Mindfulness is the state of being fully aware, receptive, and focused on the senses within the present moment. It is also a form of meditation that can be practiced anywhere, anytime. Students who integrate mindfulness into their lives can increase their focus and become rooted in the present moment where the mind is settled and they feel calm. Mindfulness can also cultivate well-being. Students can combine expressive activities with mindfulness in the art room, which helps them better comprehend the advantages it brings to their daily lives.
Mindfulness practices in the art room can include sensory awareness, embodied kinesthetics, exploring silence and stillness, and listening to sounds or music. These various practices help anchor students in the present moment and focus their attention and awareness, enabling them to observe instead of reacting and become aware of both internal and external experiences.
Starting class with a few minutes of mindful breathing can harmonize and synchronize the class and prepare students to be present with themselves, each other, and the course content.
Offering a mindful pause, whether a formal seated meditation or a longer guided visualization, can nurture the seeds of creativity. A short pause, even for two minutes, can increase self-awareness and emotional regulation, and silence the inner critic. I invite students to explore their experience of mindfulness through a creative reminder in their visual journals.
Students return to visual journals throughout the school year as a place to explore ideas and experiences both cognitively and expressively. A visual journal gives students a space to reflect, exercise their creative muscles, and explore sensory awareness. At the start of the school year, I introduce mindfulness to my students and invite them to explore the benefits in an expressive format for deepening their awareness of the ways that it can benefit their lives in and out of the classroom. Students are asked to reflect on the following questions and respond in their visual journal using mixed-media processes:
Jane E. Dalton is an associate professor at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. Jane.Dalton@UNCC.edu; JaneDalton24@Gmail.com
Creating: Conceiving and developing new artistic ideas and work.
Capture students’ attention and engagement with lessons that lay the groundwork for a memorable school year! In this issue, students learn about art room procedures while participating in a scavenger hunt, identify key strengths and how they can use them, develop personal connections to drawing exercises through altered books, create abstract compositions during a virtual artist visit, and more.
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