Fun Mindfulness Exercises for Groups (List)

This blog presents fun mindfulness exercises for groups.

Mindfulness is referred to as the process by which an individual focuses on the present moment rather than living in the past or the future.

Mindfulness has various proven benefits. This blog aims to provide you with some of the most effective and fun mindfulness exercises for groups.

So let’s move on and discover these interesting exercises that would help you increase your mindfulness.

Fun Mindfulness Exercises for Groups

Fun mindfulness exercises for groups help integrate meditation, mindfulness, and breathing exercises into an individual’s daily routine.

Empirical evidence has proven that people who meditate live happier, healthy, and productive lives as compared to the people who do not meditate regularly.

Instead of working out, exercising, or practicing meditation, most prefer to scroll social media on mobile phones or to listen to songs while lying on the bed.

The following fun mindfulness exercises for groups are a golden chance for individuals to practice mindfulness and at the same time enjoy the company of their family members, friends, or relatives, since these mindfulness exercises are to be done in groups. So let’s discover these fun mindfulness exercises for groups.

1. The Raisin Exercise

The raisin exercise is a very effective fun mindfulness exercise for groups. It is a great exercise to practice mindfulness, especially for beginners.

This exercise can be performed with any food item that has a specific smell, texture, and taste, it doesn’t matter if it is raisin or not. 

For this exercise, the facilitator provides some raisins to the participants and ask them to pretend as if they have never seen it before.

The participants are then asked to carefully observe the raisins by using all five senses.

The participants have to use their eyes to see how the raisins look like, use their nose to smell how the raisins smell like, use their hands to touch and feel the texture of raisins, and use their tongues to detect the taste of the raisins. 

The purpose of providing participants with only one thing to observe carefully was to help them practice mindfulness by staying at the present moment and focusing on just one thing which is currently in front of them.

It might be possible that the participants know about raisins but due to lack of mindfulness, they might have not observed it carefully before in their lives. 

Focusing solely on the raisins save energy, time, and attention of participants in worrying about other things that are not important and belong to other parts of their lives such as their future or their past. 

Once the participants have completed the activity, they will realize how easy it was concentrate on the present moment and on the current situation.

It is possible that some participants lose their concentration during this activity.

When this happens, the participants have to divert their mind back to observing the raisin to stop thinking about ruminating thoughts they encountered.

2. Mindful Seeing

Mindful seeing is another interesting mindfulness exercise for the group.

Some people might feel suffocated when a visible stimulus is not present. This is because not everybody experiences healthy imagination.

Mindful seeing it’s a very interesting activity specifically designed for the people who fail to engage in healthy imagination. 

This activity requires a group of people and a window with a view.

The facilitator guides the participants to go to the window and stand from where they could easily view the scenery outside the window.

Then the participants are asked to observe the scenery outside the window by focusing on the colors, patterns, or textures, and without labeling or mentioning things.

After this, they are asked to focus on the movement of things outside the window such as the grass or tree leaves, observe the different shapes in the scenery as if they are seeing them for the first time. 

Participants are encouraged to be observant rather than being a critic or fixated.

It is normal to get distracted but if this happens the participants are directed to ignore the thoughts that have ruminated into their mind and focus on the task again. 

3. Six Sense-Doors Activity

The six sense doors activity is derived from the teachings of Buddha. Buddhists emphasized that individuals experience the world through six gateways.

Every moment of an individual’s life gives an experience that comes from awareness through his six senses including the sense of hearing, the sense of seeing, the sense of smell, the sense of taste, the sense of touch, and the mind.

We are already familiar with the five senses but what is the sense of mind?

The sense of mind relates to all the thoughts emotions and mental imagery of an individual. 

The six sense doors activity it’s a very interesting and effective activity in which participants are asked to arrange themselves in the form of a circle.

Then, turn by turn, every participant has to speak out loud what he is thinking, feeling, hearing, and seeing in the current situation.

For example: ” right now I can hear the sound of the clock ticking”. 

After each participant has noted what is happening in the present moment, for the next round of this activity, the participants have to name one of the six senses doors: seeing, smelling, tasting, hearing, feeling, or thinking.

