Mindfulness Made Simple: Strategies for Students to Take Notice and Do What Matters

If you ask students what mindfulness is, you will often hear answers like being quiet, clearing your mind, or trying to calm down.

Those answers reflect how mindfulness is often taught, but not how it is meant to be used.

In the previous post, we explored why mindfulness matters for students and why quiet time alone is not enough. Mindfulness is about present-moment awareness, not silence. The next step is making that awareness usable.

That is where RAD comes in with two easy to use mindfulness strategies.

Why RAD Breaks Mindfulness Into Two Simple Strategies

RAD’s approach to mindfulness is intentionally practical. Rather than teaching mindfulness as one abstract concept, RAD turns it into two easy-to-remember skills students can use anytime and anywhere, especially when thoughts and emotions feel overwhelming.

This aligns with research emphasizing that mindfulness is most effective when taught as a proactive, transferable skill rather than a one-time activity (Zolkoski and Lewis-Chiu, 2019).

The two RAD mindfulness skills are Taking Notice: Looking In and Taking Notice: Looking Around.

Taking Notice: Looking In

Taking Notice: Looking In is a form of thought watching.

Students learn to notice thoughts, emotions, body sensations, and urges to react, avoid, or shut down. The key idea is simple. You can notice what is happening inside you without having to fix it, fight it, or believe it.

Research summarized by Zolkoski and Lewis-Chiu (2019) highlights mindfulness practices that help students become aware of internal experiences and reduce automatic, reactive behavior, especially for students with emotional and behavioral challenges.

Looking In builds RAD’s Recognize and Accept skills by creating space between feelings and actions.

Taking Notice: Looking Around

Taking Notice: Looking Around is a form of grounding through the senses and the breath.

Students practice noticing what they can see, hear, and feel physically, and where they are in space.

RAD also teaches students to notice their breath as part of grounding. The breath is powerful because it is always available. Students do not need silence, tools, or special conditions. They can notice breathing while sitting, standing, or moving.

Breathing in RAD is not about controlling the breath or calming down. It is simply another anchor for awareness, supporting present-moment attention and reduced reactivity.

Why RAD Teaches Both Skills

RAD teaches Looking In and Looking Around separately on purpose.

Some students find it easier to start inside. Others need to start outside. Providing options is a key feature of effective mindfulness-based approaches in schools.

The real power comes from using both together.

A student might notice anxiety and the urge to avoid, ground themselves in the room and their breath, accept what is showing up, and then do what is important even with discomfort present.

Mindfulness Embedded in the Full RAD Framework

RAD does not teach mindfulness in isolation.

Both Looking In and Looking Around are embedded within the full RAD framework, where students learn why noticing matters, how acceptance works, and how to choose actions based on what is important to them.

Research emphasizes that mindfulness becomes more effective when practiced consistently and connected to purposeful action rather than used as a standalone technique.

Key Takeaway: Mindfulness Students Can Actually Use

RAD does not ask students to sit quietly and wait for calm.

It teaches them how to take notice when thoughts are loud or when emotions are strong, ground themselves using their senses and breath, and still do what is important. By turning mindfulness into two simple, flexible skills and embedding them within a values-guided framework, RAD makes mindfulness something students do not just practice.

They use it.

Ready to teach mindfulness the RAD way?

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Reference

Zolkoski, S. M., and Lewis-Chiu, C. (2019). Alternative approaches: Implementing mindfulness practices in the classroom to improve challenging behaviors. Beyond Behavior, 28(1), 46–54.