All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without benefit of experience. ~Henry Miller

~

Today is February 29th.

The Egyptians were the first to come up with the idea of adding a leap day once every four years to keep the calendar in sync with the solar year. Leap years are necessary because the actual length of a year is 365.242 days. Basically, leap years occur every 4 years, and years that are evenly divisible by 4 (2004, for example) have 366 days.

In honor of this extra special day, I share with you 29 of the coolest mental health breaks I have culled from the interweb over the past several months… funky websites, fantastic videos and rad infographics. (I teach middle school, and these videos are teenager-appropriate and approved!)

1. Cool stop motion animation music video, Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavie.

2. Funky Seven Nation Army cover with stop motion animation.

3. Don’t worry ’bout a thing…

4. Classic.

5. Mindblowing stats.

6. Creative inspiration.

7. http://www.drawastickman.com/

8. There are seven billion people on Earth.

9. The Amish Project: a young man disconnects from the “cloud” for 90 days to reboot his connection with the world and the people he loves in it.

10. Take a metta time-out. Repeat to yourself: May all beings be safe. May all beings be health. May all beings be happy. May all beings be free from suffering.

11. Free Will Astrology. Fun weekly horoscopes.

12. Find out your Mayan birth sign.

13. Please join my Tantric yoga sex cult by the blasphemous Mark Morford of SF Gate

14. Turn off all your devices and mindfully, slowly eat at least one whole piece of fresh fruit.

15. Simple creativity (featuring more fun with stop motion).

16. Two-minute meditation

17. Rad.

18. Do five sun salutations.

19. Maybe, just possibly the most beautiful yoga video ever.

20. Contemplate emptiness.

21. Listen to some new tunes on Jango.

22. Do some hula hooping.

23. Listen to a Dharma talk.

24. When Muppets Attack.

25. Poignant Puppets.

26. Pinterest

27. Hope is rising.

28. Infographic: Meditation in Schools Across America

29. Go outside and take ten deep breaths of fresh air. Ahhhhh, the best mental health break of all!

 

~

 

Editor: Brianna Bemel