Mindfulness Matters! For celebrities, for kids, and for you! In a recent article for AARP, Goldie Hawn discussed how mindfulness and meditation, (something she’s been practicing since the 70’s), have impacted her life. She writes:

“In 2003, I established the Hawn Foundation to help children create greater brain health through mindfulness practices. Working with neuroscientists, we’ve shown that meditation offers a way to change brain chemistry. Through our MindUP program in schools, we’ve demonstrated that if students take two minutes for a brain break three times a day, optimism in the classroom goes up almost 80 percent. On the playground, aggression goes down about 30 percent.

Our curriculum offers techniques to manage emotions and behavior. One exercise is a gratitude circle, where kids go around saying what they’re thankful for. Sounds simple, right? Well, at a school in Vancouver, British Columbia , a boy had been bullied. At gratitude circle, another kid said he was grateful for that child. The boy’s mother told me it was the first time her son felt safe at school.”

Accredited by CASEL, MindUP™ equips children, educators and parents with vital social and emotional literacy skills, helping them increase focus, improve academic performance, reduce stress, gain emotional resilience and optimism. Rooted in neuroscience, the program teaches self-regulatory behavioral control while offering engagement strategies for learning and living.

Another celebrity got in on the Mindfulness Matters kick: recently, Anderson Cooper appeared as a guest on 60 Minutes with Jon Kabat Zinn, to work on de-stressing and letting go of his addiction to his cell phone. As reported in Forbes, “From Google to Congress,” mindfulness practice is on the increase.