Using Drama for Mindfulness and Emotional Health

By Samantha Marsden.

Author of 100 Acting Exercises for 8 – 18 Year Olds, and the Pocketful of Drama book series, which includes Acting Games for Improv, Drama Games for Early Years, and Drama Games for Mindfulness and Emotional Health.

Drama is the perfect tool for mindfulness and emotional health. On its own, mindfulness can feel a bit static, especially when you're trying to engage younger learners or teenagers. And talking about emotional health can feel intimidating. Drama solves both problems. It makes mindfulness more engaging, and it makes exploring emotions feel safer, because students can do it through characters.

I've been teaching drama for years, and going on mindfulness retreats for years, and many of the activities I use combine mindfulness and acting training. They've all been tried and tested in my classroom and I share three games with you here.

The three exercises are from my book, Drama Games for Mindfulness and Emotional Health. Change Places If… is a simple circle game that helps the group connect and gently opens up conversations about emotions. …Yet! builds resilience by adding the word yet to any "I can't" sentence. Catastrophizing uses improv to show students how anxious thinking spirals might show up and gives them ways to challenge it.

I hope they help build your students' resilience, confidence, and inner strength.

1) Change Places If….

This is a simple and fun warm-up circle game to help connect the group. The second part of this exercise (labelled “Going further”) is more advanced and can help students name their feelings and feel less alone.

For ages: 6+

How many students? Seven or more.

How much time? Five to fifteen minutes.

The space: Enough room for everyone to sit in a circle on chairs.

Materials needed: Enough chairs for everyone.

Let’s play!

Have everyone sit in a circle on chairs and stand in the centre of this circle. Explain that the person in the centre is going to say, “Change places if you like…” and then

fill in the blank with something they like: strawberry ice cream, spiders, fast cars, or anything else they want, with the exception of people’s names. For an older and/or more mischievous class, you might need to remind them to keep their ideas appropriate! Go first to show them how it works.

For example, if you say, “Change places if you like reading,” everyone who likes reading will stand up and swap places while you sit down in one of their chairs. One person will be left without a chair. Now it’s their turn to say, “Change places if you like…” and the game continues. Do this for five to ten minutes. If you see people purposely trying to be in the middle, ask them not to do this. If the same person keeps ending up in the middle, choose someone else to change places with them.

Going further

For this round, the person in the middle should say, “Change places if you have ever felt…” and fill in the blank with a feeling: happy, angry, sad, terrified, euphoric, jealous, calm, joyful, proud, confused, grateful, in awe, anxious.

Sometimes children and teens think they’re the only ones experiencing certain emotions, particularly negative ones, and to see that others experience them too can be a relief. Before you start, lay down the rule that no one is to judge, laugh, scoff, or say anything mean about someone sharing a feeling. Emotion shaming is not allowed! If you have a problem with bullying in your class, you might not want

to play this version, as it requires a safe space. Give students the option to sit out if they want to. You might need to give definitions of some lesser-known emotions.

It’s touching how powerful this exercise can be. In one of my classes, a student said, “Change places if you ever feel not good enough.” A few students stood up, and then

slowly, everyone stood up. All my students noticed that everyone, even people they thought were perfect, didn’t feel good enough at times. I could almost hear a collective sigh of relief.

 2) …Yet!

A circle game that promotes the use of the word yet, which can grow resilience and

determination.

For ages: 7+

How many students? Any number.

How much time? Ten to fifteen minutes.

The space: Enough space for the group to sit in a circle, either on the floor or on chairs.

Materials needed:

None.

Let’s play!

Ask students to sit in a circle, then stand in the centre of the circle. Explain that the

person in the middle is going to mime trying to do something and failing at it. For

example, they might be trying to surf a wave, but they keep falling off their surfboard.

Or perhaps they’re trying to spell a word, or play tennis, or cast a spell. After about

ten to twenty seconds of trying to do the thing and failing, they should say what they

can’t do out loud: “I can’t surf!” The class will shout back, “Yet!” Then the person in

the centre will try the action again a few more times, finally mastering it. Once the

person has archived their goal, they’ll sit back down, and the person next to them will

step into the centre and start acting out a thing they can’t do. Go around the circle so

that everyone gets a turn. Students are welcome to stay seated when their turn

comes if they’d rather not go into the centre. The game reinforces the idea that even

if you can’t do something now, it doesn’t mean that will always be true. Yet is a

powerful word to add to any “I can’t…” sentence.

 3) Catastrophizing

An exercise to demonstrate that catastrophizing is not a healthy coping mechanism.

For ages: 10+

How many students? Two or more.

How much time? Five to fifteen minutes.

The space: Enough space for students to work in pairs.

Materials needed: None.

Let’s play!

Ask the class to get into pairs. Each pair will create an improvisation where one of

them catastrophizes and the other calms them down. Spend a few minutes talking

about catastrophizing with the class. Catastrophizing is when a person thinks the

worst-case scenario will happen even when there’s no evidence to suggest that it will

and exaggerates the severity of a situation. For example, a person might make a

small mistake at work and think “I’m going to get fired and never get another job

again.” Or they might imagine that a friend hates them because they haven’t replied

to a text message. Ask the group to share more examples. Next, ask students to pair

off and create short scenes in which one person in the pair catastrophizes and the

other does not. They can choose any characters they like friends, a parent and child,

a teacher and student, astronauts, window cleaners, or singers from a band. All

characters and ideas are welcome.

Each pair will start with a small problem, and the catastrophizer will think of the worst possible outcomes. For example, they might be two chefs working in a kitchen. One might say, “The fridge was a degree warmer than it should be, so I adjusted it.” The person who is catastrophizing might fly into a panic, “All the food is ruined; we’ll have to close the restaurant. Our lunch guests might get food poisoning. They might die. We might go to jail!” The students should take turns being the person in the pair who catastrophizes. Once they’ve each had a turn, ask them to choose an improv to share with the rest of the class.

Ask students to sit down facing your stage area and allow one pair at a time to go up

and show their improv. A lot of these short scenes will likely be funny! At the end,

have a group discussion about whether catastrophizing is a helpful way to deal with

a problem.

Explain that catastrophizing is linked to anxiety and stress; your brain is looking for

threats even when they’re not there. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, and many of us

do it. To avoid catastrophizing, explain to students that they can challenge their

thoughts, asking themselves, “What evidence do you have for that?” They can try to

focus on the present moment and avoid thinking about what if scenarios, or they can

imagine the best-case scenario instead of the worst.

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A huge thank you to Sam Marsden for writing this Blog.

Sam is hosting a webinar with us on Tuesday June 2nd 4.30-5.30pm (BST).

Book your place here: https://www.weteachdrama.com/book-online

You can purchase her book 'Using Drama Games for Mindfulness & Emotional Health' here