Tip 23: Give your community a visualization vacation

Mindfulness techniques are known to help reduce stress, improve resiliency and contribute to overall health and wellbeing — and I think we can agree that all of us, especially our students, could use some positive mental health strategies right now.

Mrs. Pollack at Perry Meridian Academy is doing a great job of supporting students’ mental health by creating weekly “visualization vacation” videos. These “vacations” give students a mental break from the stresses of current times. This could be especially powerful for those living in big cities who can’t spend much time outdoors.

These exercises are particularly effective because she focuses on the five senses by noting:

• 5 things you see

• 4 things you touch

• 3 things you hear

• 2 things you smell

• 1 thing you taste

She encourages students to use their own imagination, but gives her own examples too. By providing detail and descriptive words she is really able to paint a mental picture — for example, she says “there’s a slight breeze ruffling my hair” and “I can feel the weight of my sweater on my shoulder.”

We love how she also accompanies her audio with calming photos of beautiful scenery that depicts the scene (in this case, pictures at dusk as it’s an evening walk) to really set the scene.

K-12 Remote Tips

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We’d love to know what you are doing — what great examples or ideas would you like to share with other schools? Simply comment below or submit your tip via our web form.