Page 4 – Ivy Child International – Mindfulness Education

Stop Asian Hate Response

March 19, 2021 Ivy Child News

Our Beloved Community,

The tragic events impacting Asians across the country and most recently in Atlanta compels us to urge our community to act now to take a stand against these horrific hate crimes. We ask for collaboration and care in addressing racism, violent acts, and inequities our communities face which are persistent realities. The increase in these Asian hate crimes have been catastrophic. In solidarity, the violence, bullying, and all forms of hatred must cease.

Ensuring safety and security for all is consistent with our values. Ivy Child devotes all of its efforts to building equity for all and honoring the inherent dignity of all people. We must rise up and take a stand to hold systems that perpetuate racism and structural oppression accountable.

As an Asian woman leader, my commitment is personal. We stand in solidarity with our Asian Community and ask our community partners to do the same.

Rose Felix Cratsley, Founder & CEO, Ivy Child International

In our efforts towards building a voice and multi-racial solidarity, we share the following:

What This Wave of Anti-Asian Violence Reveals About America
Addressing Anti-Asian Attacks With Transformative Justice “This article educated me more about history and how we can proactively foster inter-community solidarity.. I highly recommend it!”
Discrimination and Violence Against Asian Americans
There were 3,800 anti-Asian racist incidents, mostly against women, in past year
“Racism is manifested in different forms, including erasure of Asian American history. It’s been healing for me to learn more about our history and also solidarity across communities of color. This article by Michelle Kim is a great starting point: On Anti-Asian Hate Crimes: Who Is Our Real Enemy?”
“Also, understanding the history and creation of the model minority myth and how it was intentionally designed to divide communities of color is really critical: ‘Model Minority’ Myth Again Used As A Racial Wedge Between Asians And Blacks”
Targeting Asians and Asian Americans will make it harder to stop covid-19
After Atlanta slayings, this time needs to be different for Asian Americans

Thank You PEN America

March 15, 2021 Ivy Child News

Ivy Child International is honored and excited to partner with PEN America and offer mindfulness and compassion sessions to all staff.

PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. They champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Their mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Founded in 1922, PEN America is the largest of the more than 100 centers worldwide that make up the PEN International network. PEN America works to ensure that people everywhere have the freedom to create literature, to convey information and ideas, to express their views, and to access the views, ideas, and literatures of others. Our strength is our Membership—a nationwide community of more than 7,500 novelists, journalists, nonfiction writers, editors, poets, essayists, playwrights, publishers, translators, agents, and other writing professionals, as well as devoted readers and supporters who join with them to carry out PEN America’s mission.

HEALING AND RENEWAL: A MESSAGE OF HOPE

January 31, 2021 Ivy Child Team Uncategorized

As we begin 2021, Ivy Child International reflects on the recent occurrences in our nation.

In a time of unprecedented violence, suffering, and intensified inequities, January 6 was yet another moment when we witnessed hate and violation with deep concern for the state of our nation and world. As a 100% BIPOC led organization led by a woman of color, these events shattered us all and left us seeking healing for a fractured sense of unity, community and justice. It is times like this that our vision as an organization that promotes mindfulness helps us remain focused on the restorative power of hope, acceptance, and compassion.

In 2021 Ivy Child continues and renews its commitment to Healing through hope, Hope is life-giving and essential to keep a positive optimistic mindset. Research shows that exercising benefit finding vs. fault finding . . .

For our organization, the practice of acceptance means opening our hearts and minds, creating safe spaces where we can be vulnerable with each other. It is only through building a welcoming, accepting shared community of practice that we, particularly being in colored bodies, can begin to feel like we don’t need to operate in combat mode, particularly as shown by . . .

Finally, planting seeds of compassion continues to be the greatest way in which Ivy Child can not only help our communities build hope and trust, but can also transform the world around us. By encouraging ourselves and others through true acts and expressions of love and caring, we can build a more just, united, and peaceful world for our children.

Thank You Institute for Nonprofit Practice!

January 31, 2021 Ivy Child News

Abundant thanks to our friends at Institute for Nonprofit Practice!

