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Morning Meds
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Morning Meds
Blog
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Contact
Blog
Courses
Contact

I WATCHED my grandchildren locked into their gaming devices—fingers tapping in rapid-fire compulsion, eyes darting across the screen with laser focus, tongues intensely pressed to lips in deep concentration. Their minds were spinning, senses fully engaged, reacting at lightning speed.

The gameplay was staggering—every moment a battle to survive. Explosions of movement, nonstop action, pulsing soundtracks that raced alongside them, adding to the storm. They were dodging, striking, strategizing, conquering—knowing that hesitation meant defeat or … death.

It was chaos and coordination, adrenaline and instinct—all happening simultaneously. Now that is multitasking!

Their mothers face an exhausting challenge—wrestling with the moment it’s finally time to shut off the devices. These hyper-stimulating digital worlds are tough to break away from. I could see it in the kids: their nervous systems revved up, their energy surging with nowhere to go. The moment the screens were taken away, all that built-up chaos spilled over—anger, frustration, resistance... “JUST FIVE MORE MINUTES!”

“These kids are overloaded!”, I thought to myself in astonishment. Overstimulated and under-equipped to process it.

What they need isn’t punishment, medication, or behavior charts. They need tools for self-regulation—opportunities for calm, stillness, and focus.

Children often don’t recognize the constant state of fight-or-flight they’re in. It’s not just from gaming. It comes from the internet, social pressures, family tension, and the barrage of media that promotes fear, comparison, and conflict.

Parents and educators are left to manage the aftermath—and it’s not easy. The effects on learning, emotional regulation, and healthy development are real, and growing. Our kids need strategies that help them pause, center, and regain control in a world that rarely slows down.

I have personally come to know a deep sense of peace and sharper intuition, through my own daily mindfulness practices—something that began years ago and continues to shape how I move through life. Through this presence, I’ve found calm in chaos, clarity in confusion, and strength in stillness. It's this harmony that I now feel called to share—especially with children, who are constantly bombarded with distractions from every direction.

By offering them simple, practical tools for mindfulness, we can help them navigate their early years with more clarity, confidence, and compassion.

Whether through my time as a health and fitness trainer, my journey overcoming addiction, the challenges of owning a high-pressure diesel engine business, trekking to Mt. Everest base camp, or raising four children on my own, I’ve come to understand just how vital it is to find that inner stillness.

I truly believe we can make a difference in children’s lives. And that impact will ripple outward… to families, to schools, to communities, and ultimately, the world.

 

“Mindfullness is a mental activity that in due course eliminates all suffering.”  Ayya Khema

 

OBJECTIVES

1-     Understanding obstacles in classrooms affecting teachers’ ability to teach and students’ ability to learn.

 

1-     Identifying contributing factors for student behaviors, “dis-abilities”, and blockages to learning.

 

2-     Help the child to develop an inner resilience for combating the outer world of overstimulation and fear, and clearing the effects of classroom learning obstructions.

3-     Created to help children become independent thinkers, to use their creative minds, tap into their own potential, and find peace in being their own best selves! To guide children to a state of homeostasis, which awakens their natural calmness, and ability to handle tough situations with introspect, discernment, and resilience. Promoting clear focus in classroom behavior and academic performance.  

 

4-     Carefully designed to avoid any religious, political, or opinion-based content, this approach is solely focused on helping children quiet the mind and develop awareness of their emotions, thoughts, and actions through quiet contemplation and positive affirmations.

 

5-     Enhancing the teaching experience for educators by fostering an environment of stillness, alertness, and focus. This allows teachers to engage more deeply with their students, respond to challenges with clarity, and aids in creating a calm, productive classroom atmosphere that supports both teaching and learning.

These valuable qualities spread throughout the classrooms, on the playground, and at home, thus building a healthier community and a giant shift for humanity.

 

“Homeostasis is the ultimate balancer of all things, causes, conditions, and outcomes.”  Mindful Happiness, Anthony Quintiliani, Ph.D, LADC

https://mindfulhappiness.org/2018/mindful-equanimity-and-homeostasis

IDENTIFIYING CLASS

OBSTACLES

FOR THE TEACHER

AND

FOR THE STUDENT

According to ClassroomManagementExpert.com,

some of the TOP 20 causes of disruptive behavior in classrooms are:

1.     Lack of respect

2.     Low self-esteem

3.     Trying too hard

4.     Not enough rest

5.     Low concentration

6.     Lack of interest

7.     Lack of self-control

8.     Embarrassment

9.     Anger

10.  Distractions

11.  Feeling anxious

12.  Feeling ignored

13.  Being overwhelmed

14.  Bullying

15.  Not fitting in

16.  ADHD

17.  Hyperactivity

18.  Stress at home, with peers, with authorities

19.  Low attention spans

20.  Emotional blockages

  

“By entering your body more deeply and calming it, and by making space and dissolving clutter repeatedly,

you’ll be able to drop through surface distractions more quickly.” 

