Our mission is to empower students and teachers through the use of mindfulness skills to create better learning environments and stronger school communities.

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The mission of Growing Minds' program is to improve classroom environments for children by teaching social and emotional learning skills in the classroom through a collaborative partnership between the classroom teachers and mindfulness instructors trained in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MSBR).  We teach a simple but powerful technique called mindfulness, developing skills in focusing, managing emotions, handling stress, and resolving conflicts.

The original MBSR course was created in 1979 by Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD., at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center.  Modern MBSR techniques are secular, employing simple strategies to develop attention, focus, emotional regulation, impulse control, and self- compassion.  Based on the latest  brain science, MBSR stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system allowing the prefrontal cortex to engage, giving rise to the executive functions of the brain such as thinking, planning, and analyzing. Participating youth learn skills to respond, rather than react, to challenging events.