We are honored and humbled to kick off the year together with our mindfulness and wellbeing session for MA & NY nonprofit leaders.

The Institute for Nonprofit Practice was founded in Boston in 2007 by Barry Dym, Ph.D. During his career as a nonprofit founder, consultant, and coach, he observed and sought to address several critical issues threatening the effectiveness of the nonprofit sector:

Under-investment in leadership development
A succession crisis triggered by the retirement of the baby boomers
The need for more diverse leadership that reflects communities served

#SeasonOfGiving: OUR TOP 5 FREE MINDFULNESS RESOURCES

December 23, 2020 Ivy Child Team Resources

At IvyChild International, we have always believed in sharing resources and tools to help people along on their own mindfulness journey. These resources are always aimed at providing practitioners of mindfulness, both novice and veteran, some useful aids and insights that enhance and deepen their practice.

And now, as the holiday season is upon us, we’re taking the #SeasonOfGiving further with a roundup of the top 5 of our most popular and important mindfulness resources. These range from tools to help you center yourself to understanding how mindfulness could help children unlock their potential; from ways to cultivate mental health in the midst of the global pandemic to striving for racial justice with the help of mindfulness.

So here’s the list of our Top 5 Free Mindfulness Resources:

01. Videos from the Healing Retreat for People of Color

Videos from Healing Retreat for People of Color

We begin with one of our most crucial resources for our times; video sessions of the unique Healing Retreat for People of Color(HRPOC).

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected people of color and the environment of racial and social injustices further compromises the health and wellbeing of many people of color. As a result, HRPOC has been developed to provide holistic, metaphysical practices and lifestyle tools to reduce the negative impact of the unique challenges that all people of color face.

This retreat teaches that the ancient practices of yoga, meditation, breathwork and mindfulness are invaluable as contemporary life support tools. The inherent substance, meaning viability and sturdiness that lies within these practices are essential and necessary for health and wellbeing for People of Color and other highly impacted groups.

Here are the free videos from the Retreat. If you find the free sessions helpful, you can register for the upcoming monthly series of HRPOC and even consider making a donation to help us keep it going.

HRPOC #1 – The Benefits of Yogic Breathing | Sara Clark

HRPOC #2 – Ayurveda and Nutrition | Angela (Dharma) Fears

HRPOC #3 – Exploring Our Relationship With Our Emotions | Peter Weng

02. 5 Steps to Bring You Back to Center

5 Steps to bring you back to center (part of Mindfulness for Parents Teachers and Caregivers)

One of the biggest challenges faced by parents and caregivers is to be able to maintain a state of equilibrium. This workshop, led by Maya Breuer and Kiesha Battles, will focus on 5 Steps to Bring You Back to Center.

In this video resource, participants will explore various wellness tools and techniques to revitalize and reconnect to their center and find the balance they need to renew and serve others. Tools and techniques include Breath-Work, Meditation, Self-Compassion, Movement and Creativity.

03. Unlocking Children's Potential Through Mindfulness

Unlocking Children’s Potential Through Mindfulness

Rose Felix Cratsley, Ivy Child International’s CEO & Founder talking about mindfulness in children at TEDxFitchburgStateU.

At Ivy Child International, it is our mission to enhance the social and emotional well-being of children while embracing their multicultural needs using positive psychology and education as a uniting force to inspire resilience and leadership.

Mindfulness equips children with simple practices to work directly with managing their central nervous system, helping them regulate, manage emotional states and focus attention. To understand more of how mindfulness can work for children, you can check out our quick guide to mindfulness for kids.

04. Cultivating Mental Well-Being Through the COVID-19 Crisis

Cultivating Mental Well-Being Through the COVID-19 Crisis (part of Mindfulness for Parents Teachers and Caregivers)

This resource is yet another from our Mindfulness for Parents Teachers and Caregivers series.

In this video by Peter Weng, CEO, Healthy Minds Innovations(HMI) and a highly regarded practitioner and beloved leader in the field of mindfulness, we learn about compassion practices, access to a free mindfulness app and resources that are shared to develop a personal practice in mindfulness to help navigate this unprecedented time.

05. Mindfulness and Racial Justice with Craig Martin

Mindfulness and Racial Justice with Craig Martin

We seek accountability for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and the innumerable Black lives lost due to the horrific systems of oppression that are prevalent in our world today. As we stand in solidarity and work to create spaces for healing for all, we wish to contribute by sharing the importance of building more spaces for real conversations together that result in action.

Abundant thanks to our wonderful friend and community partner Craig Martin for offering a heartful conversation on Mindfulness and Racial Justice.

HOW GRATITUDE AND MINDFULNESS CAN HELP YOU HEAL

November 26, 2020 Ivy Child Team Resources

The traditional ritual of Thanksgiving; families gathered together to offer thanks for all the gifts, protection, warmth and joy in our lives; a truly special experience. Sharing of gratitude not only makes for beautiful opportunities that bring us closer, but aids in improving mental health, according to recent research.

WHAT DOES GRATITUDE MEAN?

While we all understand gratitude as the act of giving thanks or the emotion of feeling appreciation, to understand its psychological impact, we turn to Robert Emmons and Robin Stern for a deeper psychological definition:

“gratitude has a dual meaning: a worldly one and a transcendent one. In its worldly sense, gratitude is a feeling that occurs in interpersonal exchanges when one person acknowledges receiving a valuable benefit from another. Gratitude is a cognitive-affective state that is typically associated with the perception that one has received a personal benefit that was not intentionally sought after, deserved, or earned but rather because of the good intentions of another person” (Emmons & Stern, 2013).

Growing research shows that gratitude and the practice of being mindful and grateful is a powerful tool to heal and bolster our psychological immune system.

THE GIFTS OF GRATITUDE

We have always known the warmth we experience from expressing our appreciation for others. Research shows ways to harness that emotion to achieve better mental health.

So here are some of the benefits of practicing gratitude:

Gratitude frees us from toxic emotions Studies have shown that practicing gratitude shifts our attention away from negative emotions, such as resentment and envy.
Stress and pain relief. Researchers have observed gratitude light up areas of the brain closely linked to the brain’s “mu opioid” networks, which are activated during close interpersonal touch and relief from pain networks.
It can help beat depression. Researcher Prathik Kini and colleagues at Indiana University observed how practicing gratitude can alter brain function in depressed individuals. It is hypothesized that the practice of gratitude may even be able to change neural pathways and re-wire the brain.
It’s a tonic. Gratitude is being seen to impact general well being. Scientific studies suggest that gratitude can improve your sleep, enhance your romantic relationships, protect you from illness, motivate you to exercise, and boost your happiness, among many other benefits.

So let this Thanksgiving not just be a day to give thanks for the things you appreciate, but also a start of practicing gratitude for a better you.
Here’s Young Peace Leaders Cultivating Gratitude:

Thanksgiving & Safe Haven Meditation

November 23, 2020 Ivy Child Team Resources

100 Days of Growing Gratitude Ivy Child International Inner City Mindfulness Program-Claremont Academy, Worcester Public Schools Worcester, Massachusetts USA

I invite you into a sacred, safe and loving space together
Enjoying each breath as you breathe in and out
In through your nose and out through your mouth
Allow the motion of your mind to rest on the motion of your breath.

Allow yourself to anchor into a peaceful stance
and allow your body to feel what it is,
adjust yourselves to what feels comfortable and right for you in this moment
Give yourselves the permission to take a time in instead of a time out
honor the ground and earth that supports us and holds us each step that we take

Acknowledging, honoring and embracing this moment

Gently bring your awareness to your breath…as we breathe in and out, Breathe in peace and breathe out discomfort, pain and suffering.
Let’s anchor ourselves in our breath
Allowing a space to hold in our hearts all that we are thankful for
The gift of breath
The gift of the earth to support us

Next allow a shield of safety and sacred protection around you.
This can be in the form of an object or person near or dear or someone you perhaps never met, someone who is on this earth or no longer here. Someone’s arms in which you feel the safest or a certain place that you feel the safest. Welcome that safety, that security, that solace we all need.
Welcome the feeling of being seen, soothed, secure, and safe.

