Title Details

Heidi Thompson has been practicing breath awareness for almost 30 years. She was one of the first to introduce it into B.C. schools by pioneering a program called Mindmastery, which included teaching breath awareness to children of all ages and abilities. The young participants often commented, “Breath awareness is hard to do, but I want to continue.” Encouraged by consistently positive outcomes and the ease of implementing Mindmastery into classrooms, Thompson compiled her lessons, stories, and instructions into a teaching manual, which evolved into Calm Focus Joy. Thompson writes, “The world’s most valuable resource is the human mind. Let us do everything within our power to protect, nurture, and develop this precious commodity. We know that happiness and health are achievable through the cultivation of calmness, focus, and joy; therefore, by establishing peace and happiness within, and empowering children in the same way, we will have taken a giant step in transforming our world into a better place.”

CONTENTS
THE POWER OF BREATH AWARENESS...............1
MINDMASTERY..............7
AWAKENING INSIGHT ..............11
TEACHING BREATH AWARENESS TO CHILDREN..............17
MINDMASTERY PROGRAM OVERVIEW ..............29
STUDENT INTRODUCTION PART I..............36
STUDENT INTRODUCTION PART II..............43
ABOUT “YOUR PRACTICE”..............48
TEN-STEP MINDMASTERY PROGRAM..............53 – 210
POST-STEP I – BREATH AWARENESS FOR LIFE..............211
POST-STEP II – HEALTHY BODY - HEALTHY MIND..............218
YOU, THE TEACHER..............225
FACILITATING A MINDMASTERY PROGRAM..............227
SAMPLE APPLICATION FORM ..............237
STUDENT AND TEACHER EXPERIENCE...............241
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ..............249
RESEARCH ..............263
IN CONCLUSION ..............271
ABOUT THE AUTHOR ..............272

TEN-STEP MINDMASTERY PROGRAM
STEP ONE: THE ART OF BREATH AWARENESS
• Your Practice Session (20 Minutes)
• Teacher Tips: Teaching Children Breath Awareness
• Student Instructions and Practice Session (10 Minutes)
• Story: “Restless Gets Trained”
• Student Journal
• Check-in........................................................53

STEP TWO: LEARNING THROUGH EXPERIENCE
• Your Practice Session (30 Minutes)
• Teacher Tips: Facilitating Experiential Learning
• Student Instructions and Practice Session (15 Minutes)
• Story: “The Student and the Peanut”
• Student Journal
• Check-in.......................................................73

STEP THREE: MASTERING THE HABIT-MIND
• Your Practice Session (45 Minutes)
• Teacher Tips: Equanimity is the Goal
• Student Instructions and Practice Session (20 Minutes)
• Story: “The Lighthouse Keeper”
• Student Journal
• Check-in.......................................................83

STEP FOUR: CULTIVATING WHOLESOME QUALITIES
• Your Practice Session (50 Minutes)
• Teacher Tips: Making Mindmastery Fun
• Student Instructions and Practice Session (25 Minutes)
• Story: “Seeds of Happiness”
• Student Journal
• Check-in.......................................................99

STEP FIVE: IMPORTANCE OF BREATH
• Your Practice Session (60 Minutes)
• Teacher Tips: Why Focus on the Breath?
• Student Instructions and Practice Session (30 Minutes)
• Story: “Treasure in the Pond”
• Student Journal
• Check-in.......................................................113

STEP SIX: UPROOTING NEGATIVE SEEDS
• Your Practice Session (60 Minutes)
• Teacher Tips: Cultivating Wholesome Qualities
• Student Instructions and Practice Session (35 Minutes)
• Story: “The Cowboy and his Donkey”
• Student Journal
• Check-in.......................................................125

STEP SEVEN: DEVELOPING STRONG DETERMINATION
• Your Practice Session (60 Minutes)
• Teacher Tips: Mindmastery is Non-competitive
• Student Instructions and Practice Session (35 Minutes)
• Story: “This Too Will Change”
• Student Journal
• Check-in.......................................................139

STEP EIGHT: SEVEN STAGES OF MIND EXPERIENCE
• Your Practice Session (60 Minutes)
• Teacher Tips: Voluntary and Involuntary Attention
• Student Instructions and Practice Session (40 Minutes)
• Story: “Prince Blind Reaction”
• Student Journal
• Check-in.......................................................151

STEP NINE: FREEDOM FROM ADDICTION
• Your Practice Session (60 Minutes)
• Teacher Tips: Observing Mind States with Equanimity
• Student Instructions and Practice Session (45 Minutes)
• Story: “I Want the Moon!”
• Student Journal
• Check-in.......................................................175

STEP TEN: SHARING GOODWILL
• Your Practice Session (60 Minutes)
• Teacher Tips: The Power of Selfless Sharing
• Student Instructions
• Sharing Goodwill Session (20 Minutes)
• Student Journal
• Check-in.......................................................201

POST-STEP I: BREATH AWARENESS FOR LIFE.......................211
POST-STEP II: HEALTHY BODY – HEALTHY MIND...................218

Calm Focus Joy: The Power of Breath Awareness by Heidi Thompson
A Review by Dr. Bob Chaudhuri

Breath awareness dates back several thousands of years from a long line of meditation traditions including the Ancient Mayan, Ancient Egyptian, Indigenous tribes in the Third World, Buddhist and Hindu, and the First Nations people in North America. The book, “Calm Focus Joy” offers a basic breath meditation guide for children that has adapted ancient practices into easy-to-follow, comprehensible lessons. These lessons are effective for helping children and adolescence cultivate their minds and gain power over themselves.
Breath awareness also helps young people build appreciation for themselves and others. To paraphrase Daniel J. Siegel’s remarks in “The Mindful Brain”: learning about emotional attunement gives one a new perspective on the world; so that a flower is not just a flower, but it is rather, some kind of flower. I believe that Dr. Siegel is speaking about people not only recognizing themselves as individuals, but also seeing others as unique individuals.
Adolescence is a tumultuous time for any teenager. It is the time when brain neuroplasticity is most active. During the formative years, the brain is developing, changing, and being influenced by experience. Breath awareness can help strengthen the brain giving a young person more control over his or her emotional life—an ability to self-regulate sadness or anger to a calming restful place in the mind. Meditation leads to feeling: “one’s self in another person’s shoes”. Practicing can increases empathy, which is strongly developed during adolescence. Learning to deal with life’s stresses early on is important and integral to a person’s mental health.
“Calm Focus Joy” is an engaging, one-of-a-kind manual that all children and teenagers should be exposed to. Alongside breath awareness instructions for adults, Thompson presents clear strategies and a plainspoken guide, called the Mindmastery Program written for young people. I recommend the book to teachers and parents alike who wish to help their students and children.

Dr. Bob Chaudhuri, Psychotherapist and Medical Educator, University of Toronto March 12, 2012