Workshop 2

Focus: mindfulness, relaxation training

1) Ask participants if they heard about mindfulness before/ in which context. Explain
that minfullness is process teaching us to be fully present, leave our worries and
things we need to do behind, just embrace the moment. It helps us stop feeling
anxious, overwhelmed. Mindfulness is not just a one single exercise, but a skill you
can learn to apply in daily life.
2) Also, tell the participants we are going to use aroma diffusor during practice. Let
them choose the smell they prefer.

3) Do a warm up exercise – questions. Take a paper, try to think about them carefully.
Write down your answers. 2 questions: 1) When do I feel most alive and most like
myself? 2) What gives me energy? What drains me? Share your answers with us one
by one and elaborate on them (5-7 minutes)
4) We can practice mindfulness in different ways: meditation, relaxation training
exercises, attention exercises, mindful coloring and many more. Today we will try do
a few mindfulness exercises: first – we will do some breathing exercises, to calm
down and feel more present. Then, we will learn about 5 senses exercise and try it
ourselves. Finally, we will also try the progressive muscle relaxation exercise and
finish off by doing mindful coloring. We will use a set of videos to guide you through
this process.
- Breathing exercise (4 minutes) + ask how they feel after the exercise
- Five senses exercise (9 minutes + sharing)
- Progressive muscle relaxation exercise (15 minutes + sharing)

https://www.google.com/url?
sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=video&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwju4dXTg9mCAx
VH_mEKHTRsCAMQtwJ6BAgKEAI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv
%3DihO02wUzgkc&usg=AOvVaw0UZ3g__eFEiIb_hNOjIqyg&opi=89978449 – Progressive
muscle relaxation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQXEfmlCkns – Five senses exercise (meditation)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEmt1Znux58 – breathing exercise

Leave last 25 minutes for mindful coloring exercise with music of their choice

Exercises
Movement
Quiz questions
30 min exercise 30 min coloring
Reviews, sharing
Feel involved
5 senses exercise – engage, demonstrate
Proactively

1. Good morning dear participants! How are you feeling today? Did you sleep well?
What did you eat for breakfast?
2. Thank you all so much for joining the session last time, in which we created the
vision board. Today, we will focus on Mindfulness. Has any one of you heard of it
before?
3. So, mindfulness is a practice when we learn to be aware of the present moment. I
know all of you must be very stressed being full time mothers, especially with such
young kinds that you have. Oh, by the way, how old are your kids?
4. So, I do know you love your kids so much. But I also think all of need some me time
when you can just relax and stop stressing out. Mindfulness can help you with this.
There are some exercises to teach you to be more present and stop overthinking.
We will try some of them today. But before we do, can I ask you two questions
please? 1) when do you feel/ have felt most alive and happy? 2) What gives you
energy? What drains you out of energy? Can you write your answers on a paper?
(Give 4 min for this task)
5. Okay, great! Could you also share some of your answers with us please? Who wants
to go first?
6. Nice! Knowing your energy resources is very important to help you rest well and
recharge. Now, how about we look at some of the mindfulness exercises? They may
help you rest too. So, the first one is called the five senses exercise and it is quite
short and will teach you how to become more present. I will try to guide you through
this exercise, and can I ask you to focus on the things that I am going to mention? Let
me give you some example: the script will tell you to focus on what you can smell.
For me, now I can smell our aroma oil very well, but you need to try to find more
than one thing! If you feel like this is difficult, you can use imagination. Now, is
everything clear? Then, are you ready to start? (НАЧИНАЕМ С WHAT CAN YOU SEE)
7. So, can you try to name, what could you see? What could you hear? What could you
smell? What could you taste? What did you feel about touch?
8. Good job! Are you ready to try one more exercise? It is called the square breathing
and can help to release anxiety. Also, it is very easy! I will ask you to imagine a
square and each part of your breathing will be related to one of the square parts. So
– four parts in total. All parts we will repeat for 4 counts only. We will start by slowly
breathing in on the four counts. Then, we will hold breath for 4 counts. Then , we
will breathe out for 4 counts and finally hold your breath for 4 counts again. Let’s
also watch a short video about this, to give you a better understanding. Also, try to
close your eyes when you do this and try to imagine the square. We will do it for four
minutes. You may feel dizzy at some moment and this is normal, this is just because
you breathe more oxygen than usually. Feel free to stop if you feel uncomfortable.
9. How are you feeling now? Can you try to name one emotion you are feeling now?
10. Okay, so we have done two exercises so far. Let me also give you some worksheet
that is similar to what we did at the very beginning. Here, you can see more
questions about you. Can you spend around 5 minutes to think about them and
write down your answers? (GIVE 5 MINUTES, THEN ASK TO SHARE)
11. Very good, so now you know even more things about yourself and can use them for
your benefit further. Now, how about we look at one last exercise? It is called
 progressive muscle relaxation. Here, the idea is that you will need to strengthen and
relax different parts of your body one by one. Before we start, let’s try to rehearse
althogether. Take your right arm. Put it on your knee. Now, try to fully relax right
arm only. Sit with it for 10 seconds. Then, slowly strengthen your arm. As strong as
possible. Focus all your attention on right arm only. Hold for 5 seconds. Feel it. Now,
relax it. Do you understand the idea? So, now, to do this exercise, you have two
choices. One is to watch it on the video and repeat after the teacher. Another option
is for me to guide you. Which one do you prefer?
12. So, how are you feeling now?
13. Our final exercise is called mindful coloring. I will distribute some colorings and you
can feel free to choose the one you like. You can color it however you like, but the
main idea here is for you to be present when you do it, forget about all your duties.
Just here and now. I will also play some music for you to feel more relaxed.