A school teacher was on his way to a new teaching appointment in a far-away land, and he’d been traveling on foot all the way, and was getting quite exhausted from his journey, when unexpectedly he came to a river that he had to cross.  As there was no bridge in sight, he hired a...Read More

There’s an old Medieval rabbinical tale that says that before we were born, we each had a light that shined above us.  This light looked backwards into our origins and forwards into our destiny.  But just before we took birth, an angel named Lailah, who had been looking after us during our pre-birth development, came...Read More

Here is a video I put together that helps explain mindfulness practice to children. For more information about using mindfulness in school settings, see my book Mindfulness in the Classroom: Strategies for Promoting Concentration, Compassion, and Calm. This page was brought to you by Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D. and www.institute4learning.com. Follow me on Twitter:  @Dr_Armstrong Subscribe to...Read More

In the movie Ikiru, directed by Akira Kurosawa, an aging bureaucrat discovers he has stomach cancer and is propelled into an existential crisis by the realization that he has wasted his life engaged in a meaningless job.  This revelation opens him up, however, to a constructive act:  he sets to work transforming a stagnant pond...Read More

Mindfulness practices in the schools seem to be thriving, with millions of kids being introduced to it in one form or another.  Along with its popularity, there’s been some push-back from parent groups about whether or not mindfulness violates the separation of church and state.  While it’s true that mindfulness emerged from Buddhism (in particular...Read More