Frequency, by Penney Peirce

The American Academy of Pediatrics

Conducted a study linking DIGITAL MEDIA with

Anxiety and Depression in Children

SENSORY OVERLOAD,

 Contributing to behavioral struggles and distractions

*        Television programs promote violence, end of world doom, separation, division, and fear.

*        Tablet and phone games move quickly, the mind has to move exponentially faster to keep up, resulting in overstimulation.

*        Internet media contributes to self-comparison, judgement, lack of worth and lack of importance.

*        Social media feeds our children with a sense of unworthiness, not belonging, not good enough, competitiveness for perceived societal standards and self-judgement with the outside world.

 

These runways of sensory overload assist in keeping the nervous and sympathetic nervous systems in a fight or flight response.  This causes residual effects of stress, hormonal imbalance, depression, anxiety, anger, ADHD and suicide. 

 AAP Publications, Pediatrics (2017) 140 (Supplement_2): S76–S80. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-1758G

 

MORNING MEDS is a practice to benefit the student, teacher, staff, district and eventually, all of humanity, by teaching our minds to recognize our stressful thoughts without judgement. It helps us learn to relax and observe with discretion what we are experiencing, rather than REACTING.

With all our modern-day distractions it is important to take time to breathe, relax and be in touch with our thoughts.  Children are told all day how to think, act, talk and interact, combined with overstimulation.  It’s important for them to reconnect within their own powerful selves.  Their personal “toolbox” then fills with confidence, patience, empathy, self-control, kindness and acceptance through mindful practice.

Mindfulness helps to switch off the distractions and settle into the peaceful, quiet self.  We learn to deal with our emotional challenges more effectively.  The stresses of schoolwork, social pressures and home-life dysfunctions are more easily navigated with a peaceful state of mind.  We also learn innately to communicate with deeper empathy, patience, and compassion. 

We make better decisions with clarity.

A 2019 study by Biological Psychiatry shows that traumatic emotional and physical childhood experiences lead to ill developmental skills such as emotional regulation, cognitive processes (attention), problem-solving, learning, memory, and spatial relationships, to name a few.

(*2) Biological Psychiatry, Vol. 4, Issue 8, August 2019, pgs 734-742

 

Emily Fletcher, founder of Ziva Meditation states that, “Stress straps us with emotional blinders that block, and ultimately deplete, our power to tap into those reserves of energy and ability.”  Stress Less, Accomplish More, Emily Fletcher Pg. 25, para 1

 

 According to Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development, “In response to overwhelming stress in young children… These quite concerning consequences of overwhelming stress must be considered in a larger developmental context — including aspects of the child and the availability of supportive adults.”

Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development, Stress and the Developing Brain; tutorial 7.  Ecmhc.org/tutorials/trauma/mod2_3.html

MORNING MEDS AND MINDFULNESS

HELPING TO BRING BALANCE TO OUR STUDENTS

We keep it simple and on a child’s level. Safe, non-threatening, which is why the stillness starts with a butterfly, creating a comfortable space… safe, playful and happy.

The child begins with one word written on paper of ‘How I feel this morning’.  Children gather in seated position on the floor, half circular around the teacher.

Next, we begin to slow the nervous system by focusing on breathing. Letting it happen naturally, observing how the breath becomes soft.

Using the power of the imagination, the child is guided through a serene and playful scenario, interacting with butterflies in a field, snowflakes falling through the sky, or a chime blowing in the breeze. The child hears positive affirmations of love, worth, acceptance, gratitude, and uplifting messages.

Repeating the same meditation storyline over the course of a week helps the child become more comfortable with stillness, reinforcing a sense of safety, consistency, and trust. This familiarity makes it easier for the child to relax into the quiet space and absorb the affirmations more effectively.

New affirmations are added daily to change it up and keep their interest.

This structured, multisensory approach is supported by research indicating its effectiveness in promoting attention, self-regulation, and metacognitive skills. The gradual integration aims to enhance students’ capacity for focused awareness and a deeper sense of emotional resilience.

Sessions last 10-15 minutes and always end with gratitude.  Child writes one word on the back of the paper describing, ‘How I feel after quiet space’.

This practice can be used as a preparatory tool before assignments, tests and exams, incorporating affirmations and gratitude to promote calmness, enhance focus, and support positive learning behaviors. It can be useful in helping children to navigate societal upheavals as well.

These practices offer a gentle, supportive way to help children build focus, emotional awareness, and a sense of calm… and, who couldn’t use a little more of that in the classroom, or at home?

Communication and feedback will help us see what’s working to support kids (and teachers) best.

THE VISION:

What DOES mindfulness look like to the student?

Scientists are finding that acknowledging gratitude is enough to change the chemistry in your brain,

allowing daily functions to be more effective.