Recently there has been an increased emphasis on social-emotional learning (SEL) in the classroom context to address the escalating mental health issues among students. As such, the Awareness in Mind: Mindfulness and Compassionate Communication course has intentionally been designed as a school-based mental health intervention. This course aims to combine the inward-focused techniques of mindfulness and meditation with the outward oriented tools of non-violent communication to empower students to connect with themselves and others in the most life-serving and emotionally productive ways. The Curriculum takes seriously the importance of “school connectedness,” and it strives to make students feel self-connected, which ultimately helps them to connect with the adults and peers at school, at home, and within their community. So, the inward-focused and outward oriented approach of this school-based Curriculum will have immeasurable emotional and social rewards well beyond the classroom, and for their future.
The AIM Curriculum combines non-violent communication with mindfulness training as a way to help empower students to communicate interpersonally, utilizing capacities such as self-awareness, empathy, peace/self-control, self-esteem, etc. The following are five of the main goals of this course:
- To explore how awareness of one’s inner state can translate to more skillful and effective means of navigating the world and relationships with other people.
- To use the experience of practicing Anapana to create a framework for understanding the mind and its various states.
- To explore the challenges of real-world communication and develop methods for remaining present and connected to the life in ourselves and others.
- To develop skillfulness in empathic listening, including listening behind judgments to what is alive inside a person in pain.
- To empower one to distinguish between how to respond to life situations when they are “triggered” or in emotional pain versus how to navigate life when they are centered and self-connected—thus teaching them the value of connection versus violent provocation in interpersonal communication.
Class Format
- Online
- Family and Education
- Live Workshop
Facilitators:
Colin Parker
Sabrina Rising
Alisha Panjwani
Sunita Virani
Mayor of Tampa
