Minds Over Matter Initiative has been conducting successful mindfulness trainings for students and teachers in Southern Delaware since 2014. Below, students between 2nd and 6th grade from H.O. Brittingham Elementary, The Jefferson School, Milton Elementary, Rehoboth Elementary, and Richard A. Shields Elementary share their experiences following some mindfulness training.

“I have used mindfulness before my karate testing and mindfulness helped me calm down and be less nervous. I’ve also used it during dinner for mindful eating, and I taught it to my family.”

“I used mindfulness when I was taking a test. I was on a really hard question and instead of freaking out, I did mindful breathing and I got through the question. At the end of the test, I had a perfect score.”

“Last night I had the hiccups and I used mindfulness and they went away.”

“Mindfulness has helped me control my anger and whenever I fight with my cousins I go somewhere else or to my room and I take my cat (if I’m in my house) and get quiet and sometimes I hear my heart or my cat’s heart.”

“My favorite part about mindfulness is mindful breathing because my brother is literally the most annoying person I have ever known and we get into fights a lot. I use mindful breathing to calm down so I don’t start another fight.”

“My favorite thing about mindfulness is sending nice thoughts. One of my cousins’ aunt just died and she was a special person in my life. So everyday I send nice thoughts to her saying she was a good aunt to my cousin.”

“My favorite thing about mindfulness is that it helps you feel happy in the moment. You’re in the present moment because it doesn’t make you think of the future or what’s going to happen next or the sad past times. It just helps you enjoy life.”

“My favorite thing about mindfulness was mindful seeing because it was cool seeing things I never saw in a room I go in everyday.”

“My favorite thing about mindfulness is mindful walking because you feel a whole lot of stuff everywhere in your body.”

“Once in social studies everybody was talking when we were supposed to be working, and I used my anchor to get my attention back on my work.”

“One time before I went on vacation I couldn’t fall asleep because I was so excited for the trip. I used mindful breathing to help me fall asleep.”

“One time I used mindfulness to help me because in swimming I was going against 2 very fast kids. So I used mindfulness and I won.”

“One time I used Mindfulness was when I was looking for weird things to draw because Mindfulness lets me think about everything, making it easy to think of weird things.”

“One time there was a spider in our house. Me, my friend, and my brother were screaming so I told my friend and my brother to use mindfulness to calm us down.”

“I get angry at my brother a lot, I mean a lot, a lot. When I found out what mindful breathing is it prevented those fights with my brother. Same thing when I play any types of sports I love. I’m normally a sore loser but thanks to mindfulness I am not a sore loser.”

“When I get nervous on a test I use mindfulness to calm me down. When I have a bad day or when I’m angry, I also use mindfulness to calm me down. One time I said a terrible thing to someone and then I sent kind thoughts to that person. One day I had a nightmare. It made me cry. I usually go to my parents bedroom when I have a bad dream. But now with mindfulness I stay put in my bed and breathe in and out to get me to sleep.”

“A time I used mindfulness was when my brother was annoying me but I used mindfulness just in time to not say the F word.”