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. When you're mindful, you exist solely in the moment, noticing what is going on right then to the fullest. The practice of acceptance goes along with mindfulness

In acceptance you observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them good or bad

Instead of saying "I am anxious," notice the physical sensation and acknowledge that it is there

help clients daily learn skills to help them better cope with the effects of anxiety on their mind and bodies.

Mindfulness is most frequently associated with a practice of meditation. Even five minutes of meditation daily has been proven to show benefit.

Some of my clients report washing the dishes as being meditative for them, or gardening, or listening to music.

Any activity where you can be fully in the moment contributes to your ability to quiet that voice in the mind that causes anxiety.

By being mindful you are not denying your feelings, nor ignoring them. You are integrating them into your "whole self" and allowing your mind to get out of the way so that your body can naturally heal itself.

Even as our minds get busy, the physical sensations of anxiety such as muscle tension, tightness in the chest or stomach, fluttering heartbeat are still present. Every few moments our minds do a "check in" to be sure that all systems are functioning properly. When the mind locates the symptoms of anxiety it sends off a "code red" and all of the symptoms feel exacerbated.

the way we think and the way we handle how we feel plays a big part in mental health

People undertaking mindfulness training have shown

Mindfulness is a potentially life-changing way to alter our feelings in positive ways, and an ever-expanding body of evidence shows that it really works.

are ways of paying attention to the present moment, using techniques like meditation, breathing and yoga.

Mindfulness meditation has been shown to affect how the brain works and even its structure.

ncreased activity in the area of the brain associated with positive emotion – the pre-frontal cortex – which is generally less active in people who are depressed.

More than 100 studies have shown changes in brain wave activity during meditation and researchers have found that areas of the brain linked to emotional regulation are larger in people who have meditated regularly for five years.

recurrent depressionanxiety disorders addictive behaviour stress chronic pain chronic fatigue syndromeinsomniaplus more mental and physical problems.

Mindfulness in the workplace can improve productivity and decrease sickness absence, and increasingly employers are looking to benefit from its effect on workplace wellbeing.

Almost three-quarters of GPs think mindfulness meditation would be helpful for people with mental health problems, and a third already refer patients to MBCT on a regular basis.

Residency requirements, guardianship requirements, delays in transfer of school records, lack of transportation, and lack of immunization records often prevent homeless children from enrolling in school

Homelessness has a devastating impact on children and youths’ educational opportunities.

while 87% of homeless youth are enrolled in school, only 77% attend school regularly.

2007-2008 school year 794,617 homeless children and youth were enrolled in public schools

Furthermore, the number does not include all preschool-age children, or any infants and toddlers.

22% lived in shelters, 65% lived with other family members or friends, 7% lived in motels, and 6% lived without shel

Homeless families move frequently due to limits to length of shelter stays, search for safe and affordable housing or employment, or to escape abusive family members. Too often, homeless children have to change schools because shelters or other temporary accommodations are not located within their school district. Homeless children and youth frequently transfer schools multiple times in a single year because of these conditions. 

According to the Institute for Children and Poverty, homeless children are nine times more likely to repeat a grade, four times more likely to drop out of school, and three times more likely to be placed in special education programs than their housed peers.

McKinney Act’s Education of Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY)

1987 in response to reports that only 57% of homeless children were enrolled in school. 

Enrollment of homeless students increased by 17% between the 2006-2007 and the 2007-2008 school years. Yet, while almost all states have revised laws and policies to improve access to education for homeless students, significant barriers to enrollment and attendence remain, including guardianship and immunization requirements, transportation problems and school fees. Barriers to success in school were found to include family mobility, poor health, and lack of food, clothing, and school supplies. [7] Many of these issues were addressed in the 2001 reauthor

Local educational agency (LEA) sub grants support a variety of activities, including identification and outreach; assistance with school enrollment and placement; transportation assistance; school supplies; coordination among local service providers; before and after school and summer educational programs; and referrals to support services.

State educational agency (SEA) funding helps support services such as toll-free hotlines; awareness raising activities for educators and service providers; preparation of educational materials for statewide distribution; technical assistance to schools, service providers, parents, and students; and enrollment assistance.

