Wellness Mini-Sessions

Need a quick break? Join a 20-minute Wellness Mini-Session to learn about and practice a wellness strategy designed for education settings. These monthly sessions will feature wellness experts from throughout California sharing a variety of ideas that you can use and share to promote stress management. Sessions will occur on the second Wednesday of each month. Recordings will be posted to the Resources page.

Register for a 2025 Wellness Mini-Session

Register for a 2026 Wellness Mini-Session

---

December Session

Mindfulness for a Busy Mind

December 10, 2025, 10:00-10:20 PM

Our minds are constantly working—planning, worrying, and solving problems. This can lead to stress and feeling overwhelmed. Mindfulness isn’t about stopping these thoughts; it’s about changing our relationship with them.

Mindful Breathing is your personal “reset button.” When your mind is racing, focusing on the simple sensation of your breath gives you a break from mental chatter. It helps calm your nervous system and improves your focus.

Mindful Listening trains your mind to be fully present by using sound as an anchor, rather than being carried away or distracted by sound.

Together, these practices help you create small pockets of peace and clarity, not by emptying your mind, but by learning to direct it.

Facilitator:

Angelo Monsalve joined the Mindful Life Project (MLP) in 2018 as an instructor, serving low-income youth and providing daily mindfulness programming in schools. Promoted to Director of Partnerships in 2021, he now connects with schools nationwide to expand MLP’s programs. A certified yoga instructor, Angelo previously worked for the Prison Yoga Project at San Quentin State Prison, introducing yoga and wellness practices to incarcerated individuals.

 

January Session

Improve Your Stress Response

January 14, 2026 2:00-2:20 PM

In a school setting, enhancing vagal tone is especially valuable, as it fosters focus, emotional balance, and healthier connections for both staff and students. Learn practical, evidence-based techniques to increase vagal tone and support nervous system regulation. Engage in simple, daily practices that activate the vagus nerve to promote calm, resilience, and improved stress response.

Facilitator:

Kat Satterly serves as Program Specialist for Staff Well-Being at the Orange County Department of Education, where she leads the Thriving Schools Initiative. In this role, she supports schools in advancing whole-child health with a focused priority on cultivating staff wellness. Kat has presented nationally on educator well-being and social-emotional learning and champions the belief that staff well-being is foundational to student success.

 

February Session

Basics of Mindfulness for Self-Care and Managing Difficult States

February 11, 2026 2:00-2:20 PM

Mindfulness is the capacity to be aware of our experience as it happens. The fundamentals of mindfulness can be practiced in meditation. This session will offer guidance in mindfulness meditation and its use in managing physical pain and navigating difficult emotions.

Facilitator:

Marvin G. Belzer, PhD, has taught mindfulness meditation for twenty years. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. For many years he taught a semester-long meditation course in the Department of Philosophy at Bowling Green St. University, where he was an Associate Professor of Philosophy. He teaches an undergraduate course at UCLA (Psychiatry 175: Mindfulness Practice and Theory) and teaches mindfulness in many different venues.

 

March Session

Creative Approaches for Self-Care and Youth Resilience

March 11, 2026 2:00-2:20 PM

In this interactive session, you’ll experience how simple rhythmic activities can be used as a mindfulness practice to shift mood and energy, manage stress, facilitate self-expression, encourage dialogue, teach empathy, and promote kindness. Research has shown that synchrony through rhythm is rewarding to the brain and increases connection and compassion toward others. The activities in this session, drawn from an evidence-based and trauma-informed curriculum, invite participation even among the most reserved of youth—enabling them to be seen, heard, and connected.

Please bring to the session:

• Something pleasant sounding on which to drum, such as a pillow, bucket, large plastic water jug, or large food storage container.
•  Something to use as a shaker, such as a supplement bottle, box of mints, or plastic container filled with rice.
• Two pieces of paper, and some colorful markers OR just a thick pen OR whatever you have handy.  This is so we can see your drawings more easily.

Facilitator:

Ping Ho, MA, MPH, is Founder/Director of Arts & Healing Initiative, which transforms lives through the innate power of the arts, guided by mental health practices, to foster healing, connection, and resilience for all. Ping developed Beat the Odds®, an evidence-based drumming program for social-emotional skill building, a Certificate Program in Social Emotional Arts (SEA), and a SEA Toolkit training program. She co-authored, with Erica Curtis, the 2019 National Parenting Product Association award-winning book, The Innovative Parent: Raising Connected, Happy, Successful Kids through Art (Ohio University Press).

 

 

Need to find a strategy now? Check out the BeWell website to find quick and easy practices to chill out, refocus, or maintain well-being.