Draw the Breath

By now, we have all probably heard about mindfulness and its benefits. But what exactly is mindfulness, and how do we incorporate it into our classrooms in a sustainable way? I hope this article encourages you to begin exploring mindfulness with your students.

A Need for Being Present
The essence of mindfulness can be summarized with the simple phrase, “Paying attention with kindness.”

I think mindfulness is often thought of as something that only certain people can do. This is a misconception. Anyone can practice mindfulness in any place and at any time, including your students. Mindfulness is simply noticing and staying in the present moment—itʼs a frame of mind.

Many of our students experience issues like depression and anxiety. I wanted to find a way to help them with these issues, so I decided to bring mindfulness practices into my classroom. 

Mindfulness in Action
Let’s get into what mindfulness looks like in the classroom and how you can integrate it into mindful art-making.

Mindfulness in my classroom means taking time at the beginning of every class to pause. We slow down and take a few deep breaths or we stretch or go for a short walk. It really doesn’t need to be complicated—just a time to take some deep breaths and tune into our bodies.

ausing is crucial to mindfulness. We know students and teachers are going all day long. I use the art-making in my classroom as a way for my students to take a break and reset. I like to incorporate mindfulness principles into the process of creating. I remind students that we are noticing what we are creating without judging our art-making.

We pay attention with kindness. “Look what happens when you mix these two colors. Whoops! Those turned brown. How interesting.” I find this type of noticing without judging is extremely important for students who tend to lean toward perfectionism. I want my students to understand that art-making takes a lot of experimentation, and when we are experimenting, we might not know the outcome—and thatʼs okay.

Activity: Draw the Breath
Here’s a simple mindful art-making activity that I’ve done with my students called Draw the Breath. I instruct students to take any drawing tool (I usually have students use a marker), and hold it over a blank piece of paper. I say to the class, “Move the marker as you breathe. As you breathe in, your line will go up, and as you breathe out, your line will move down. By the end, you will have a continuous line that shows your breathing pattern.” This activity allows students to concentrate on their breathing by drawing a visual representation of their in and out breaths.

To take it a step further, I have students turn their line into an artwork. I leave the artwork open-ended, but you can add any criteria you like. I suggest completing a breathing exercise before completing this activity so students know what deep breathing looks and feels like before beginning.

There are many mindful art-making activities you can find through a simple Google search. Mindful art-making is about focusing on the present moment of creating and not putting so much weight on what the final product will look like. When my students are working mindfully, I have found that their focus improves tenfold. They learn to regulate their emotions and reactions in a meaningful way. And by the end of it all, they are usually proud of what they have created. 

Conclusion
Incorporating mindfulness is not an easy fix for a rambunctious class. It takes time to develop a routine in your classroom and for students to understand the importance of mindfulness themselves. If you aren’t already practicing mindfulness yourself, I would encourage you to explore this before implementing it in your classroom. I can promise you that once you incorporate mindfulness in your classroom and stick with it, you will see the benefits. I have students come up to me frequently to tell me they practiced their breathing during a difficult time, and that makes all the hard work it took to get here completely worth it.