act out violently in most instances.

The challenge for the Mindfulness Instructor and the student is to learn this new habit of becoming curious about the body’s discomfort – not wishing to get rid of it, but naming it and dropping into the physical sensations of what arises in the body. This has the natural effect of taming and easing the discomfort. The next time you, or one of your students, are experiencing a big emotion, try leaning into it. Difficult emotions are challenging, and becoming adept at working with them is transformational. Realizing that ALL emotions are just as transitory, beautiful, and valuable as dark clouds moving through a bright blue sky is a valuable life-skill that has the potential to transform lives.

It might also have helped my mom get her child into the station wagon on the first day of preschool.

For more resources like short videos, mindful activities, and Mindful Arts Breathing Cards go to Mindful Arts SF.

Andrew Jordan Nance is the author of Puppy Mind and Mindful Arts in the Classroom. He is the founder of Mindful Arts San Francisco, whose mission is to provide volunteer mindfulness educators to teach at San Francisco public schools through the San Francisco Education Fund. 

Adapted from Center for Adolescent Studies

The metaphor of the Lion Mind as a way to describe mindfulness comes from Larry Rosenberg’s book, Breath by Breath. The metaphor is simple and only takes a minute present. Hold up a pen or meditation bell (the stick used to strike the bell), and tell the group to imagine it’s a bone. If I’m standing in front of a dog and I wave the bone in the dog’s face side to side, and then toss the bone a few yards away, what will the dog do? “Chase the bone,” the group often yells back.

But what if I’m standing in front of a lion? And I wave the bone in the lion’s face from side to side, and toss it a few yards away. What will the lion do? “Eat you!” is often the resounding response. The fact is that the lion may eat me. The lion could eat met. But the there’s a fundamental difference between the mind of the dog and that of the lion. The dog has tunnel vision and can’t see beyond the bone. It becomes simple: If I control the bone, I control the dog’s reality.

Of course, it’s fundamentally different with the lion. The lion sits upright as I wave the bone, eyes looking beyond the bone and directly at me. The lion has poise, understands the bone is just a small piece of a larger reality, and therefore has much more autonomy. The lion can go after the bone, can sit there and stare at me, can eat me.

The “bone” is what gets related to our experience. When anger arises, what type of mind, the dog or the lion mind, do we employ? When we’re extremely anxious, are we chasing the bones of worrying thoughts, or sitting with autonomy? Sometimes we can get caught up in the bones of our own stories, thoughts, images, sensations, and emotions.

By remembering the image of the lion sitting there and being present and non-reactive, we remind ourselves of the state of mind we’re trying to cultivate with mindfulness. Not necessarily relaxed, but present, with a non-reactive and non-judging attitude. That’s what awards us with the true power of mindfulness. To face whatever “bones” get thrown our way.

You might follow up with a discussion about what particular “bones” are relevant in the students’ lives presently. What are the triggers they are dealing with most? That makes the metaphor real and applicable. It takes the focus away from meditation, which is easy to conflate with relaxing or trying to calm down, and points it toward the symbol of the dignified lion being non-reactive and poised. I then use the lion mind terminology as a language thread throughout the rest of my work with the group or individual. It can be more helpful than the word “mindfulness” for remembering the actual concept and practice of mindfulness.

When I check in with youth about situations they’ve been struggling with I can say, “What mind were you in? The dog mind or the lion mind?” and they understand exactly what I’m talking about. That is ultimately one of the goals in teaching mindfulness to teens; that they remember and understand what mindfulness is so they have more of a chance of actually employing it when most needed.

I highly recommend taking from this metaphor what you like, tweaking it if necessary, and catering as much as possible to the unique needs of the youth you work with.

Kristi Harnishfeger, an elementary school teacher in Michigan, devised a different way to think about monsters. A multi-day lesson with her third grade students incorporated the use of adjectives, emotions, and Zones of Regulation. You could accommodate for any age.

1) Students pick an emotion, title the top of their papers with that emotion and the word Monster.  Ex: Happy Monster.

2) They draw that monster and label body parts using different adjectives to describe it.

3)  Read the book Anh’s Anger to the students, and discuss how all emotions come and go, as previously read about in Visiting Feelings.

4)  If you use Zones of Regulation, discuss which colored zones they think their monsters are in. The children color their picture backgrounds with that color zone.

Kristi found this project a good reference point for her students when talking about their emotions and understanding the different Zones of Regulation.  She said it was “super fun” for her to teach this too!

This week I taught a family mindfulness class at St. Andrews Episcopal School with my MINDS colleague, Jennifer Jordan. While we wanted to teach specific practices, our ultimate goal was to have families convene at the end of our time together and decide on a practice they would like to commit to trying for the next week. With so many tools in our mindfulness tool kits —  each having infinite variations — Jen and I can get carried away teaching and forget to be mindful of the clock. Oops!  We hope families can use these suggestions to get started. Please tell us about your experiences, and the creative variations you will inevitably come up with.

