Good morning! Let’s do a mindfulness activity called “Find the Facts” to help bring our attention to the present.
Good morning! Let’s do a mindfulness activity called “Find the Facts” to help bring our attention to the present.
You can learn more about Taes Leavitt and her work by visiting bigheartjourney.com.
And you can write to Taes or record a voicemail and send it to listen@akidsco.com. We would love so much to hear about your day or the ways you say goodnight.
GMGN
S2E41, MORNING Find the Facts
[INTRODUCTION]
Taes: Good morning. My name is Taes and I want to welcome you to today.
Can you wave your hand and say, “Good morning, day.”
Can you put your hands on your heart and say, “Good morning, heart.”
And I want to say good morning to you.
I just love getting to start today with you as we check in, as we wake up our bodies, and as we think about what is in store for us today.
Are you ready to start off our morning? Great!
[FIND THE FACTS]
Taes: Today, we are going to do some special mindfulness, and this is a mindfulness game that you can play anytime when those big feelings come. And you can also play it anytime that you're feeling a little bit distracted. So what mindfulness means is that we're just coming back to right where we are.
Have you ever had a lot of thoughts in your head? Sometimes there might be a lot of thoughts about something that's going to come in the future, or sometimes there might be a lot of thoughts about things that have happened in the past.
If you have had times when your brain feels like it is filled with tons and tons of thoughts, can you touch the top of your head?
Yeah, me too. And can you wiggle it a little, little bit? That's kind of how it feels, right when there's just so much going on inside of your head. Yeah.
So this is a mindfulness game that we can use time at all, and it will really help you come back to exactly where you are and what you're doing. And this is by telling a story.
So can you tell me right now, where are you? So it might sound like this. “I am in my bedroom.”
Okay. Can you tell me where you are right now?
Good. Now, can you tell me how you are positioned? Are you standing up? Are you sitting down? So it might be, “I am standing up on my two feet.” Let me hear from you.
What is your body doing right now?
Good. Now, can you describe something that you see in the room that you are in? So it might be for me, “I can see four walls and two windows.” What about you? What can you see?
Good. Now, can you tell me one other thing that you can see right now?
And can you tell me your name? Good.
So let's put it all together. Where are you right now?
How is your body positioned?
What is something that you can see?
What's another thing that you can see?
What's your name?
This is a really great mindfulness trick for when those thoughts are doing a lot of talking inside of your head. And I just like to tell the story of where I am and what I am doing.
So the key with this mindfulness activity is to just describe exactly what's happening without using any feeling words.
And you'll find that this is a great way to come back to your heart, to come back to the present moment, and to let go of all of those big worried thoughts that sometimes take up space in our brains.
Try telling the story of what is happening right here and now. And tonight I wanna check in and see how it went.
[CLOSING]
Taes: I'm so excited for you and for your day.
And I want to say thank you so much for starting today with me and for setting yourself up for a big heart kind of day.
I can't wait to see you tonight and hear about all of the things that you did.
Remember: there is nobody in the whole world with a heart, just like yours.
I love you. And I love your big heart so much.