• A program developed to bring Meditation, Awareness and  Care of self to the school system for young adults starting with middle school. This is a comprehensive approach which helps young adults understand, develop and care for their inner lives.

• A program that combines basic mindfulness, meditation and self-care practices. These practices are easy to use and fun for practitioner. They take a short time to do each day. They are fun, humorous and exciting.

 

• It's the LIFE SKILLS that, as you are reading this, you wished were taught to you when you were growing up and may be wondering why something so important is mysteriously left out of the modern day curriculum.

 

• brightminds is committed to delivering a high quality evidence-based program to help improve student’s lives while connecting it to the community’s well-being.

• This program is approachable and creative.
 

• Emphasis on learning how the mind works, how to focus attention and how to develop an awareness of thoughts. 
 

•  Students will increase their ability to become less reactionary and impulsive. Why? Because they will develop their confidence that they possess the skills to watch their thoughts and make better decisions. Studies have found aggression and violent behavior decrease in children and young adults who practice some form of meditation.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27335516/

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    “If every 8 year old in the world is taught meditation,

we will eliminate violence from the world within one    generation.”

      -The Dalai Lama

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• Why is this quote so powerful? Because it erodes ignorance and solidifies natural born inclusion.

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• Learning that reactionary knee jerk actions can lead to harsh unwanted consequences.

 

• Self-care involves learning how to regulate emotions. Negitive thoughts and emotions left unchecked can run and ruin a students energy and behavior towards themselves and others.

 

• Pausing is a mental muscle that can precede action.

• Meditation can effect one's sense of well being and develops a mental plasticity where one has the power within to harness that feeling of "being safe" even when chaos surrounds them. Self-care relies on learning how to feel more grounded.

 

• Meditation when practiced regularly can provide a healthier perspective on one's life. Becoming aware of negative self-talk (or one’s personal narrative) is the first step to realizing that the "shadow self" is not the true self. And that by continuing to identify with it, the person will suffer and prohibit personal growth.

 

•Discovering that people have the power to "change the station, listen to a different song" that is playing within is truly exciting and transforming. Thoughts are less "sticky".

•. Learning about the brain’s default mode (DM) is too often focused on that which is seen as lacking and wrong instead of seeing what is good and abundant (gratitude).  
 

• How the brain physically changes during the course of our lifetimes; how the brain biologically changes through repetitive positive input reducing the FFL -Fight Flight response along with flooding the body and brain with the stress hormone -Cortisol. Meditation is scientifically proven to reduce these chemicals and hormones and promote a more balanced nervous system that is better able to handle internal and external stress. 

Approach: A 20 minute session of guided breathing exercises, basic stretching and finally a guided meditation. Each class will include a brief empowering lesson with time for

Q and A.

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A Time Out Room: A place where students can come to discuss pressing immediate problems with a brightminds team member. Here students are allowed to discuss conflicting thoughts and confusing emotional turmoil so that they can be given the tools to learn how -through self care -they can learn that they can become the victors not the victims in life. This is a way students can be given a chance to navigate a most challenging social climate that we are faced with today. 

 

Core Values: Respect (themselves and others), honesty, inclusion, dignity, compassion. Thrive! Not only survive.