Another robust resource is the Virtual Calming Room, a website I found through the Facebook group, Social and Emotional Learning. This site has excellent embedded videos that help people calm themselves through sounds and music, visual relaxation, guided breathing and meditation, yoga and movement, live cameras, and virtual field trips. It also links to timers and relevant apps. Resources are divided between elementary and secondary levels. One of my favorite videos from the site is embedded to the left, 3 hours of relaxing jellyfish.

There are so many benefits to starting a mindfulness practice. Lisa Melendez, in her chapter "Shifting the Pace," from Recipes for Mindfulness in Your Library," explained perfectly that "by exposing students (and others) to tools that encourage a slower, calmer pace for engaging with information, I believe we are preparing them to thrive in our information-saturated, fast-paced world" (89).

One practice that we've included in our library at Brooklyn Tech is a Peace Corner, which grew out of the Responsive Classroom curriculum. Ours is a space where students can draw, meditate and use tools to help themselves focus. Our Mindfulness Monday teacher-led meditation was also held in the Peace Corner.

This video (3 min) features youth and young adults discussing their experiences practicing mindfulness, and how mindfulness has benefited different aspects of their lives. The video also shows youth practicing mindfulness, and includes insights from a health professional and mindfulness teacher.

by Gina Biegel (2018)

This accessible, user-friendly toolbox for teens introduces them to mindfulness practice and shows them how it can ease their fears and anxieties, reduce their impulsivity, help them develop a more measured response to the stressors around them, and build strong relationships. In fifty very short activity "chapters," mindfulness teacher and family therapist Gina Biegel offers meditations, breathing and thought exercises, and stress-reducing solutions that can be done as an ongoing practice or in the moment.

by Mallika Chopra (2018)

Just Breathe is a fun and accessible, fully illustrated go-to meditation guide written by none other than Mallika Chopra, wellness expert and the daughter of Deepak Chopra. For kids ages 8 to 12, this book is full of specific exercises to help deal with day-to-day challenges and tips to lead a healthier, happier, and more connected life. The book includes practical advice on breathing techniques and guided meditations for a number of topics and scenarios, including:

• Dealing with stress

• Getting to sleep

• Building self-confidence

• Focusing on school/tests/other work

• Ridding oneself of anxiety

by Mariam Gates (2018)

Don't just do something, be here.

The key to happiness is being able to find comfort in this moment, here and now. When you are completely present and not distracted by regrets, worries, and plans, even for a little while, you begin to feel more confident and can deal more easily with everything you experience. This is mindfulness- paying attention to this very moment, on purpose and without judgment--simply being present with curiosity.

This engaging guide, packed with simple exercises and endearing full-color artwork, provides a handy starting point for bringing mindfulness into your daily life. Chapters on meditation, yoga, and mindful breathing explain the benefits of these practices, and you are free to pick and choose what to try. There are quick exercises throughout, and a more extensive tool kit at the end of each chapter. The final chapter offers satisfying five-day challenges that map out ways to pull all of the book's mindfulness techniques together in your day-to-day life.

With the appeal of a workbook or guided journal, and full of examples relevant to tweens and teens today, this book will be your trusted companion as you begin the valuable, stress-relieving work of being still with skill.

by Beth Stebner (2016)

How're You Feeling Today?

Stressed?

Worried?

Anxious?

Stop. Breathe. Chill. These mindfulness exercises will teach you how to focus on the present and stop freaking out about the future. Each entry tackles the sort of stuff life throws at you every day. Whether it's a situation with friends, issues with family, or the pressures of school, you'll learn how to live in the moment and stop stressing out.

It's going to be okay. Armed with these meditation skills and mantras, worrying will be a thing of the past. Now take a breath, relax, and start feeling better about today!

by Whitney Stewart (2020)

From hormones to homework, parents to peers, health issues to bad habits, life can be a pressure cooker leading to anxiety and even thoughts of suicide. How can we find relief? Author Whitney Stewart introduces readers to the practice of mindfulness. With its roots in ancient Buddhist teachings, mindfulness--the practice of purposefully focusing attention on the present moment--can change a person's approach to stress, develop skills to handle anxiety and depression, and provide a sense of awareness and belonging. Stewart guides readers through how to get started with meditation as well as provides specific exercises for examining emotions, managing stress, checking social media habits and wellness routines, and setting intentions to increase happiness.

by Jon Kabat-Zinn (2018)

Welcome to a master class in mindfulness.

Jon Kabat-Zinn is regarded as "one of the finest teachers of mindfulness you'll ever encounter" (Jack Kornfield). He has been teaching the tangible benefits of meditation in the mainstream for decades. Today, millions of people around the world have taken up a formal mindfulness meditation practice as part of their everyday lives. But what is meditation anyway? And why might it be worth trying? Or nurturing further if you already have practice?

Meditation Is Not What You Think answers those questions. Originally published in 2005 as part of a larger book entitled Coming to Our Senses, it has been updated with a new foreword by the author and is even more relevant today. If you're curious as to why meditation is not for the "faint-hearted," how taking some time each day to drop into awareness can actually be a radical act of love, and why paying attention is so supremely important, consider this book an invitation to learn more--from one of the pioneers of the worldwide mindfulness movement.