Mindfulness Foundations
Discovering Ease and Joy in Your Work with Youth
Welcome!
Welcome to Mindfulness Foundations: Discovering Ease and Joy in Your Work with Youth. In this introductory video, In this 9-minute video, Maggie orients you to the course format and outcomes, introduces our teaching team, and makes some suggestions for how to best engage with the course over the next 10 modules.
In this course, you’ll learn practical tools that will:
Decrease stress and anxiety
Build emotional resilience
Reduce overwhelm and burnout
Increase authentic connection
Support a mindfulness practice
Foster more joy in life and work
Receiving Course Credit as a PPS Employee
Once you have completed all modules, return to this Pepper course and complete the "Course Completion" section. This course is listed under the “My Current Courses” section of your Pepper dashboard (upper right).
After completing the “Course Completion” section, you will receive a certificate and credit on your transcript.
Module 1
Mindfulness—Being Here and Now with Kindness
Day 1: Video
In this 20-minute video, Caverly introduces the practice of mindfulness, debunks some common myths, and guides you through your first meditation.
Day 2: Homework
As your teacher mentioned, you’ll want to download this worksheet and take your time to reflect on the journal prompts. As children, many of us kept diaries or journals and we want to invite you to bring a different perspective to this process. Rather than writing to reaffirm our beliefs or use our pen as a tool to vent, you’ll be practicing exploring whatever arises without judgment. By tuning in to your direct experience and practicing compassion, it is likely that you will gain insights that will serve you on this journey. Be gentle with yourself as you explore and know that whatever arises is simply information that, like everything we experience, can be held in this vast container of presence.
Day 3: Practice
Please practice what you learned in this module on your own.
Module 2
Stabilizing the Attention
Day 4: Video
In this 12-minute video, Bode discusses why learning to stabilizing our attention is helpful during meditation, and shares a simple technique to try in your own practice.
Day 5: Homework
For today’s journal reflection, you’ll be exploring stabilizing the attention and bringing nonjudgmental attention to this process. As you reflect on the journal prompts, remember that we are here to learn, so everything is helpful information. Allow yourself to release judgmental labels of right/wrong and good/bad as you explore this topic.
Day 6: Practice
Please practice what you learned in this module on your own.
Module 3
Exploring Presence Through Our Senses
Day 7: Video
In this 15-minute video, Jen shares how to use our senses as a way to ground our attention in the present moment.
Day 8: Homework
For today’s journal reflection, you’ll be exploring your senses as a way to return to presence. This journaling exercise is experiential - a chance to pause and check in. If possible, set aside a block of time to yourself in a quiet space. If that’s not possible, then lovingly practice with what is.
Day 9: Practice
Please practice what you learned in this module on your own.
Module 4
Body Sensations as an Anchor
Day 10: Video
In this 10-minute video, Vinoth walks you through a practice that explores the connection between the mind and body. You’ll learn how to gently bring loving attention to the sensations in the body and explore how this practice can assist in strengthening your ability to be with physical pain or discomfort.
Day 11: Homework
For today’s journal reflection, you’ll be bringing nonjudgmental attention to the process of using sounds as an anchor. Take your time as you explore this practice and see what arises.
Day 12: Practice
Please practice what you learned in this module on your own.
Module 5
Sound as an Anchor
Day 13: Video
In this 10-minute video, Jaiden guides you through a mindfulness practice using sound as a way to ground the attention in presence. By bringing awareness to what you hear around you, you’ll explore the process of allowing sounds to guide you back to the here and now.
Day 14: Homework
Use this section to assign homework and provide discussion during the week that your students will be applying the knowledge taught. Be sure to provide some real exercises that students can use to stretch themselves and grow. Discussion can be a very encouraging way to foster participation during the training, so be sure to encourage your students to give updates in the comments below.
Day 6: Practice
Please practice what you learned in this module on your own.
Module 6
Energy Follows Attention
Day 16: Video
In this 17-minute video, Janice guides you through a practice where you’ll discover the ways in which the focus of your attention directly influences your experience of reality. By bringing nonjudgmental attention to this process, you’ll explore the inherent connection between the mind and the body and how to recognize this process as it unfolds.
Day 17: Homework
For today’s journal reflection, you’ll be exploring how energy follows attention. You’ll be invited to reflect on your direct experience and how your experience shifts dependent on the focus of your attention. Take your time as you explore this practice and see what arises.
Day 18: Practice
Please practice what you learned in this module on your own.
Module 7
Mindful Movement
Day 19: Video
In this 13-minute video, Sarah guides you in a practice focused on mindful movement. You’ll explore presence through movement and learn how bringing non-judgmental and compassionate attention to the body can support you in cultivating appreciation and contribute to your overall health and wellbeing.
Day 20: Homework
For today’s journal reflection, you’ll be exploring presence through movement. Be gentle with yourself as you tend to the body and explore what it’s like to bring compassion to your experience.
Day 21: Practice
Please practice what you learned in this module on your own.
Module 8
Practicing Compassion
Day 22: Video
In this 14-minute video, Maggie guides you through a mindfulness practice that focuses on cultivating compassion. You’ll explore what arises for you around the experience of compassion and practice offering care toward yourself.
Day 23: Homework
For today’s journal reflection, you’ll be exploring your experience of compassion and what arises for you when you turn your loving attention toward yourself. Compassion practice, while one of the foundational pieces of mindfulness, can be challenging and may even bring feelings of doubt or discomfort. These feelings are completely normal and part of the process for many of us as we explore self-compassion. See if you can stick with the practice, and if it gets particularly difficult, you can always pause, take a breath, take care of yourself as needed, and then return to it when you’re ready.
Day 24: Practice
Please practice what you learned in this module on your own.
Module 9
Relating to Difficult Thoughts or Emotions
Day 25: Video
In this 16-minute video, Jaiden shares how to relate to difficult thoughts or emotions as they arise. Jaiden guides you through a mindfulness practice that explores what it means to “be with" a difficult emotion or thought rather than our habituated tendency to avoid, push away, combat or be controlled by them.
Day 26: Homework
For today’s journal reflection, you’ll be invited to explore your direct experience of how you are habituated to relate to difficult thoughts and emotions as they arise. Give yourself permission to imagine a different type of relationship to your experience as it arises and be gentle with yourself as you explore.
Day 27: Practice
Please practice what you learned in this module on your own.
Module 10
Nourishing Your Practice
Day 28: Video
You’ve made it to the final class of this course—well done! In this 16-minute video, Jen guides you in a final meditation and shares several supportive tips to continue to nourish your mindfulness practice as this training comes to a close.
Day 29: Homework
For today’s journal reflection, we invite you to reflect on your experience and the various tools and practices you’ve learned over the course of this training. There is a great deal of power in setting an intention and we encourage you to think about how you’d like to nourish your mindfulness practice moving forward.
Day 30 - and beyond!
Nurture your practice using all of the tools you have learned in this course!
Bonus Module
Exploring Posture
In this 9-minute video, Cassandra discusses various supportive structures to explore during sitting meditation. As with everything that is offered in this course, we invite you to tune into your direct experience and tend to the body in whatever way feels most supportive.