Success at CAPA with Jai, Amelia, and Neanta

Creativity As A Means to Inspire Mindfulness

Creativity is mindful. Our favorite tools to impart mindfulness involve creativity and curiosity.

Ms. Kane, a teacher of women’s and gender studies, invited Jai and Neanta to share Inner Strength mindfulness with students at the High School for Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA). 

They engaged students with mindfulness tools like:

1. love and kindness
2. mindful movement
3. reflection

The Creative Experience

Students used their knowledge of dance, creative writing, and art to interpret these tools in scenarios presented by Inner Strength instructors.

Students explored:

• what makes up healthy relationships with themselves and others through acting
• interpreted empathy and emotion through art
• embodied curiosity and joy through song and dance. 

It was truly a gift to learn from and interact with such talented students who are acutely aware of how mindfulness can be woven into their daily lives.

As youth committed to their various crafts, they had an innate understanding of the need for mindfulness as a means of refining how they relate to their artistic capabilities.

Many students mentioned how their crafts began as a mindful medium for self-healing and manifested into a life path. 

Ms. Kane and her students were all lit up with enthusiasm and looked forward to what the new school year would bring. We look forward to working with The Kensington Academy of Creative and Performing Arts team to bring Inner Strength back next year with more programming and classes. 

Key Takeaways & Conclusions

The CAPA atmosphere of innovation, creativity, and inspiration lends itself well to learning about and practicing mindfulness.

As mindfulness, social-emotional learning, and systems thinking are frameworks that work best when adapted to the needs of the communities we serve, supplementing the Inner Strength curriculum with creativity can more effectively inspire youth to reach their highest potentials. We are excited to see what shape Inner Strength takes with CAPA.