Mindfulness "fails" for narrative and "thinking talk"

Metacognition is all wrapped up in our language, social and executive functioning. To read a great explanation of how, see this article from Singer and Bashir (1999), two of my faves in the field. 

Additionally, right now everyone, absolutely everyone, needs strategies for regulating ourselves. I have made it a focus in many of my sessions since March. 

Recently Chris Hemsworth of Thor fame, so familiar to most of your students, put out a number of humorous videos showing that mindfulness failure is all part of the process (note that there are 6 videos in the series/playlist).

These vids are useful in a number of ways in speech and language sessions:

-mindfulness exercises are a great entryway to metacognitive talk: "during that I was thinking about..."

-you can pair these with actual exercises, see MyLife, Stop, Breathe & Think Kids, Calm, Zen Den, or MindUp's Curriculum

-each video is actually a narrative snippet: character, setting, initiating event, plan, actions/attempts, conclusion, so is good for mapping

-I actually used these in some lessons about humor for a student struggling with humor use, teaching about types of humor including play (Ward/Jacobsen's "same but different" concept is related to that type of humor and these videos)

2 Good Sources of Mindfulness/Meditation Activities.

Meditation reduces stress and can protect your immune system. I am trying in these days of working-from-home to still have boundaries- days that are not work days. Like today.

So, briefly, it can be difficult to carve out 10 min to be still and mindful. But often these sessions will regulate and calm you in the moment, and the positive thinking patterns infused here become infectious, popping up where you need them: after hearing a scary news story, when you are in a negative spiral, in the middle of the night.

Deepak Chopra and Oprah are providing free a "Hope in Uncertain Times" series of meditations. The app is a bit clunky to navigate (the series has a cost icon with it but is free) but the content is very good.

My gold standard is Buddhify. Well worth the small cost for the app given the portable strategies you will learn. Try the Stress & Difficult Emotion category because, well, you know.

Stay healthy and have a good weekend.

I'm here for you

The current situation with the global Coronavirus emergency is unprecedented in our lifetime and everyone is in varying degrees of shock and scramble. I plan to be here for you and posting much more frequently as one scramble many clinicians are having is in re-connecting and/or servicing their clients through technology. This is a rapidly evolving situation and I will do my best to help out here.

But first, a trick for you. We all need to stay calm. We all need to sleep. We all need to stay healthy mentally and physically.

One technique I learned from the excellent app Buddhify (I love how you can listen to a track and then try to apply it anytime you need) is helping me in these nights of fitful, worrying sleep. It's called "flip": basically, try to distance yourself from wandering, anxious thoughts by flipping to focus on your body, allowing sensations of anxiety to relax and resting in your breath. It's invaluable.

So let's start here. Listen to this short meditation here and please, breathe.