This can be started by saying, “I can hear my stomach growling… Smelling”. Then, the next person has to observe something he is smelling, and at the end of a sentence, he has to mention another sense door for the next participant to observe.

This will ensure that the participants do not pre-plan what they have to say on their turn. 

This activity is a very interesting and fun activity for practicing mindfulness.

It is possible that the participants get distracted during this activity, but as soon as they find they have distracted, they need to focus on the present moment and concentrate on the activity.

4. Play with Balloons

Play with balloons and other fun is a mindfulness exercise for groups.

This exercise is very interesting and you would enjoy playing it in groups with your family members, friends or relatives.

For this activity, you need a couple of balloons and some participants to play this game. 

For play with balloons game, you have to blow all the balloons.

Then you have to throw them in the air and keep hitting them to prevent them from touching the ground.

All the participants have to work together and be mindful of the balloons.

This activity is an effective source of increasing mindfulness as noticing balloons and not letting them touch the ground requires focus and concentration which automatically brings you at the moment.

5. Visit a Wonderful Feeling

Visit a wonderful feeling is another fun mindfulness exercise for groups. Our life give us various pleasant and happy moments.

We need to be able to develop that lovely joyful energy.

Although mindfulness is related to being in the present moment it is totally fine to recall and revive old pleasant memories that you feel grateful for. 

Visit a wonderful feeling exercise is all about recalling past experiences which gave you a reason to appreciate life and feel thankful for the blessings you have.

Each participant in the group is asked to recall the things in their life that made them feel grateful for and inculcated good feelings in them, without getting back in the past.

The participants have to learn to be grateful in the present moment by recalling past achievements or events that made them feel grateful. 

While one participant is telling about his experience, the Other participants are supposed to practice mindful or active listening.

Often the ignore the things in our lives that made us feel grateful and missed the chance to develop positive energies.

Recalling past good experiences by staying mindful can help participants develop positive energy

What are some mindfulness activities?

Some effective and brief, mindfulness activities include yawning and stretching for ten seconds every hour, taking three big breaths exercise, stroking hands, eating a raisin mindfully, doing mindful breathing for a minute, and practicing loving-kindness mediation.

Do mindfulness activities really work?

Empirical studies have shown that adding mindful exercises in daily routines can be an effective source of reducing the secretion of stress hormone cortisone and reducing the feelings of anxiety and fatigue.

Hence doing a little practice of mindfulness can e a very effective way to balance work and life.

How do I teach my child mindfulness?

Children can be taught mindfulness in various ways.

Some ways to teach mindfulness to children include asking them to:

• Notice their body sensations, emotions, feelings and thoughts, and describe them
• Practicing three big breathes exercise
• Stop and observe the surroundings using all five senses
• Eat mindfully
• Count the breaths 

What are the three mindful practices?

The three mindful practices include practicing awareness, practicing focused breathing, and practicing purposeful observation. 

Does mindfulness work for anxiety?

Empirical evidence has shown that practicing mindfulness help reduce anxiety and depression.

Mindfulness helps increase self-awareness that enables an individual to recognize his current physical and mental states and allows him to adapt to various situations effectively.

Mindfulness can be practiced in a number of ways. It encourages individuals to open up and accept their emotions.

How quickly does mindfulness work?

The effectiveness of mindfulness depends upon an individual’s expectations with mindfulness exercises.

If an individual expects mindfulness to give instant results, he might get restricted earlier.

Empirical evidence has proved that consistent mindfulness practice produces positive outcomes in just 8 weeks.

Note that experiencing positive outcomes does not mean that the illness has disappeared.

This page explained in detail the concept of mindfulness and provided you with some of the most effective and fun mindfulness exercises for groups.

We hope you would find these mindfulness exercises interesting.

If you have any queries or questions regarding this blog, let us know through your comments. We will be glad to assist you. 

References

22 Mindfulness Exercises, Techniques & Activities For Adults (+ PDF’s) by Courtney E. Ackerman (2020)

Fun Mindfulness Exercises For Groups | The Reflective Mind

10 Fun Mindfulness Group Activities and Their Benefits

9 Mindfulness Group Activities for Adults – Happier Human

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