Zen Center of Denver is offering a group for high school-aged teens to help develop the practice of mindfulness, which is very effective in reducing stress, navigating hard times and finding more ease and joy in life. This will be a nondenominational program open to all teens—regardless of whether you identify with a particular religious tradition or none at all.
In this ongoing series, you can:
- Get better at dealing with distractions and staying focused;
- Stay calmer, clearer and more creative when under stress so you can deal more effectively with difficult situations, people, thoughts, and emotions – Smoothing out the “emotional roller-coaster”;
- Make sure you don’t miss out on or skim over all the great experiences, interactions, and opportunities happening all the time;
- Get better at showing up for your life rather than just going through the motions on autopilot all the time;
- Get better at communicating and managing relationships – so you can treat yourself and others with more patience, kindness, respect and generosity;
- Learn more about who you are, figure out what kind of adult you want to be and what you’d like to contribute to the world;
- Learn strategies for managing your tech habits – making sure you (and not your devices) are in charge of how and when you scroll or game.
No experience is necessary and all are welcome; we are committed to maintaining a community that is welcoming to people of all identities, cultures, beliefs, abilities and ways of being.
Here’s a short video featuring a similar program in Vancouver, British Columbia:
What we will do each Sunday at the Zen Center:
- Start with a short mindfulness practice (about 5 minutes long)
- Explore a topic related to mindfulness meditation
- Demonstrate and try out one of the many different ways to meditate
- Discussion – time for your questions, reactions, ideas, etc.
- Wrap up with a short closing meditation
Examples of topics we will be exploring:
- Pay Attention! – What is our attention anyway?
- Stepping Back – Don’t believe everything you think…
- Mindful Attitude – Becoming a scientist of your own experience (with curiosity and kindness)
- Two Modes of Mind – Thinking and Sensing
- Connecting with Kindness – Shifting from Reacting to Responding
- Neuroscience of Stress and the Teen Brain – The powers and pitfalls of our survival-primed brains
- Mindful Tech Habits – Protecting your attention in our new “attention economy”
- The Art of Savoring – Don’t miss the good stuff!
Examples of meditation exercises we will be teaching:
- Mindfulness of Sound
- Mindfulness of Breathing
- Thought Bubbles
- Open Awareness
- Body Scan
- Care and Kindness practice
- R.A.I.N.
- Mindful Tech Use (for scrolling or gaming mindfully)
- Mindful Eating
- Mindful walking
- Quick practices for on the go
How to participate (or not):
- An invitation –
- When we do the meditation exercises during these sessions, you are always invited to try them out and decide for yourself what you think of them. We will teach lots of different ways to meditate so you can see which ones might work for you.
- You can always opt out of doing an exercise if you aren’t comfortable trying it for any reason. If you opt out, please respect others by not distracting them.
- An expectation –
- No judging. We expect everyone to give each other space to try the exercises and have different opinions about what they think of them.
- During discussions you will be invited to share your thoughts and, again, you can always opt out.
A word about the word “mindfulness”:
Mindfulness has become something of a buzzword these days, often used loosely to describe everything from bracelets to coloring books. So we want to be clear about how we will be using the term.
The mindfulness meditation exercises we’ll be offering and the topics we’ll be discussing are designed to help you systematically train yourself to pay attention in new ways so you can:
1) be more aware of your thoughts, physical sensations and emotions while they are happening, then
2) pause, take a step back and see whatever you are experiencing with more objectivity, curiosity, kindness and within the larger context,
3) which creates space for you to consciously choose how to respond to whatever is happening — rather than automatically reacting without thinking.
Testimonials from Teens who have learned about mindfulness this way:
This program has been helpful because I feel happier with me.
– 10th grade student
The classes have had a great impact on me and my mindset. My mind isn’t all over the place and I’ve become less stressed. This program was honestly life changing.
– 11th grade student
At hockey I can get really mad at myself on bad plays or the other team if they get aggressive and it helps me control myself and evaluate things before I do them.
– 11th grade student
It helped me sleep better at night. I feel rested during the day.
– 11th grade student
When I get in arguments I stay calm instead of going quickly off.
– 12th grade student
It has honestly made an impact. I feel less worried about every little thing and it has made me happier. I’ve learned a lot more about the brain and stress, and how everyone’s not alone. Also it made me care more and be more open-minded to my friends and family.
– 10th grade student
It has helped me a lot with noticing how I feel, for example the body scan is my favorite because I usually did it before bed or after games (basketball). It helped me not overlook parts of my body that hurt and it let me clear my thoughts after a bad game or one that didn’t go my way.
– 9th grade student
This program has helped me in situations where I was angry at my friends or family. Instead of me arguing with my sister all the time, I started spending more time with her and being forgiving and more considerate of her emotions. And over the past 10 weeks, we’ve spent a lot of time together and we’re now basically best friends.
– 11th grade student