8 Best Mindfulness Group Activities That Are Full of Fun

Are you planning a group event or a team build and you struggle with some group exercises? Perhaps, you chair a team meeting and you would like to entertain the team? Below you can find the best mindfulness activities ever.

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How Mindfulness Activities Can Benefit Your Team?

Before I jump into the benefits of mindful activities, let me explain what is actually mindfulness and why it is important.

Mindfulness, in a nutshell, is a mental state of living in the present moment with acceptance and no judgment.

In other words, mindfulness is a state of being conscious or aware of something. it means paying full attention to something. Thus, mindfulness is so important not only in life in general but also at work.

Being fully present at work is the foundation of productivity.

Let me ask you a question: how many times during work do your thoughts wander away? One minute you are focused on doing something and the second minute your mind is occupied with tonight’s dinner ideas or plans for your next holiday. Am I right?

Well, I am sure I am 🙂 But don’t worry, this is perfectly normal. We all do that. That’s why it is important to practice mindfulness and apply it at work.

It is important that you have as much collaboration as possible in your team. Having a group full of co-workers who are mindful and paying attention to the presentation, can help everyone else in the group also pay attention.

Having a good team can boost the efficiency of your group activities. This is because the team will know that they are participating with people who are participating with them and with this goes the speed at which the team can get done what they have to do.

First, you need to set some guidelines and expectations in your group.

This is your opportunity to share with your group the benefits of mindfulness activities. You can also share stories from your own life that can help your team to be more relaxed and less stressed.

So how do you work on it? Keep reading to find out!

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Team Building Games

There are several games you can get online, and some of them are extremely cheap. I am a massive fan of team-building games and activities if you know me.

Mindful team-building games can work as an icebreaker and can help build confidence. It can also help to create a meaningful connection between team members.

8 Best Mindfulness Activities.

You might think, why am I telling you to go for mindfulness activities instead of any team-build-standard games? Namely, mindfulness is an excellent way of transiting from the modern busy world, into a more peaceful and less stressful lifestyle.

Mindfulness games and activities for groups can be used not only at home but also at your workplace. Do this mindfulness game, activity for your team and you can not only keep your team’s thoughts focused, but also you can get them to function better.

Besides mindfulness training, mindfulness games and activities are gaining popularity and are now used to treat anxiety, depression, trauma and other mental illnesses. This is great as mindfulness can help get rid of OCD symptoms while helping you and your team stay focused and not let your mind wander. This is great fun for all ages and all skill levels. It will keep your group focused and more focused.

The activities are great to do when you are at the grocery store, when going to the dentist, when you are out with your kids, when you are at home with your family, at your desk or at your feet when you go to the movies or a concert, and more.

Mindfulness is known to help with OCD symptoms because it can help you focus on the things that you do and it can help you not to let your mind wander. It can help you with stress and it can help you to be able to deal with your problems.

There is some fun mindful games, that you can pick up for your team. Let’s jump straight into the best out of the best mindfulness activities.

1. Observe

We can start with the easiest ones. You can set a timer for 30 minutes. Go outside and sit in a location that is quiet and quiet. Find a comfortable position that you can stay in for 30 minutes. After that, come back in and give your attention to what your hands are doing. Focus on your breathing and feel your breath going in and out of your body.

Notice all of your sensations going in and out of your body. Observe your hands without focusing your attention on them. Then move to your feet and toes without fixating on them. This should be easy because this is just regular body dysmorphia.

Your mind wanders and you cannot fix yourself in any particular place. You feel as though you have to fixate on a particular place to get your bearings. Notice how your feelings shift around and you feel as though you are getting mixed signals and your brain is confused.

2. 5,4,3,2,1

The rules are very simple; you don’t need to make subgroups or split people into any groups.

Each person needs to list the below:

• 5 things can see
• 4 things can touch
• 3 things can hear
• 2 things can smell
• 1 thing can taste.

You can ask each person to go down the list (5,4,3,2,1) or you can go “round the table” and cover all people listing 5 things that they can see, 4 things that they can touch, and so forth.

The game allows individuals to focus on stuff that, they don’t usually pay attention to. And sometimes the ideas people have, are so funny. So, I believe it is worth trying.  

3. Mindful Eating

Another cool mindfulness activity is mindful eating. During lunchtime, gather a group of people and start talking about the food they eat. What they can taste, can they feel the food going down to their stomach, do they notice any feeling while eating?

You can also try eating crunchy stuff and describe the feeling while eating. What do your teeth feel like, what about your tongue?

DID YOU KNOW?

