Giving direction to listen to, “A moment for me,” and fill out the two feedback forms regarding their experience with the program.
Interview:
Au [Recently received bad news from her family, which led to an incident. She’s struggling a lot, according to the Kr. ]
“Sessions are too long. One hour is best. Her favorite meditation is Body Scan and Compassionate Friend. She likes to focus on one thing. She would like more variety. She likes Art Projects. She wants each girl to be held accountable. She is more comfortable as the sessions continue. She likes mindfulness.”
Ma [We were told she was arguing with Ta a lot.]
“It’s boring. Likes Art Activities. She likes talking in groups of 2. She gets sleepy meditating. She wants more fun. She would more modern music selections like John Legand (Sure Fire) and Beyonce (Liberation). She would like to Zentangle a project together. They need to do something together.
Ta [She recently received information from the rest of the group and the staff that she is too disruptive. She became angry and broke her knuckle against the wall. She is still positive and was pleased that she was not kicked out of meditation class.]
“She wants to meditate outside. She likes movement meditations like calming yoga. She wants to practice mindfulness. She said, “Keep it Straight” She ate mindfully using celery. It was not too soft or too hard. She likes movement.
Av [She missed the first two classes but this did not bother her. She tried mindfulness eating. She did not have much to say but was actively looking surprised and interested. She came back into the room and asked if she could create a meditation and came back a second time saying how excited she was to do this.
Ci [She missed the first session and according to Kr is very happy to be here. ] She likes meditations. The pillow was fun. Group sharing is difficult because some girls will use that against you later on. That is shy she is so quiet. The girls can be rough. She does not feel safe being open.
It bothers her that the girls show such disrespect for us. They are running over us. Examples are throwing the talking stick, farting, burping etc. That makes me mad. She treats everyone like family and that is not acceptable.
Ja [ She was watching, the movie ‘Drumming.’ Was doing well. Seems very confident within herself.]
She likes group. IT is too long. She likes mindful “games” not just sitting. Like groups of 2 and roles playing and fun. She likes mindful eating. Disrespect for the teachers bothers her, like farting, joking around, and it throws the whole group off. It someone does that then everyone else cannot concentrate. We can be firm in asking someone to leave, or give someone a warning.
Ra [Always participates and seems to have a positive attitude.]
The class makes her calm. She likes the experience. She likes walking meditation and wants to do it outside. She gets bored sitting. She needs to get up and move more. Maybe between each segment. She wants more activities. We need to control the group more.
Suzanne and Sharon debrief:
We may have crossed a few boundaries but nothing serious.
We may have a little silent movement between sections.
For the better of the group’s experience, we need to come up with away to stop the distractions. We came up with our first trial to deal with this. This is an experiment.
- If Suzanne or Sharon feel disrupted in our teaching, we will stop and ask the individual to go sit with the staff for five minutes and come back to the circle.
- They will be asked to meditate for those five minutes????