How to Use the Brandable Mindfulness Teaching Curriculum
Our 10-session brandable mindfulness teaching curriculum is a comprehensive teaching resource to support you in teaching mindfulness to others. In this guide, we provide you with an overview of what’s included and how to use the materials provided. We’ll also answer some commonly asked questions about using this 10-session brandable curriculum.
What’s Included
The brandable mindfulness teaching curriculum includes:
The introductory Teacher Guidebook and the 10 Teaching Guidebooks are for you, and therefore they are not brandable. They are not intended for distribution. They are to support you as the teacher to deliver your sessions, providing guidance and scripts to help you lead.
How to Use the Materials Provided
1. Begin by downloading the Teacher Guidebook. If you are working with the brandable curriculum for teens, the front cover says ‘Teacher Handbook’. Read this document in full as it provides important information about preparing for your sessions.
2. Download the Teaching Guidebooks for each of the 10 sessions, as well as the 10 PowerPoint presentations. Take your time to go over all of these. You can edit the PowerPoint presentations as you wish. For example, you can rebrand the slides, remove slides, or change text or photos (details below).
3. Download the Teacher Deep Dives. There is 1 Teacher Deep Dive associated with each of the 10 sessions. Read through all of these as they provide valuable information to develop your skills and confidence in teaching mindfulness.
4. Download the 10 Student Workbooks OR edit them in Canva before downloading (details below). The Student Workbooks are ready-to-use without modification; however, they can be edited to add your unique branding and logo or to remove any worksheets you don’t want to include.
If you are registered for our Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Program and are accessing the brandable curriculum through the Teacher Training Dashboard, you will see the options to download or edit these files above each Student Workbook.
If you are accessing the brandable curriculum through the member’s area (in other words, purchased separately from the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program), scroll to the bottom of each session to find the ‘Resources’ section. There you will find the Canva link to edit the Student Workbook.
5. After going through all of the resources, including reading all of the guidebooks, workbooks, and presentations, plan your session. You can use these resources ‘as is’ or you can customize them according to the needs of your audience, your business (i.e. by adding your logo and other branding elements), or your teaching interests.
How to Edit the Student Workbooks in Canva
1. You will need a Canva account to edit the Student Workbooks. If you don’t have one, you can create one for free here. If you already have an account, go ahead and login.
2. Open the Canva document for each Student Workbook you want to modify. When you click on the link that directs you to Canva, scroll down on that first page and click ‘Use template for new design’. This will create a copy of the workbook in your own Canva account.
3. When you’re looking at a Student Workbook in the Canva editor, you can click on text or images to make edits. You can, for example, change fonts, text size, and text color. You can also delete images and add your own.
4. To add your own logo or other branding elements, go to ‘Uploads’ on the left-hand side of the editor. Upload your files. Once they’re uploaded, you can drag and drop them to any page in the workbook. Use the editing tools to make the workbook look the way you’d like it to.
5. When you’re happy with your modifications, click on the ‘Share’ button in the top right corner. Then click ‘Download’. You can choose the file type you want to download the workbook as and you can choose which pages you’d like to download.
6. Changes you make in this document will be automatically saved to your Canva account. To find these workbooks at a later time, login into Canva. From the Home page, click ‘Projects’ and then ‘Shared with you’. Click on any workbook you’d like to re-open, edit, or download.
Learn more about how to get started with Canva:
Watch our introductory guide on how to edit the Student Workbooks in Canva:
How to Edit the PowerPoint Presentations
The most common way to edit PowerPoint slides is in PowerPoint directly. However, there are other options if you don’t have PowerPoint or prefer other editing tools. Consider the following three options for editing the presentations in this brandable curriculum:
Edit in PowerPoint:
1. Open the presentation you want to edit in PowerPoint. You can modify text, images, and other design elements, and you can also remove slides entirely - or add more of your own.
2. When you’re ready to lead the session for others, you can play the slideshow directly from within PowerPoint.
Edit in Canva:
1. To use Canva as an editing tool, you can import your slides to your account there. To do this, first log into your Canva account.
2. Open up the left-hand side bar (by clicking the three dashes in the top left corner) and then click on ‘Projects’. In the page that opens, click ‘Add new’ in the top right corner and then ‘Upload’.
3. Locate your downloaded PowerPoint presentation and open it.
4. Edit in any way that you wish, modifying text, images, design elements, and even adding or removing slides.
5. When you’re ready to present, you can either play directly from Canva (but note that you’ll need internet access to login and access the presentation) or you can download the file as a PowerPoint document and present it via PowerPoint on your computer.
Edit in Google:
1. If you don’t have PowerPoint and don’t want to use Canva, you can also edit your slides at slides.google.com.
2. Under ‘Start a new presentation’, click the image above ‘Blank presentation’.
3. Once a blank presentation has opened up, go to ‘File’ and then ‘Import slides’. Locate the original presentation file you downloaded and open it.
4. Click ‘Select all slides’ and then ‘Import slides’.
5. Once imported, you can delete slides, add slides, and edit slides as you wish.
6. In the top right corner, click ‘Slideshow’ to play your presentation when you’re ready.
NOTE: The above instructions are accurate as of January 2024. Canva or Google Presentations may change their user interface at any time, but essentially, you want to look for the option to upload or import your own document when working with either of these programs.
Commonly Asked Questions
1. Do I have to lead these sessions word-for-word?
You are more than welcome to lean on the scripts as much as you need to, but you are certainly invited to go off-script and make these presentations your own.
2. How much time should I allow for each session?
Each session is intended to run 90-minutes in length, including a 10-minute break. The time you offer as a break is flexible given that some sessions will take more time and others less, depending on student engagement, questions, your pace, etc. Be mindful of how the session is progressing to determine what amount of time would be appropriate for a mid-session pause.
3. Does this have to be taught over the course of 10 weeks?
This brandable curriculum is designed to be taught across 10 sessions. The way you schedule these 10 sessions is up to you and the group or individual you’re teaching to. For example, you could lead this curriculum at a cadence of one session per week, resulting in a 10-week course - or you could lead them twice per week, bi-weekly, etc. It’s up to you.
However, keep in mind that the pacing of your course may impact how much of the Student Workbooks your students will be able to get through in-between sessions. If you want to make the Student Workbooks shorter, you are certainly welcome to. Keep only the pages you think are most relevant to your group and/or that align with your presentation and teaching goals.
4. Can I create a shorter program out of this?
Absolutely. You can edit this curriculum as you wish. If that means teaching only 5 sessions (perhaps those that make the most sense to your audience), you are welcome to make those adjustments. Keep in mind that you’ll have to re-name some of the sessions (i.e. what we call session 5 might become your session 3).
5. Can I charge money for this program?
Whether you charge money for your teaching of this curriculum or lead others through it for free is entirely up to you. Consider your needs as well as the needs of your students to make a decision that makes the most sense given the circumstances.
6. Can I lead this curriculum via online sessions?
You can guide others through this mindfulness meditation program in both in-person and online settings. It is entirely up to you. If teaching online, take some time to get comfortable with navigating the ‘tech’ side of things (i.e. how to get the presentation up on the screen for everyone to see, how to monitor the chat while going through the presentation, and how you will send the Student Workbooks to each student). If teaching in-person, there will also be technology requirements in regards to showing the PowerPoint presentation.
7. Where can I go for more help with my teaching?
If you’re looking for further guidance on how to teach mindfulness, consider the following free resources and premium products: