Bringing Yoga & Mindfulness to Middle School

Let’s hear from Allison Rosemond, a Middle School Counselor in South Carolina. She enjoys incorporating wellness activities into her daily interactions with students. Allison credits Yoga 4 Classrooms for making yoga and mindfulness accessible to the students.

As a school counselor, my department implemented a Midweek Mindful Moment, a weekly tip or strategy emailed to teachers for them to try out. Many of the weekly tips/strategies were poses from the Yoga 4 Classrooms Activity Cards or links to various Yoga 4 Classrooms videos. Teachers could use the poses or videos as short yoga breaks during class time to help students refocus and regain concentration, brain breaks, that teachers could use to make transitions throughout the day, or for themselves to help manage their own stress levels and improve their overall well-being.

Our daily Mindfulness Minute on the morning announcements taught breathing exercises and meditation techniques to students facing academic pressure or personal challenges and helped them manage stress more effectively. We observed that even though students did not appear to be listening to the daily Mindfulness Minute, frequently, students were able to recall a specific exercise or technique when interacting with them one-on-one.

One of our PE teachers even introduced yoga to staff after school as part of a series of wellness activities implemented by our Staff Support Team. This helped to create a sense of community and promote wellness amongst our staff.

There were challenges faced when trying to incorporate yoga into our day. Oftentimes, ‘yoga’, ‘meditation’, and ‘mindfulness’ carry a negative connotation. We had to repackage ‘yoga’, and ‘meditation’, and ‘mindfulness’ as ‘wellness’ to appeal to a larger number of students and parents. I believe ‘wellness’ does encompass what our goal was for introducing yoga and meditation and mindfulness- improve concentration, reduce stress, and improve overall well-being.

There are more benefits than challenges, however, and we hope to see these benefits moving into the new school year:

1. The ability for students to better manage their stress
2. Greater concentration to boost academic performance
3. Mood regulation
4. Students learning to become more aware of their bodies
5. Reinforce the idea of living in the moment to reduce anxiety
6. Improve self-confidence
7. Increase ability to cope with challenges

We love to hear about the innovative ways Yoga 4 Classrooms is used in schools. Thank you Allison for the many ways you make a difference for your students! We would love to hear how you are using Yoga 4 Classrooms at your school, too. Contact us and share your story!