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Rainbow Walk

October 5, 2016 Tanuka Gordon

I recently did a mindful activity with my girls, which naturally incorporates the power of present-time awareness into a fun daytime activity. A number of mindfulness resources recommend this activity, so I decided to try it. I left my cellphone at home, put the girls in a wagon, gave each of them some crayons and pads of paper. And off we went. We strolled through our neighborhood, and I asked my girls to find the colors of the rainbow in order as they saw them such as a red flower, orange cone, yellow leaf. As they found each color, they drew the object on their piece of paper. (Disclaimer: My 5 year old was the one who actively participated in the activity. My 2 year old just loved to scribble and be with us!) My 5-year old loved finding the rainbow colors so much that she asked if we could keep going. We went through 4 rounds of the rainbow before we headed back home. What was incredible was realizing how many things I had not seen before on my own street. Below are a few of my daughter’s drawings from our walk. She decided to put check marks next to her findings to make sure she had all the rainbow colors covered!

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Our Daisy Troop invited Tanuka Gordon of Mindful Littles to lead a
class for our Kindergarten Daisy Scouts. Tanuka taught the girls
through stories and pictures about what life is like for children
living in Haiti. We decorated and put together pencil cases for
students there. Tanuka also guided us through a mindful moment
incorporating yoga movements and breathing techniques. A few months
later, the girls were thrilled to receive artwork back from the
students in Haiti. We loved our Mindful Littles class and found that
it helped to open the girls’ eyes to the world around them!

A clinician just popped into my office and shared how one of our kids loved the positive words on the hygiene kit. The youth said it felt like Christmas – all because of a hygiene kit. Amazing.

- Beth Goldberg, Director of Development for Youth Homes

Working with Mindful Littles has been a life changing experience. Before volunteering with this group, I’d say I was guilty of not always incorporating compassion and mindfulness into my everyday life, but since I have started volunteering with this organization I have noticed a positive change within myself.

- Danielle Castro, Youth Leader, Age 17

Mindful Littles was an integral part of our collaborative initiative, OrindaCares. OrindaCares is a partnership with Mindful Littles, the Orinda Union School District, Miramonte High School, and the City of Orinda. Mindful Littles provided not just the concept and strategy development for this partnership, but the project leadership and organization to make our initiative highly successful.

- Carolyn Seaton, Superintendent of Orinda Union School District

The work that Mindful Littles does is the antithesis of the violence. With the continued threat of mass shootings, with homegrown mental illness, you don’t arm people with weapons. You pay attention; you teach compassion, you educate and help community members. This is how we change. This is how we are going to fight the good fight; not with weapons and strategies of self-defense, but by being proactive with love. I believe Mindful Littles is the solution. It will awaken our youth and help contribute to a more positive future.

- Travis Groft, Veteran

Our Girl Scout troop was looking for something meaningful to do around the holidays. Mindful Littles made everything so easy and the core values of Mindful Littles and Girl Scouts were perfectly matched. The girls appeared at Las Trampas and were immediately put into action assisting disabled individuals with holiday activities and celebrating the holiday cheer. It was a labor of love on both ends. My daughter left the event and said, “That was awesome. Let’s do more of that."

- Jennifer LaForce, Bay Area Girl Scout Troop Leader

Mindful Little has led two programs this year for our community - one for parents and children on the topic "the courage to be different," and one just for children on the topic of honoring seniors. Both were absolutely wonderful! It was a pleasure to collaborate with Tanuka in planning the programs, and she and her team prepared thoughtful, engaging lessons that were meaningful to the families as well as being fun, interactive, and hands-on. I believe the lessons Mindful Littles brought to our community will stick with the children for a long time, and I highly recommend Mindful Littles programs!

That was a really great event. I held more doors open for people in the last few days than I think I have in my life.🙂 Your words were heard.

-Jennifer Kamal, Local Bay Area Parent

The event had quite an impact on my 7 year old son, Caden, who, after assembling hygiene kits at your Mindful Littles event, decided to raise money for the kids in Haiti on his own. I think what you are doing through the Mindful Littles program is wonderful, and it’s obviously having an impact on children near and far… I look forward to attending another one soon!

- Kim Morrow, Local Bay Area Parent

My time with Mindful Littles’ has solidified my commitment to youth development and empowerment, as I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing the wonderfully innovative ideas that littles have for the improvement of their communities. There are few things more gratifying than watching and helping littles turn their creativity into meaningful action, and I’m grateful to Mindful Littles for giving me the opportunity to do so.

-Iris Wu, Youth Leader, Age 19