The EHCY Program provides formula grants to state educational agencies to ensure that all homeless children and youth have equal access to the same free and appropriate education, including preschool education, provided to other children and youth

ization of the McKinney-Vento Act, but due to a lack in funding, have not been fully addressed.

there was a 17% increase in homeless children and youth identified in public schools.

With numbers of homeless students nearing 800,000, states failed to provide subgrants to 41% of students identified as homeless

Yet, the EHCY program was funded at only $65 million in FY2009, less than one third of the $210 million minimum NAECHY estimates will be required to appropriately serve the rising number of homeless students in America.

43% percent of responding cities reported an increase in the overall number of homeless persons accessing emergency shelter and transitional housing programs during the last year

71% of responding cities reported increases in households with children accessing emergency shelter. 65% of these cities are predicting increases in overall requests for emergency shelter and 100% predict increases in requests for emergency shelter by households with children. Meanwhile, 52% of responding cities already report having to turn people away some or all of the time.

. The primary reason for family homelessness is the lack of affordable housing, though poverty, unemployment, low-paying jobs, family disputes, substance abuse, and other factors all play significant roles in family homelessness. Recent statistics indicate that 26% of those suffering from homelessness are considered “severely mentally ill;” 19% are employed; 15% are victims of domestic violence; 13% are physically disabled; 13 are veterans; and 2% are HIV positive.

Two subpopulations of children who face increased policy barriers to education are unaccompanied homeless youth and homeless preschoolers. Homeless youth are often prevented from enrolling in and attending school by curfew laws, liability concerns, and legal guardianship requirements. [12] Homeless preschoolers also face difficulty accessing public preschool education. Less than 16% of eligible preschool aged homeless children are enrolled in preschool programs. [13]

Congress reauthorized the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Act in 2002.  It changed some of the responsibilities of school districts and states, including the requirement for each school district to have a designated homeless education liaison to build awareness in the school and community.  Despite some increase in funding to the initiative in the last few years, the program still lacks proper funding, and, therefore, cannot be adequately implemented on the state and local level.

While they are experiencing homelessness, however, it is essential that children remain in school.  School is one of the few stable, secure places in the lives of homeless children and youth -- a place where they can acquire the skills needed to help them escape poverty.

haracterized by a direct reduced reactivity of “lower” emotion-generative brain regions without an active recruitment of “higher” brain regions,

o assess whether mindfulness practice can be best described as a top–down emotion regulation strategy, as a bottom–up emotion regulation strategy, or as a combination of both strategies, on the basis of functional neuro-imaging studies employing emotion regulation paradigms.

Research by Zindel Segal (Toronto), Mark Williams (Wales) and John Teasdale (Cambridge) has been investigating how meditation may help people stay well after recovery from depression.

negative mood occurs alongside negative thinking and bodily sensations of sluggishness and fatigue.

The discovery that, even when people feel well, the link between negative moods and negative thoughts remains ready to be re-activated, is of enormous importance

Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy includes simple breathing meditations and yoga stretches to help participants become more aware of the present moment, including getting in touch with moment-to-moment changes in the mind and the body.

and by listening to tapes at home during the week, class participants learn the practice of mindfulness meditation

It helps break the link between negative mood and the negative thinking that it would normally have trigger

Participants develop the capacity to allow distressing mood, thoughts and sensations to come and go, without having to battle with them

Focusing on the here and now helps individuals become aware of their negative thoughts, acknowledge them without judgment and realize they’re not accurate reflections of reality, writes author William Marchand, M.D.

Depression and Bipolar Disorder: Your Guide to Recovery

psychotherapeutic and pharmacological treatments.

individuals start to see their thoughts as less powerfu

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT)

It’s based on mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR)

MBCT teaches individuals to detach from distorted and negative thinking patterns, which can trigger the return of depression.

a program developed by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn. MBSR includes mindfulness tools, such as meditation, a body scan and hatha yoga, along with education about stress and assertiveness, according to Marchand.

