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Using the Mind to Live a Healthy Lifestyle

Karen L Chin is a copywriter for Kaiser Permanente Educational Theatre and an advocate of using the arts to educate. You can follow Kaiser Permanente Educational Theatre on Twitter @KPETNCAL.
karen.l.chin@kp.org

Get Fit Time-Out connects champion athletes with elementary students to talk mindfulness and meaningful play.

Golden State Warriors and Stephen Curry.

Kaiser Permanente and the Resilience Squad.

Playworks and its coaches.

Emeryville’s Anna Yates Elementary School and 130 students.

What do they all have in common? Using the mind to live a healthy lifestyle.

In January, Kaiser Permanente, the Golden State Warriors and Playworks joined together to visit Anna Yates Elementary School for a Get Fit Time-Out event focusing on mindfulness, physical activity and meaningful play.

Over the course of the Get Fit Time-Out, 130 students participated in an instructional and interactive clinic that included yoga for relaxation and meditation, mindfulness games, training the mind to perform at its best and mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques.

Many of the activities centered around basketball.

At the event, the Warriors’ NBA MVP Steph Curry spoke to the students of Anna Yates about the importance of being present in the moment. His comments — and a group mindfulness exercises — set the tone for the day’s activities.

Wearing color-coded wristbands, students then followed leaders to each station to learn how to be calm, strong and focused with skills such as:

  • the tree pose
  • mental focus for physical agility
  • sharp-minded basketball
  • dynamic breathing to let go of stress

After visiting 4 stations, the students left the event with memories of yoga, photos with Steph Curry, backpacks full of giveaways and minds awakened to the power of mindfulness and healthy living.

Since 2015, when Kaiser Permanente became the NBA’s first-ever health care partner, the partners have jointly sponsored Get Fit events, and this one centered on the role of mindfulness in being healthy.

“The work Stephen Curry and the Warriors are doing to promote mindfulness is really exciting, because it aligns with the Resilience Squad’s educational efforts in high schools to improve social and emotional wellness,” explained Brendan Simon, Resilience Squad Program Coordinator.

“Young people need ways to identify and cope with stress, and hearing from such an influential source that mindfulness is a powerful tool makes the concept more accessible,” said Simon.

In 2017, the Resilience Squad visited 18 schools in Northern California, facilitating multiple workshops at each school to give students tools to build healthy relationships, manage high levels of stress and trauma and increase their ability to communicate effectively.

If you are in Northern California, visit the Kaiser Permanente Educational Theatre website for more information about bringing the Resilience Squad to your school.

 

 

 

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