Executive Functioning is a set of cognitive skills that help us with planning, organization, managing our thoughts and behaviors, and staying focused. These skills are critical for achieving goals as both in the classroom, at work, and in everyday life.  Add this mindfulness course to your child's school-year curriculum to support them in their executive functioning skills and emotional development! My name is Indya and I am a licensed Speech Language Pathologist with special interest in mindfulness and it's effects on the brain 

To support your learner in the development of their executive functioning, self awareness and emotional intelligence, I invite you to join the Mindfulness Exploration Flex Course!  

These groups are:

Five weeks long to support habit change.
Designed to support your learner's mindfulness practice and emotional intelligence.
Flexible lessons each week that can be completed when your learner is available. 
Printable resources.
Special insights from group sharing!

My name is Indya and I've been practicing Mindfulness for over 10 years and have taken many courses on the topic. As a speech language pathologist, I have also studied the brain and how to treat executive functioning disorders. In this course, I have combined both disciplines. Mindfulness has had such a positive impact in my life and I love to share it with others... especially young people! Mindfulness helps to settle the nervous system, which is an important step in order to access our reasoning, communication, and conflict resolution skills (to name just a few executive functions). These executive functioning skills are preformed in our prefrontal cortex, which shuts down when under stress. Because the brain reacts to stress in its environment, mindfulness meditation improves executive functioning by helping to control the incoming information. Mindfulness not only helps improve executive functioning, but also emotional intelligence. Emotional Intelligence has been identified as twice as important than technical skills and academic achievement. Social emotional learning is an integral part of learning! One study showed that up to 50% of children showed improved achievement scores and up to 38% improvement in grade-point averages at schools that included social emotional programs.

I will also cover topics such as the 4 Eisenhower quadrants to help discuss how to prioritize tasks and determine level of importance. In addition, I will be encouraging simple habit changes that can help improve executive functioning in daily life.

Here is an overview of what may be covered in this 5 week course (although adjustments may be made):

Week 1: 
👋 Introductions: make a video or write a comment to introduce yourself!
😊 Questions Game: I will tag one student and ask them a question. They will answer the question and then ask a new question to the next student they choose by tagging them in their comment. 
🎨 Gratitude project: Create a system to express gratitude daily. Share a photo with the group and make a comment on another student's project. 
✍️ Review how to use mindfulness printouts and posters
✅ Create a checklist of tasks and goals

Week 2: 
👁 What is mindfulness?
🧘🏻‍♂️ Past Present Future awareness activity
💟 Mindfulness check in meditation and breathing
💨 Belly Breathing (with your diaphragm) with at home assignment 
✍️ Express gratitude in your gratitude system about someone you are grateful for and share with the class! 
😻 Write a comment saying something you appreciate about another student's response.
🤔 Discuss the 4 Eisenhower quadrants to help prioritize tasks

Week 3:
👁  Mindful Choices with 🌸 Flowers and Bubbles Breathing 
👋 Say Hello to Our Emotions Mindfulness meditation
🎨 Emotions Art
✍️ Express in gratitude system something you can do that you are grateful for and share with the class. 
🤔 Break down a task into smaller steps

Week 4:
🙆‍♀️ Practice: gentle yoga movements for a calm mind and body. Feel free to set up with a yoga mat and have blankets and pillows near by.  (make sure your learner has a safe, open space to practice. Supervision advised to prevent potential injuries.) 
🫐 Mindful Eating Practice 
🖐 Present moment activity with your senses 
✍️ Express in gratitude system something you've done that you are grateful for. 
😻 Write a comment saying something you appreciate about another student's Emotion art work!
🤔 Take time everyday to clean and organize your workspace for 5-10 minutes and review your tasks

Week 5: 
🧘🏻‍♂️ Body Scan Meditation  
✍️ Express in gratitude system something that you are grateful for. 
😻 Share what your favorite mindfulness practices have been during this course!
✍️ Write in your own words what mindfulness means to you and 2-3 ways you plan on incorporating mindfulness into your life.

Learners are encouraged to have a social experience in the classroom through mindfulness games, sharing artwork, uploading videos and commenting on things other student's share.  I also encourage learners to practice on their own and provide them with printable posters that have the suggested practice and a chart they can check off each time they practice for the week. 

I will post the new practices on Monday each week. Your learner can complete the activities on their own schedule for the week. I  encourage learners to have assignments uploaded by Sunday so the social aspect can stay active and engaging.  After completing this course, learners will be equipped with tools to better understand and engage with themselves and the world around them through mindfulness practices. This course is a general overview of mindfulness practices. We will not go into discussion about student's personal experiences as this is not therapy and does not support or provide a therapeutic outcome.

Not sure about the topics covered in this course? Here's some more detailed information and research about mindfulness, gratitude, and diaphragmatic breathing:

Mindfulness practices literally can change areas of the brain associated with attention, emotional regulation, empathy, and bodily awareness. Research found many benefits of practicing mindfulness, including helping with anxiety, depression, emotional regulation, well-being and concentration. UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center stated that in educational settings, mindfulness practices led to "improved social-emotional skills, executive functions, and decreased test stress in students (Research)." If you would like to read more about this and find links to research articles, please refer to the resources list at the end of this class description. 

Mindfulness is an invitation to pause, breathe, observe, and connect with our inner experience in the present moment. There are many ways to practice mindfulness, including meditation, yoga, art, breathing and time in nature. In this semester course, we will cover topics around mindfulness like meditations for the mind and body, mindfulness journaling, deep breathing practices, worksheets, and even practicing gratitude! Gratitude is actually a well-research based tool that has shown measurable benefits and appears to contribute substantially to individual well-being and physical health (Harvard Health). Cultivating gratitude is a key component to social emotional learning. Susan Davis expressed that gratitude is linked to emotional intelligence because it involves the following two components: emotional awareness (“am I grateful or ungrateful”?) and emotional self-regulation (“how can I make myself more grateful, so that I’m happier and more effective in my daily life?”)" Having a gratitude practice can also help build better relationships and have more empathy. Diaphragmatic breathing, or deep breathing into the lower belly, is also backed by research to have positive effects on stress reduction (JBI Evidence Synthesis).

Please message me with any questions. Hope you join me!