Getting professional treatment for depression is vital. But there are complementary mindfulness practices readers can try on their own

is essentially training one’s attention to maintain focus and avoid mind wandering

10 to 15 minutes to meditate on most days.

Whether you’re eating, showering or getting dressed, you can practice mindfulness while doing any activity, according to Marchand, also a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Utah School of Medicine

Another option is to take a mindful walk, which also is helpful because it includes exercise, “an important component of healing.”

Mindfulness is a valuable practice for improving the cognitive symptoms of depression, such as distorted thinking and distractibility

realize that thoughts are not facts and refocus their attention to the present.

Participants are armed with knowledge regarding depression as an illness, and are given additional tools to combat their depressive symptoms as they arise

order to facilitate a complete and rapid progression to healing.

Clients who use this technique will often be able to revert to these methods in times of distress or when they are faced with situations that cause them to lose their sense of separation from their thoughts.

Training programs encompass a variety of activities, including role playing, lectures, yoga, meditation, group classes and sustained periods of silence.

. In addition, this method works equally as well to relieve the symptoms of various psychological issues including anxiety and panic.

The original platform was designed to address the needs of people who suffered from multiple events of depression

. The goal of mindful practices is to force us to be present, so we don’t waste precious days worrying.

Like most skills, it must be developed and refined

Try to quiet your mind and focus on your sensations for even 10 or 15 seconds at a tim

while walking, cleaning, and showering.

Mindfulness: A Wonderful Anxiety Cure You Ought to Know

 irrational form of fear.

Mindfulness is a practice that allows you to be content and alive in the present moment.

Anxieties try to tell you that something bad might happen, that you might not be good enough, or that someone might be thinking poorly of you.

Anxiety stems from the evolutionary by-product of exaggerated fear

I’ve understood for years that anxiety is counterproductive, but knowing it is and actually stopping it from affecting me are two different things.

Mindfulness is nearly infallible for helping to alleviate stress and worry

Mindfulness is a conscientious activity. It is an effort to do the opposite of what our brains naturally do.

When performing a task, mindfulness means directing our entire focus to that one task. No multi-tasking. No daydreaming.

None of us wanted ou

supervisors or clinical teammates to think of us as having unresolved infantile longings to return to a state of oceanic oneness

how radically meditation practices could transform the mind. Therapists of the day typically viewed meditation as either a fading hippie pursuit or a useful means of relaxation, but of little additional valu

mindfulness meditation was making inroads into the medical community.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, who, beginning in 1979, had adapted ancient Buddhist and yogic practices to create Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester.

MBSR was used primarily to augment the treatment of stress-related medical disorders, and was of particular interest to clinicians working in behavioral medicine.

The first use of mindfulness in psychotherapy to capture widespread attention among clinicians was Marsha Linehan’s Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), introduced in the early 1990s to treat suicidal individuals with complex disorders for which little else seemed to work.

he central dialectic in DBT is the tension between acceptance and change.

In searching for a means of helping therapists and their clients to experience what she called “radical acceptance”—fully embracing helplessness, terror, losses, and other painful facts of life

Because she empirically demonstrated that DBT could help challenging and volatile patients, the method rapidly became popular

he next big development came from Zindel Segal, Mark Williams, and John Teasdale, cognitive psychologists in the tradition of Aaron Beck, who were working on treatments for depression in the 1990s

They came across mindfulness practice through Jon Kabat-Zinn and MBSR

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), which combined elements of an 8-week MBSR course with cognitive therapy interventions designed to help patients gain perspective on their thinking and not identify with their depressive thou

ghts.

This standardized, 8-week course couched meditation practices in Western, scientific terms

“the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, and nonjudgmentally, to the unfolding of experience moment to moment

Steven Hayes and his colleagues had

radical philosophical orientation that they called “relational frame theory.”

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which they describe as a psy

chological intervention that uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies, together with commitment and behavior change strategies, to increase psychological flexibility

ACT doesn’t teach many formal meditation practices, but uses imagery, metaphor, and brief exercises to cultivate awareness of the present, loosen identification with thought, and increase openness to the experience of moment-to-moment change

ACT encourages clients to identify and pursue activities that give life meaning.