Resilient and Mindful

Stress Management and Meditation for Kids and Young Adults

For locations, dates, times, and registration information, please check this page.

$105 per person

Pre-registration to the entire series is required.

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REQUIRED CHILD FORM

What if we empower our kids and teens with proven tools to handle stress? What if they are able to cultivate an inner resilience to stay calm and centered no matter what life throws at them? What if they are able to practice and learn meditation and mindfulness techniques in a safe, playful, and experiential atmosphere? This is exactly what this workshop is for: giving kids and teens a laboratory to explore their inner landscape, teaching them tools to fall back to in times of stress, and working with them to develop the mindfulness and awareness to recognize when they need to use these tools.

For the age groups 5 to 8 and 9 to 12, this workshop will be a chance to dive into what it means to meditate and use our minds to calm our bodies. Each week, we will work with a new and exciting way to calm our bodies and minds:

• Week 1: Visual Meditation (visualizing a beautiful scene and putting yourself in it)
• Week 2: Crystal Chakra Meditation (exploring the tactile feeling of crystals for body-awareness)
• Week 3: Mantra Meditation (working with repetitive sounds to calm the nervous system, repeating the mantras Om and Om Shanti Om (Om Peace Om))
• Week 4: Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT, an acupressure tapping technique to relieve stress and reduce cortisol)
• Week 5: Chakra Color Meditation (visualization of colors in each chakra for increased body awareness)
• Week 6: Gratitude Meditation (working with the idea that ‘we have everything we need’, cultivating gratitude towards our bodies, relationships and belongings)
• Week 7: Loving Kindness Meditation (cultivating love towards ourselves and others)

For the age group 13 to 17, in addition to the experiential learning of a wide variety of meditation techniques such as mindfulness, breath work, EFT, and guided imagery, the workshop will also cover the brain waves and the physiology of meditation, the proven benefits of meditation, and the importance of recognizing and dealing with emotional patterns. The goal is to enable students to develop the skills to recognize the negative physical and emotional stress patterns in their lives and give them a toolbox of meditation techniques to handle any past, present, and future stress, anxiety, and adversity throughout their lives. There will be homework assignments in each class as well as further recommended reading.

• Week 1: Introduction to meditation (What is stress? What is Meditation? Explaining the physiology and the research-based benefits of meditation) Goal: change your brain waves
• Week 2: Being present to what is (First-aid toolbox at the moment of stress, Alternate-nostril breathing, EFT, Visualization) Goal: bring your heart rate down, soften your reactivity, Over time: build calmness reserves for your nervous system, re-train and expand your brain
• Week 3: Getting prepared for future stress (Noticing your tendencies and patterns. Knowing your dominant emotions and physiological responses. Owning your emotions and reactions. Dealing with difficult situations and people.) Goal: release your part of the story/attachment/drama, create emotional safety
• Week 4: Befriending your emotions (Creating a relationship with all aspects of yourself. Cultivating gratitude for positive and negative aspects of your life.) Goal: integrating all parts of yourself into your life
• Week 5: Rewiring your memories (Brain plasticity, the power of visualization) Goal: change your relationship to what is, what was and what will be
• Week 6: Cultivating Kindness (Loving kindness to yourself and others.) Goal: cultivate love
• Week 7: Review of all subjects and meditation tools (Review and tips for a continued meditation practice) Goal: continuing your meditation and mindfulness practice

Other things to note:

• Pre-registration is required. All three classes are limited to 15 participants. A minimum of 5 participants is required to run the class.
• Parents must fill out this form prior to the first class.
• No need to bring anything other than a water bottle. All props including mats are available in the studio.
• All participants are asked to wear comfortable layered clothing.
• All three classes are for kids/teens only. Parents will kindly be asked to wait outside.
• Parents/guardians will be asked to sign a waiver at the first class.
• The class fee is non-refundable after the first week of the workshop, and there will not be any make-ups for missed classes unless we need to reschedule a class due to an unforeseen emergency.

