To begin the day, we went over our theme of spiritual and ethical growth and looked into the rules that we live our life by; we journaled about that for a short time. That transitioned nicely into our 20-minute mindfulness meditation in which we were challenged to follow our breath as we embraced ambient noise and birdsong outside.
We needed some exercise after sitting still for forty minutes so we went on a “history walk” around Moorestown. We mindfully walked around town and saw multiple places that were once very different 100s of years back. For example, we learned that there used to be two Meeting houses but one of them was renovated and became a gym.
Once we arrived back inside, we tried some Taragui Yerba Mate tea from Argentina. This tea was almost unanimously liked among the class as it had a nice pleasant and relaxing taste. We learned that Mate is a preferred drink for soccer stars such as Lionel Messi and an important part of building social connection in South America.
After lunch, we practiced breathing outside for a little while, and we continued our ten breaths to happiness exercise where we focused on fully-experiencing a happy moment by having ten deep breaths. Then split off to do our own mindful activities. The majority of us played basketball but there were others who read, played catch, or just sat and enjoyed the sunlight. Day three of mindfulness was successful and I can already see our improvements from day one. – Jude