TaTanisha Copeland became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha by way of Kappa Omega Chapter in Atlanta, GA. She is an elementary school counselor and has been working in education for 18 years in Northwest Atlanta. She noticed that her students were experiencing anxiety, anger and other behavior issues that required coping skills. Copeland as well as her daughter Maya also suffered from anxiety and mindfulness and meditation worked for us. Likewise, she thought practicing mindfulness and meditation would work for her students too.
However, in her quest to find mindfulness resources for her students, she noticed that there was a lack of diverse resources that featured content that her students could identify with as many mindfulness resources did not feature African American children. So with the help of her amazing son Jacobi and amazing daughter Maya, they created Mindfulness Maya.
Mindfulness Maya is a YouTube series of videos that promote mindfulness and coping skills as tools to help work through those not so good feelings. Her videos on breathing exercises, self talk, red ribbon week, and responsibility have reached views up to 80,000. The mindfulness Maya series also features Carleton, Maya’s brother making the series a great resource for all students, parents, and educators. Each video ends with a breathing exercise that can be done with children. Mindfulness Maya Youtube videos are released weekly, and there are also four complimentary e-books that are available on Amazon Kindle and paperback books available on the Barnes and Noble website.
Click here to watch the Mindfulness Maya Youtube videos, here to check out the e-book, and here to view the paperback book.
We are so proud of TaTanisha and her children, Maya and Jacobi, for creating resources to improve the mental health of the next generation. What coping skills do you use to help your children or students process their feelings? Leave them down below!