MINDFUL MINUTES FOR THE SENSES

These are times to be together as a family. Turn off cell phones and other devices; it’s only a moment! The goal here is to practice mindfulness (the emphasis is on practicing rather than achieving some ultimate state):

• paying attention (I prefer “noticing,” as kids are so often exhorted to pay attention)
• to the present moment
• without judgment.

SIGHT

Shake a snow globe and watch each crystal settle, until the globe is completely clear. Imagine all the cells in your brain, mind and body as crystals that are melting down into the earth. [Can also use a Mind Jar or sand timer.]

Take 5 Breath. [color poster and video here: http://childhood101.com/2015/04/take-5-breathing-exercise/]

SCENT

Give everyone an orange segment. Slowly break it apart and smell it. Notice the sensations in the body. Share what thoughts and feelings the scent evokes.

Use scented oils on a Q-tip. Pass it around and let everyone share. Or burn a scented candle. Discover which scents are calming and which are energizing (no right or wrong here).  You can be creative – boil a cinnamon stick; pick an herb from the garden; etc.

SOUND

Family music time. Listen to a song together. Alternate who gets to choose the song. Offers a great opportunity to explore lyrics and meanings of the songs your children choose.

Ring a bell or a singing bowl. To make it more fun, roll a die to determine how many times you will ring it. Everyone listens for the full sound, and raises their hand when no sound is left.

TOUCH

Breathe sitting back-to-back. Make your breath big so that it expands your back. Notice the warmth of your partner’s back. Notice how you feel before and after. Switch partners and notice any differences.

TASTE

The raisin meditation is a classic. Here is one script to get you started: http://blog.harvardvanguard.org/2013/04/smart-kids-practice-mindful-eating/. You can, of course, vary the foods. To add a family challenge, keep track of how many words your family can come up with to describe the food, using all of the senses.

A fun variation is to close eyes or use blindfolds, and have one person pass out a sample. The others have to guess what it is. Multilayered treats are fun, e.g. a chocolate covered raisin.

BREATH

Try Bee breath. Sitting comfortably with legs crossed, breath in through the nose, then with fingers in your ears [and perhaps fingers covering the eyes as well] hum or buzz out your exhalation. The resonance has a calming effect and closing or covering the eyes can make it even more peaceful.

Ha! or Hot! breath is more energizing, and can be done standing or seated.  Breathing in, reach one arm up to touch the sun, then sharply pull it down, breathing out “Hot!” or “Ha!” Alternate arms. Notice how it feels to vary the speed.

BODY

Mindful Bodies Challenge. In my yoga and mindfulness classes, children love to best their own “mindful moment” times. We begin by moving our bodies until we feel ready to settle into a comfortable seated position and get into our mindful bodies. Start with one minute of mindfulness – silence and stillness — and then try to add 15 or 30 seconds each time you practice. Joining together for the challenge motivates the kids to try their best. Of course, it is important to always recognize the effort, even when someone does call out. Remember, mindfulness is about non judgment, so not besting your time only means that you get another opportunity to try.

Breathe In.

Breathe Out.

Enjoy!

This was a  blog by yoga teacher Kathleen Reynolds of Allay Yoga. https://musepracticeallay.wordpress.com/2015/04/01/dharma-discussion-seva/.  

Kathleen introduces Lauren Rubenstein from Go Give Yoga, the organization to which Kathleen donates all proceeds from her monthly Early Morning Meditation Classes.

A Note From Kathleen:

Without concern for results,
perform the necessary action;
surrendering all attachments,
accomplish life’s highest good.
– Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 3, Verse 19), translation from Stephen Mitchell

Seva is a Sanskrit word often translated as “selfless service.” For me, the spirit of such a concept is best understood in its demonstration rather than its dissection. For this reason, I am happy to offer this space to Lauren Rubenstein who just recently returned from her seventh seva trip to Haiti with Go Give Yoga. I first learned of the work of Go Give Yoga when Lauren presented on a panel during my yoga teacher training.

If you are interested in learning more about Go Give Yoga, please visit http://www.gogiveyoga.com. I am honored in my own very small way to support their work by teaching the monthly early morning meditation classes at Allay on the second Tuesday of each month — all donations from these sessions go to Go Give Yoga.

Pictured: Lauren with some of the young Haitian teachers they trained; Lauren, her son Jake and Michelda – ready for church; Lauren and Showty having fun with partner poses – he is the first Haitian yoga teacher they trained, and he has become a fabulous kids’ yoga teacher; some of the little ones tag along with their older siblings, so Lauren notes “We improvise!”

Pictured: Lauren with Michelda and her mom, Marie Claude; more shots showing the joyful connections in the yoga classes, including when Alexandra spontaneously led a class – Lauren notes that “As the cook’s daughter, she has probably taken as many yoga classes as any of the kids, and show real promise as a teacher despite her young age.”

Duvennes, Michelda’s younger brother, in savasana. The kids often fall asleep; many don’t have real beds to sleep on, or space of their own, and the mat provides their own space, even if only for an hour.