“What I have taken away from this workshop is to be calm, collective, and to think before you react, and how to make the best of a negative situation. This has made the biggest change in my life because it helps me re-focus and make everything positive. I approach and handle stress better since I started this workshop. I learned something new every class and I feel like I can handle anything after class! I would tell somebody who is thinking of taking this workshop to do it. It has made me a better person physically and emotionally.”

Anonymous, 14

“What I learned in the Resilient and Mindful workshop is that meditation is one of the key tools towards self-awareness. I have had a hard time letting go of things and people of my past. The tools I learned here helped me forgive and move on from them. I tend to think of the bigger picture now. I remind myself of everything that is going right in my life rather than hyperfocus on the negative. I would say to anyone thinking of taking this workshop to do it! It is helpful, relaxing, and it really teaches you a lot about yourself.”

Madison, 16

“My biggest takeaway was learning how to calm down and making peace with my demons. One of the meditations we practiced allowed me to discover what my demons were. Since taking the workshop, I have noticed that I have been calmer when dealing with stress. My biggest challenge was getting to believe that meditation works. I would recommend this workshop to you if you have anything nagging you or making you upset.”

Anonymous, 15

“I definitely feel that I can better handle physical and emotional stress after taking this workshop. I learned the ability to relax anywhere. I now handle stress with a sense of calm and collected thoughts.”

Jack, 14

“All in all becoming more mindful has helped me appreciate the good in life and visualize a happy, healthy future. Also through mindfulness, I am recognizing that everyone in my life, temporary or not, has taught me so much. I feel that this workshop was very helpful. All that I I learned makes it easier to catch myself when I am starting to react. Since participating in the workshop, I am more calm and open-minded. I would tell anyone thinking of attending the workshop to do it. It helps you get your sh** together by being able to really breathe, organize your thoughts, and visualize your goals.”

Erin, 17

“This was a wonderful workshop for teens. We have noticed a big difference and it has really helped her. Thank you!!!”

Lani, mom of Erin (Age 17)

“My biggest takeaway from this workshop was learning how to better manage my stress. I found that the tools we learned help with taking away most of my stress and making my day much brighter. I feel like these tools allow me to manage myself much easier. I wish this workshop could keep going. I would tell anyone thinking of taking this workshop to take it. It will help with your stress management even if you think it won’t.”

Sam, 16

“Since taking this workshop I noticed that I don’t yell at people as much.”

Anonymous, 10

“I feel safe when I meditate”

Emily, 7

“I was hoping that through attending this workshop my daughter could find some coping strategies for acknowledging big emotions so she could focus on moving forward. Our experience exceeded my expectations! The biggest benefit of attending this workshop was the meditation tools she’s learned. She put some into practice already! Damla’s weekly email updates were helpful. My daughter either wouldn’t talk after or I didn’t understand the strategy so the follow up was always useful! I recommend Resilient and Mindful to other parents and children. The workshop offers them a great repertoire of technique to explore meditation. Thank you Damla!”

Mollie, mom of Emily (Age 7)

“Rylin loved being a part of the workshop! She spoke very positively about her experience in class and we even caught her sharing what she had learned with family and friends! My intention was for her to gain an understanding that her feelings are normal; that there are ways to manage these feelings without ignoring them or over-reacting. The workshop laid the groundwork for us to talk about managing these feelings. Since taking part in Resilient and Mindful, Rylin has a greater sense of awareness on how she processes her feelings. Damla’s weekly emails were extremely helpful! With this age group, they don’t always want to share right after what was talked about or took place. The emails provided insight and allowed us to have talking points to ask her about or remind her about.  I would recommend this workshop to anyone who is trying to communicate with their child about processing feelings. Most of us let our children use their feelings to communicate a message and through the early years, as they are developing they have to figure out why they feel something even though they aren’t asking for anything (i.e. they are no longer crying because they want food, they are crying out of passion or being hurt.) This workshop helped to acknowledge these feelings and laid the groundwork on how to process them. “

Kelsey, mom of Rylin (Age 6)