Need More Focus and Compassion in Your Life? Here are the Top 5 Ways a Mindfulness Rock Can Help! [Writing Yoga® Prompt #2024]

What happens when you hold a rock in your hand?  Go ahead, look around your house and pluck a rock out of a flower pot or decorative jar. No rock? Take a walk in the park and choose your pick!

Hold it. I’m not talking a fancy crystal, just a plain rock, so don't go nuts. 

Whenever I need to feel centered, secure, and focused, my most immediate tool is to grab a mindfulness rock. I use it with my young students. For anyone with attention issues, it’s really helpful. Children are able to sit longer for a story while holding the rock in their hand. It can keep adults anchored too. 

This is the actual box of rocks I use in my library with children. I ask them to notice the temperature and texture of their rock. Of course it goes from cold to warm. The texture is smooth and uneven. The students are experiencing the benefits of mindfulness in school. 

For a child who feels different (and many kids do), a rock is a great metaphor for how beautiful and unique each and every one of us are. I don't think most of us lose those feelings of not fitting in from time to time. So you are never too old to learn from a rock.

Writing Yoga® Prompt #2024
Top 5 ways a rock can help you feel calm, focused, and more compassionate each day:

1. Stress Relief: Holding on to a rock, rolling it in your hands, or keeping it close to your heart feels very calming.
2. Sensory Writing: Use the rock as a writing prompt by journaling on these questions: Where has that rock been? What does it want you to know? What did it see here on earth thousands of years ago?
3. Bring the Nature Indoors: place the rock on your desk or workspace to remind you that we are a part of nature. Look at it anytime you have been hooked to your computer for a while. Your eyes will thank you for it.
4. Affirmation Rocks! Write a word that inspires you on the rock. I have used this for workshops with teachers and at nurse's retreats. Use fun colored markers. Everyone loves them.
5. Take a Breath: Hold the rock and inhale. As you exhale squeeze the rock and release any excess energy. This is a calming exercise you can do anytime.  Even the most enlightened of us need to remember to breathe.

Try them out and let me know how it goes!

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