There are many benefits that can be achieved by eating high amounts of vegetables. Among the benefits are reducing your risks of getting an overbite, the risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease and memory loss. In other words, eating a good amount of green vegetables can help improve memory loss. Furthermore, it can improve physical energy and memory. To eat enough of green vegetables to get these benefits, the person should add about 1 cup of raw, cooked and finely chopped green vegetables to each meal. This will provide maximum amount of benefits that are caused by these foods. Moreover, it is best that one should eat green vegetables in the form of chopped, steamed and boiled vegetables to avoid the risks of getting upset with nausea. Furthermore, because cooked green vegetables contain a lot of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, oils and other substances that can prevent the oxidation of your brain. Finally, it can improve circulation, allowing more oxygen to reach your brain. It can also help eliminate toxins and eliminate excess acids that cause memory loss. Thus, the benefits of eating a good amount of green vegetables can be substantial and can prevent the risks of getting upset with nausea and will improve memory loss. These benefits can even improve your mood.

4. Balloon Play

Make people blow the balloons and play. During each pass, ask questions: what is on your mind, what can you smell, what can you feel, what can you see etc.

Just because everyone is focusing on the balloon, the questions and the answers might be very interesting.

5. Mindfulness Colouring

No better mindfulness activity, than colouring, right?

You might think, this idea is so childish.

Well, not really.

A simple act, such as colouring, takes your attention away from all the thoughts that wander around your head and focuses on the present moment.

By colouring we can relax, we can improve our concentration or even our creativity.

If you are organising or running a team build event, you can always print some colouring pages and in small groups run a colouring session. It is very relaxing, yet people seem to forget about the easy exercises that they can use.

Thus, a team-building event can be an excellent opportunity to crack on with the colouring activities.

6. Body Scan Meditation

This mindfulness activity is one of my favs. Only because it allows you to relax fully and it is much easier than meditation. You, or someone who can run meditation, can guide the group and can move from top to bottom, body part by body part. Depending on how much time you have scheduled for the activities, you can do a detailed body scan that focuses even on eye brows, lips, each finger, ribs, hips etc or you can do a body scan that focuses on the main body parts like head, face, neck, shoulders, legs.

7. Group Breathing

Breathing in groups is another activity, that you can try during the team build. Again, you will probably need someone to guide the team, but it is an easy job.

Sit the team in a circle or in small groups, and start breathing together. You can mix the activity with the body scanning, or just focus on breathing in and out from your stomach. For example, you can practice breathing deeply and moving into shallow breaths or the other way around.

8. Finger Tracing Exercise

It is going to be easier for you if you watch the short clip below.

James Parker explains how the game works. It is very simple and relaxing.

What About Virtual Mindfulness Activities?

The number of virtual meetings has rapidly grown during the Covid Pandemic and many businesses are still working remotely. It was a big change to most of us; we had to learn how to communicate virtually full-time, and how to make the meetings/work interesting. We had to support each other in order to stay strong and positive. Therefore, we had to come up with new entertainment things for our colleagues.

Some of the above activities are better for meeting in person – like Balloons Play, and Mindful Eating, so let me mainly focus on Virtual meetings activities that you can try.

• 5,4,3,2,1 is excellent for both types of meetings. You can plan virtually and it is still a fun game.
• Finger Tracing is another game that you can try for virtual meetings. All you need to do is guide participants when breathing in and out.
• Group breathing, body scanning, belly breathing- all of the exercises can be easily used during a virtual call. I sometimes think it is even more convenient for some people to do it online as they might feel slightly uncomfortable in a group or a room.
• What you can also try is online games like Pictionary. There is a high number of games you can search online. And pretty much all of them are full of fun.

Tips For Practicing Mindfulness

When you are stressed, try to notice the things around you that you can observe. Try to observe the colours of flowers, the texture of the sidewalk, the smell of flowers, the sounds of the bus, the sounds of nature, etc. By observing these things, you can realize that you are surrounded by things that make you happy.

You can realize that your life is the sum of all experiences and that life is a circle, and you are your centre. This should help you in letting go of your stress. You can go to your centre and ask for help. Have a rest and enjoy the scenery around you; watch what you eat. You can practice mindfulness at work and at home.

Practice mindfulness whenever you feel as though you are in a difficult situation. It should help you understand that your feelings are temporary, but your reaction to these feelings is permanent.

Final Word

There are many more examples of mindfulness in various contexts but the above are the basics. This includes meditation, yoga, deep breathing, guided imagery, and/or simple guided imagery. You can also combine these techniques. If you are doing it without meditation, you can use guided imagery.

This can be something that you read, watch, or hear about, or you can do it on your own. In this case, you can use guided imagery to help you get centred in your body and the world around you. You can use meditation and just turn your focus to your breath and your breathing or get centred on the physical sensations in your body and your awareness of those physical sensations. Practice this while observing the world around you, or during yoga exercises that involve physical sensations that you feel while keeping your focus on your breath.

Check out my post on how to apply mindfulness at work.