Embrace this unconditional love, acceptance, and care
Allow this warm and beautifully resonant compassion to soak in

Share your gratitude and thanks to this person for offering their love, care and devotion to you, as you open your heart and mind

And awaken your heart in this moment with your beloved community

And just allow your heart to hold those dear near and far in this precious moment

Let go of anything you may need to in order to fully give and receive all that we can to our loved ones and our world.

Enjoying each deep breath as we breathe in and out

Breathing through each moment and taking each step
with grace, courage and strength

5 steps to Mindful Parenting and Caregiving

October 29, 2020 Ivy Child Team Knowledge Base

Parenting and caregiving is a sacred and yet challenging role. It is a lifelong occupation that involves nurturing and developing the hearts and minds of our loved ones. It is full of highs and lows. A life full of stress, disappointments, surprises, joy and pride. Parenting and caregiving however have not been known for their moments of equanimity.

What is Mindfulness?

According to the American Psychological Association (APA.org, 2012), mindfulness is:

“…a moment-to-moment awareness of one’s experience without judgment. In this sense, mindfulness is a state and not a trait. While it might be promoted by certain practices or activities, such as meditation, it is not equivalent to or synonymous with them.”

As founder of Ivy Child, Rose states, “Mindful parenting and caregiving is about giving ourselves the space and permission to be human, accepting the imperfections of life, while loving ourselves and our loved ones through all of life’s seasons. It entails deliberate intention, care and devotion abundantly and unconditionally with our whole heart and mind.”

How can Mindfulness help?

The practice of mindfulness allows for a host of skills and typical responses to be reshaped from instinctive or conditioned actions into more composed, deliberate ones. The following are ways that you can harness the power of mindfulness to become the caregiver you strive to be:

Being Present

The bedrock of mindfulness is the ability to be fully present . The simple practice of observing yourself sharpens your awareness of the moment. Mindfulness helps caregivers declutter their minds and immerse completely in their loved ones time without distractions. This is particularly important for working parents and caregivers that need to divide their time between many responsibilities and their daily balancing act. Through these practices it is possible to have much richer experiences in the time they get together.

Acceptance without Judgement

Mindfulness helps widen the gap between stimulus and response. It helps break the conditioned links between actions and perceived entanglements or expected outcomes. While it is easy to rush to judgment and be critical, it is important to take a breath and realize that the world does not work the way we anticipate especially for our little ones.

Deeper empathy and bond

While it can be difficult for us as adults having to navigate and manage our emotions during challenging times, imagine the complexity for a child to do the same. Experiencing isolation and losing a sense of community during this time, and missing meaningful gatherings and experiences can feel like a significant loss. Mindfulness equips us with the super power of empathy. It allows us to be able to take a step back and imagine the world of others to gain greater insight and connection to our loved ones.

Manage emotions and reactions

It is difficult to always keep stress, irritation, frustration and despair in check. At some point it is overwhelming and gets the best of us. We often unleash our emotions to those nearest and dearest to us. Mindfulness helps with being able to pause and take a few deep breaths to settle the mind, release a few pressure valves and go back to being the superhumans caregivers can be.

Compassion for self

Caregivers benefit from the space and permission to be human. While striving for the best each day, it is important to carry and exercise the same care and love we exhibit to others to ourselves. The gift of self-love and compassion that a practice of mindfulness provides brings the loving and kindness we all need intertwined in our journey and further models that for our loved ones.

Here’s a video where Daniel Siegel sheds light on this skill and lends some great insights:

World Mental Health Day 2020

October 28, 2020 Ivy Child Team Resources

World Mental Health Day is observed on 10 October every year, instituted by the World Health Organization, with the overall objective of raising awareness of mental health issues around the world.

This year, the day coincides with a highly challenged global scenario impacting intergenerational mental health. The COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the planet has led to an increase in human suffering across our world and given rise to one of the worst mental health crises in recorded history.

While most of humanity faces the same harsh realities of disease, financial distress and fear, the underserved have experienced the worst brunt of the fallout from the pandemic. Racial and social injustices further serve to compromise the health and wellbeing of many people of color.

The COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately affecting people of color, with higher levels of illness and death. Compounded with racial and social injustices, further serves to compromise the health and wellbeing of many people of color. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and intensified these pre-existing realities and increased the vulnerability of these populations.

As a result, people of color are experiencing a greater mental health fallout from the pandemic. This mental health impact and ongoing racial inequity reinforce the urgency to provide pathways of psychological healing for people of color.

In celebration of World Mental Health Day, Ivy Child International would like to go beyond just raising awareness about the importance of our mental health. We are happy to share a free video resource specifically created to bolster the psychological wellbeing of people of color.

The Healing Retreat for People of Color™ (HRPOC) has been created to provide ancient healing practices that support the lives of people of color, during the many challenges we are all facing.

The HRPOC has been developed to provide holistic, metaphysical practices and lifestyle tools to reduce the negative impact of the unique challenges that all people of color face. This retreat will teach that the ancient practices of yoga, meditation, breathwork and mindfulness are invaluable as contemporary life support tools. The inherent substance, meaning viability and sturdiness that lies within these practices are essential and necessary for health and wellbeing for People of Color and other highly impacted groups.

This program will be conducted free of cost every first Sunday of the month beginning January 2021, we share these video recordings of the 2020 program sessions to allow access and opportunity to engage and benefit from our past sessions, while also gaining a sense of what is to come through these sessions from our Healing Retreat for People of Color.

HRPOC #1 – The Benefits of Yogic Breathing | Sara Clark

HRPOC #2 – Ayurveda and Nutrition | Angela (Dharma) Fears

HRPOC #3 – Exploring Our Relationship With Our Emotions | Peter Weng

Mindfulness for kids. A Quick Guide

August 2, 2020 Ivy Child Team Uncategorized

Mindfulness For Kids. An Essential Life Hack

Mindfulness has become well known as a tool to help those with anxiety and depression. Another popular notion is that mindfulness is only meant for those looking to supercharge their efficiency at work.

But mindfulness is a superpower practice of ‘being’ of becoming capable of living through experiences without being overwhelmed by those experiences or without giving in to our reactions to these experiences. Its advantages in helping us cope with mental health issues is just one of its many positive outcomes.

Mindfulness helps kids with not only with early onset mental health and social emotional challenges; mindfulness is essential and beneficial for every child for their overall wellbeing.

Children are constantly drawing and redrawing their understanding of the world through what they experience and how they see others react to their individual and collective experiences. Hence the sooner we train ourselves to not be swayed by our experiences the better we would be at navigating the world without being consumed into the negativity that so many of us, so often experience.

Mindfulness equips children with simple practices to work directly with managing their central nervous system, helping them regulate, manage emotional states and focus attention.

Mindfulness Improves Focus

Being taught to practice attentiveness and focus at an early age is to receive the most important tool to hack life itself. The ability to tune out distractions and to fully be focused on one’s breath or even on a sound, emotion or sensation, helps one to center and find stillness and calm. Mindfulness for children helps kids navigate the highs and lows of life building a resilient mind.

Improved focus allows children to be able to retain more information and with greater clarity. With improved concentration, comes far better performance at everything – academics, sports and art. Mindfulness for children doesn’t just help them get better grade, but to simply do better at almost everything.

Mindfulness Enhances Self-Awareness

Learning to experience life without judgement and reaction teaches kids the essential skill of being self aware at all times. Mindfulness practice helps children deal with tough emotions and even improves impulse control. It replaces impulsive reactions with thoughtful responses.

Mindfulness gives kids the skills to focus their minds, calm down and meditate on a vexing issue with greater calm and clarity. When children start understanding their emotional ranges, they understand the triggers and outcomes of oscillating emotions and are able to self regulate their impulses.

Mindfulness Develops Social Skills

When one is able to apply their mind with clarity and are able to self-regulate their emotional states, it is understandably easier to develop empathy. Mindfulness in children allows them to build strong connections with peers, develop strong meaningful relationships and social encounters.

Ivy Child International runs a range of campus and community based child-centered mindfulness programs across systems of education and care with a special focus on schools and institutions in Boston, Massachusetts. Ivy Child’s campus programs provide daily mindfulness education in schools as part of the curriculum.