Calm Guided Meditation

Calm is a guided mindfulness and meditation app that can be used in a lot of different ways.  Each day has a daily calm that provides the user with a focus on how to be more mindful and helps guide the user into recognizing times that cause stress.  Most of the meditations are about 10 minutes but you are able to find ones that are shorter or longer depending on your needs.  There are also different programs for things like sleep, anxiety, stress, self-care, focus, etc.  There are different practices that last between 7 to 21 days that focus on different needs as well which I thought could be helpful for a student or an educator who might be facing certain challenges.  Other features include music that is calming or energizing that lasts a few minutes or over an hour, a collection of sleep stories to help individuals with anxious minds work on their sleep hygiene, and short stretches and yoga moves to help relax the body.  

I believe this practice would be helpful to use in sessions or groups with students because it has been shown to be effective and is fairly simple to practice.  It helps with feelings of disappointment or overwhelming experiences.  Mindfulness has been used with students with ADHD and Autism as well as anxiety, depression, and behavioral challenges. Mindfulness can be used as an empowerment tool for students and help them regulate emotions and build resilience in tough situations.  The creators of Calm state that using mindfulness can help students regulate emotions better, be more alert during learning, have better attention to the task at hand and respond better to the needs of other students. The application has a seven-page instruction manual on how to implement this practice in a school setting as well.

This website has a few options for access, one is limited access which is free to all users.  The second option is that an individual can pay for an annual membership of $59.99 or a lifetime membership for $399.99.  However, there are two options for school social workers, you can sign up through calm health and get a free yearlong subscription for being a social worker or you can sign up through calm schools and get a lifetime membership for free, you just have to get approved.  It can be accessed through your computer, android, or iPhone.  

You can access this website by downloading the app on your iPhone or Android, or by going to: www.calm.com