——————
by Lauren Rubenstein

I know lots of people with Life Plans: Visions! Short-term goals! Long-term goals! Action lists!…. Contrary to what appearances might suggest, I am not one of them. Had an intuitive told me I would ever:

(1) teach yoga
(2) to kids
(3) in Haiti
(4) 7 times,

I would have laughed.

Seven seva trips to Haiti later, I am so grateful for two of the more impulsive decisions in my life: to take a children’s yoga teacher training in 2009, unclear why I was doing it; and to sign on for a Haiti trip with Go Give Yoga in July 2011. The first trip was monumental. I truly had no clue about Haiti or any other “Third World” country. Conditions in the post-earthquake tent camp were shocking. Even as I was trying to process what I was experiencing, I kept thinking with frustration, there will be no words to describe this situation once I return home.

Four years ago, Go Give Yoga went to Haiti with the idea that teaching yoga to children who lived in extreme poverty and had experienced a tragic earthquake just might be a way to serve. Staying on the grounds of Partners In Development (www.pidonline.org), a nonprofit that provides free medical care, a child sponsorship program, small business development and other wrap-around services, we worked alongside medical volunteers. During shared meals, some of them loved to recall in graphic detail what they had seen in the clinic. We heard from Mr. Genois, PID’s social worker who is tasked with determining which family’s needs — all dire — should take priority. For example, if someone told him their tent was leaking and they had to sleep standing up when it rained, he would wait until the next rain and check it out. In other words, a job that would break most people’s hearts.

For the most part, the children we teach don’t get much adult attention. Many of their parents are out sun-up to sundown trying to sell something on the open market so they can give their kids a hot meal that day — something the children cannot take for granted. Most school in Haiti is private, and many families simply cannot afford tuition, uniforms and books. Clean drinking water is a luxury. We quickly learned that the children were coming to yoga hungry and thirsty, so we incorporated a hot meal program. We did arts and crafts with the kids after yoga. The first time I cried was when we gave the children drawing materials, and so many of them drew houses….

But it wasn’t all trauma and tears. The overwhelming majority of the children we taught positively lit up with joy during yoga. Despite the language barrier which required translators, our experience confirmed what know: that yoga is about connection — to one’s own wholeness, and to each other. Some of the most poignant moments were looking into a child’s eyes during partner poses, as we were hand-to-hand or foot-to-foot. Holding the little girl who never cracked a smile and would not lie down during savasana (Michelda stole my heart and I have been sponsoring her through PID ever since). Spontaneously doing yoga with kids who show up between classes, when there is no interpreter, just gesture and touch. Indeed, neuroscientists appreciate how important this non-verbal, “right brain to right brain” connection is to human development.

Despite the inner knowing that we were being of service, reservations haunted me after the first trip. The medical volunteers were doing such “important” work, I thought, while we were “just playing.” I overcame these doubts by reminding myself that play is the work of children; that most NGOs in Haiti provide basic needs, while fewer offer children playful human interaction. And there were the wise words of Mr. Genois before we left: “I have been watching you out my window all week. What you do is so much more than play. You are reaching the children’s bodies, minds and hearts.”

The cultural divide also gave pause, especially once I started educating myself about Haiti. There’s a term in social work, “well-meaning white woman.” What could outsiders like us who could never hope to fully understand this culture possibly have to offer? How could we reassure parents and teachers who deeply suspected that yoga was about teaching kids to levitate, or getting the spirit to leave the body? On the other hand, wasn’t yoga an equally foreign practice when it first came to the U.S. from India?

Like any subject, the more I learn about Haiti, its culture and history, the more I feel humbled by what I don’t know. And yet. Trip #7 felt like a watershed, a breakthrough of cultural barriers.

~PID’s cook, a conservative Christian woman whose church forbids women to wear pants, makeup, jewelry or nail polish (as I learned when I started painting the girls’ nails and an older girl came over and signed that their parents would punish them for it), began to attend class. I had shown her downward dog on a previous trip, as a possible way to ameliorate her leg pain.
~A local pastor told us yoga was helping him with his sermons.
~The older teens and school teachers we had trained to teach yoga were moving ahead full speed, teaching classes in their communities.
~Most poignantly, the kids were teaching each other — and us! Nine-year-old Alexandra assembled a group of 18 and taught an impromptu class. Six-year-old Miranda conducted a private session for the 15-year-old American “brother” of her American sponsor family. When I looked and saw Miranda sitting face-to-face and leading Miles in meditation, following by asana and ending with savasana, yoga again proved to be a profound form of non-verbal connection.

In what is sometimes referred to as the “Republic of NGOs,” aide workers are criticized for driving around Haiti in shiny black SUVs, their feet never touching the ground. Go Give Yoga is on the ground in Haiti, literally as well as figuratively. Are we helping or fixing Haiti? Definitely not – nor is that our intention. Are we serving Haiti by offering our presence? By sharing a practice that might grow inner resources in some of the least-resourced children? From the bottom of our hearts, we hope so.