CAT+FD would like to invite the Xavier community to participate in the "Take 5 Challenge" this April. The idea is just to take five minutes each workday for a simple mindful breathing exercise. It's only for one month and you get the weekends off! Details below; please shoot an email to Bart Everson if you want to participate. No pressure, no obligation, but we will make an email thread to include all participants so we can feel a sense of group commitment. We'll probably schedule a check-in for the end of April or beginning of May, but attendance is optional.
Take 5: Mindful Breathing (For Higher Ed)
Prep
- Take five minutes to sit still, by yourself, in a quiet, comfortable, and private place.
- Turn off phone, TV, radio. Put aside your to-do list.
- Set a timer.
- Observe good posture.
- Mornings are recommended. What's the best time for you?
Practice
- Breathe normally, paying attention to the feeling of the breath.
- Notice when you lose awareness of the breath and start thinking about something else.
- Return your attention to the breath.
One Month Experiment
- Take 5 every morning when classes are in session for the month of April.
- That's just twenty-five minutes a week with weekends off.
- Try to extend your heightened awareness of mindfulness into your professional activities.
- At month's end, assess the preliminary results of your experiment.
Note: This is lightly adapted from Mindful Teaching and Teaching Mindfulness by Deborah Schoeberlein. Billed as a "guide for anyone who teaches anything," it's a wonderful book and highly recommended.