Increasing Student Mindfulness With Improv Games

Mindfulness is the practice of bringing yourself into the present moment in a nonjudgmental way, which is also what improvisation requires, making mindfulness and drama the perfect pairing.

Mindfulness has so much to offer children and young adults: Studies link it to reduced anxiety and stress, better focus, and greater creativity. I love to introduce mindfulness in a practical and fun way—it doesn’t have to be a static practice.

The three games I share here are from my book, Drama Games for Mindfulness and Emotional Health, and they’ve been tried and tested in my classroom. All of these exercises are suitable for students ages 6 to 16.

Mindfully/Unmindfully

First, ask students what they think mindfulness means, then give them a brief description. I like to describe mindfulness as being present in the here and now: If you are walking, you are present in your walking; if you are eating an apple, you are mindful of eating an apple.

In contrast, to be unmindful is to not really be present for what you’re doing. Perhaps you are washing a dish, for example, but your mind is somewhere else; you do not feel the temperature of the water or the object in your hands.

Ask students to mime an action, like baking a cake. First, unmindfully—flour, eggs, and sugar everywhere—and then mindfully, fully present with every imagined movement. Here’s a list of actions you can try acting out together. Call out “mindfully” and “unmindfully” for each action, and allow about 30 seconds for each.

• Washing the dishes
• Brushing your teeth
• Bathing an elephant
• Eating a sandwich
• Playing tennis
• Chopping vegetables
• Making a magic potion in a cauldron
• Brushing a unicorn

You can ask your students for other ideas to try.

Next, you can build on this with improvisations. Put two characters together in a situation: one mindful and one unmindful—for example, two chefs in a restaurant kitchen, one mindful and the other not. Having two opposites can make a wonderfully comical premise.

Take-a-Breath Improv

For this activity, you’re going to call out some stressful situations, and the students are going to act them out. Start by explaining the premise and asking the students to find a space in the room. When you say “Breathe,” the students should stop what they’re doing and focus all their energy on taking two long, slow breaths, then return to the activity. Start by saying something like, “Imagine you are taking a difficult history exam.” After about 20 seconds, say, “And breathe. Focus all your attention on two breaths.” Give them about 10 seconds to breathe, then tell them to return to their exams. After about 10 more seconds, call out a new stressful situation (though nothing too intense—you don’t want to remind students of actual traumatic experiences they’ve had). Here are some ideas:

• You are learning how to drive and there is a huge line of cars behind you.
• You are about to sing in front of hundreds of people.
• You are the goalie during penalty kicks for the World Cup final.
• You are the first person being sent to Mars, and it’s launch day.

It’s best not to take suggestions from the class for this one, as students might come up with inappropriate ones.

Once you’re finished playing, explain to your students that they can use this tool anywhere—and that even one slow breath can help them calm down. Mention that sometimes taking a small pause can prevent us from saying or doing something we might later regret.

Deep Listening

Listening well is a mindfulness exercise, with the mindfulness being directed to the other person. Explain that deep listening is one of the greatest gifts you can give a friend, or even someone you don’t know. It can be helpful to provide some examples of listening practices that are not mindful, such as unfriendly body language, interrupting, walking out mid-conversation, and jumping to conclusions about what the other person is saying.

Next, give some examples of good listening: showing interest in what the other person is saying, giving them time to finish their thoughts, asking questions in response to what they’ve said, and being patient if they talk for a long time.

Ask students to get into pairs and come up with two characters—for example, a baker and their apprentice, a butterfly keeper and a friend, a pilot and a flight attendant, etc. One person talks about something they are interested in, and the other practices good listening skills.

After a few minutes, ask the listener to act uninterested. Give the players about a minute to try that, and then ask the students to swap roles so that the listener becomes the speaker and the speaker becomes the listener. They can choose new characters if they like. Allow the listener to play both interested and uninterested. Afterward, ask students to share with the class how it felt to be listened to well and not so well.

As an extension of this activity, you can ask students to get into pairs or threes and come up with a short scene about someone not listening well.

I hope these games bring some calm and playfulness into your classroom, and that they help students see that mindfulness is not something separate from everyday life. A few minutes of mindful play can shift the energy of a whole room, showing students that the present moment is always accessible to them.