Welcome.
Today we're going to get our mind up for kindness.
I've worked with amazing students in my past 25 years as a teacher.
These children have taught me a lot about strategies to support focus,
Awareness,
And to help with feelings of fear and anxiety.
An activity that my students told me they loved was focusing on kindness.
They told me that it helped them to feel better.
It helped them to feel more calm and happy.
Kindness can not only make others feel better,
It also helps us.
There are three chemicals that are released in the brain when we participate in acts of kindness.
First,
We release oxytocin.
This chemical is tied to making us feel more generous,
Friendly,
And it can even lower our blood pressure.
It can help us feel a sense of belonging.
Second,
We can release dopamine in the brain.
This is a feel-good chemical and is what gives us that helper's high.
The third chemical we release is serotonin.
This chemical helps us to regulate our moods and it can help us to feel calmer and more centered.
A tip about kindness is to put it on repeat.
The more we practice,
The more we release these chemicals in our brains.
This can help our overall well-being and happiness.
And kindness is catching.
If you're kind to others,
They may in turn go out and be nice to others.
I would like to invite you to participate in a guided kindness practice called Send Kind Wishes.
This can encourage us to be kinder and to feel better.
I'd like you to please start by finding a comfortable position for your body.
You can sit in a chair or lie down somewhere comfortable.
Please just take a moment to get settled.
If you like,
You can close your eyes.
I'd like to start by asking you to spend a moment thinking about somebody close to you.
Send them kind wishes.
Please think about someone in your community that you know,
But not very well.
Send them kind wishes.
Please think about someone in your greater community that you don't know at all.
Send them kind wishes.
Think about someone in another part of the world across a big ocean.
Send them kind wishes.
Think about all the animals all around the world.
Send them kind wishes.
Now think about you.
Can you send yourself some kind wishes?
Finally,
Send kind wishes to all the people and all the animals all around the world.
I'd like to thank you very much for participating in this activity.
Please just take a moment to check in with how you're feeling.
Whatever you feel right now is normal.
With practice,
This activity and others like it can help us to get our minds up.
We may increase our awareness,
Feel calmer and more centered and actually change the structure of our brains.
