Today’s mindful activity is about zooming in and looking closely at rocks. I’ve used this practice with young people and there’s just something about rocks that fascinates all ages. My son loved collecting rocks since he was able to use his two little fingers to pick things up. I remember when he about 2 years old he discovered the usefulness of pockets to store his treasures and every time he put his hands in his pockets to feel his stones, a little smile would form on his face. Fast forward 6 years later, he still comes home everyday from school with rocks in his pockets that he needs to empty into our ever growing collection of rocks. Recently, I’ve had a couple of young people share with me that they used their gems and crystals as a coping tool during times of stress. Whenever we’ve visited gem stores, the store is usually filled teenagers who are charmed by these earth minerals.
This activity was adapted by the MindUP curriculum that was founded by Goldie Hawn. The MindUP curriculum was the first book I read about teaching mindfulness to young people. It comes with many lessons and activities to use in a classroom or group setting. Goldie Hawn was one of the first people to bring mindfulness to schools in a practical way and her foundation rolled out the MindUp program into Vancouver schools in the early 2000s.
Mindful seeing activity: looking closely
- Gather a number of rocks that looks similar. Try to have a couple more rocks than the number of people in your group.
- Lay out the rocks on a numbered poster board. You can also label the rocks with the corresponding number if you don’t want them to get mixed-up.
- Ask each young person to go up one at a time and secretly pick a rock they’d like to study.
- After everyone has chosen their rocks and are sitting at their desk, ask them to put the rock on their worksheet and take time to study it like a scientist. Then have them write down the descriptions on the worksheet.
- When everyone is done writing down their descriptions, have them put their rocks back on the poster board in it’s original place.
- Now for the fun part. One at a time, ask each young person to read out their descriptions and have everyone guess the rock based on the detailed descriptions.
I find this activity naturally brings out focus, curiosity, and a little bit of friendly competition. Whenever we engage our senses, it draws us out of our busy minds and into the present moment. This mindful seeing activity can also be done with other objects that are similar to one another such as, shells and even pennies. What have you looked at closely lately and what did you notice when you did this?
