Getting grounded J- Term, day 1 Alice and Isabelle

Training the Brain, Day One

Today we focused on getting to know what the course is about and what we will spend our time on. We had fun creating an account on the Ten Percent Happier app. This app will guide us throughout these nine days and help us focus on expanding and training the brain. We had fun adding each other on the app to guide us through this journey. In the second hour, we started to move with Dr. Reese. The class had fun learning new yoga poses, some challenging and some very relaxing. Afterward, we learn the real meaning behind the word “namaste.” It means hello so we will not be using it at the end of our yoga sessions. We moved onto the second half of the day where the group learned plenty about mandalas. Not only did we color them, but we also read how important they are to Asian cultures. Ms. Novak then led a very fun activity. The class made Zen Gardens. They consist of a small box filled with sand and different designs created by students. Dr. Reese then taught us a bit about our brain and how we can control negative and positive feelings. To end the day off, we meditated a bit and journaled our thoughts.



Here are some of the student’s work on the mandalas. You can see how beautiful and elaborate they are.







Here is an example of one of the beautiful Zen Gardens. There are a lot of different details and different components being put into the sand.


That’s all we did today and we are looking forward to tomorrow’s activities.









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