Straight up, if someone had talked to me about watching my thoughts years back, and creating a mindfulness practice in my homeschool, I would have thought, hmmm, weird.
I would also have thought, my thoughts are my thoughts, now let me go do all the stuff I have to do because I have a lot of stuff to do.
But then I homeschooled.
So let’s chat about how to include mindfulness practice in your homeschool…
It didn’t take long for me to feel overwhelmed, stressed, and frustrated.
Because I couldn’t get stuff done when I wanted to get it done.
- People weren’t compliant (specifically, my little people).
- Sometimes I felt anxious that I wasn’t doing enough.
- I obviously doubted my ability to do certain things aka teach my kid’s math.
- And why was that kiddo telling me she can’t do math; she’s smart enough, what’s her problem? We have to move on to the next lesson already!
Then I had the privilege of attending a live session with Dr. Daniel Amen.
He spoke about healthy things like eating stuff that’s good for your brain and exercising, but I wasn’t expecting him to share a way to analyze my thoughts.
Dr. Amen guided us into asking ourselves these questions once a day:
- How are you feeling?
- What is the thought you had before you felt that feeling?
- What is the story behind that thought? (Because there’s always a story in there.)
- Is that thought true?
- Am I 100% certain that it’s true? (Cause, we believe all sorts of things we think. It doesn’t mean it’s true because we thought it.)
- If it weren’t true, what else might be going on?
- And if there might be an alternate explanation, how might I respond differently?
Now, as you can imagine, those questions sounded, well, weird. Because I wasn’t accustomed to asking if my thoughts were true.
But then I tried them.
So how can you include a mindfulness practice in your homeschool?
Consider including the practices I’ve included in my homeschool days.
1. I scheduled a “mindful moment” (as Dr. Daniel Amen called it) into my device. Once a day.
That reminder told me to breathe.
When it dinged, I breathed, and I put my hand on my heart and checked in with myself.
And over the course of time, I discovered, just being with my thoughts and my feelings, spending time with some of my big feelings in the day, helped put distance between me and that feelings.
Sometimes I got clarity on what was going on. Sometimes it still took months or years to get clarity on something I was dealing with or to understand a situation from a different perspective.
But it had a profound impact.
Naturally, its profound benefit for me meant that I want to share it with you.
Might I recommend that you stick it to your bathroom mirror so when you’re feeling a whole lotta feels, you can check in with yourself too?
ps And definitely schedule a mindfulness practice on your device. If you want a copy of that Thought Care Checklist, you can find it here.
2. I build other self-awareness strategies to get familiar with my emotional climate too.
- I have learned to ask myself, “How am I feeling”?
- I’ve learned to take myself to a mirror and tell myself I care about myself.
- Learning where I am feeling what I’m feeling in my body is useful to me.
- Learning breathing techniques calms me down.
- Do I need to feel the feeling and clarify why I’m feeling it?
- Can I sit and journal my thoughts?
- Can I talk to someone about my thoughts?
Since there is always a different way of thinking about things (I know this because I’m married, and though my husband and I value similar things, we don’t think identically.)
So I can ask myself, how would a different thought affect how I approach my uncomfortable feeling or the situation that compelled that feeling?
And how might that alternative approach affect the outcome? (It would definitely affect the outcome if I chose a different thought.)
Sometimes you might need an objective friend to sift through your thoughts. And sometimes you need to invest in a coach.
There are even ways you can self-coach by creating a daily journal practice to clarify your thoughts, and learn more about your triggers, frustrations, or big emotions.
I have created the Big Emotions Journal for the Homeschool Mom to do just that.

Big Emotions Journal for the Homeschool Mom
Journal questions that aid in your self-exploration, to get curious about what your triggers, know how to address them, and learn how to align your thought patterns, so you can show up on purpose in your homeschool.
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- how to positively influence my homeschool mama thoughts so I can enjoy my homeschool