Shows
The Conscious ClassroomMindfulness, More than A Productivity HackSend us a textIn this episode, Amy Edelstein unpacks why mindfulness goes beyond technique and how wonder is a key ingredient that develops authentic leadership in young people and adults. Mindfulness as only an add-on falls short of what it can be and how awe, gratitude, and presence foster the qualities of autonomy and leadership that are becoming more and more important. She encourages reflection on the wonder of human capacities, at a time when there is much attention on the capabilities of synthetic intelligence. In this session, Amy will• contrast typical exe...
2025-11-0128 minThe Conscious ClassroomTeaching Wonder: Jane Goodall inspires a Conscious GenerationSend us a textWhat if the most powerful classroom tool isn’t another strategy, but a deeper way of seeing? In this episode, Amy Edelstein explore show purpose, presence, and philosophical clarity can reshape teaching from the inside out—so young people feel safe to grow, wonder, and lead with heart.As Amy reflects on the quiet force of Jane Goodall’s life—her translucent presence, her unflinching observation of beauty and brutality, and her devotion to conservation—and translates those lessons into daily actions educators can take: walk lighter, listen longer, hold paradox without fl...
2025-10-0529 minThe Conscious ClassroomMiddle School Mindfulness, Made PracticalSend us a textIn this episode, Amy Edelstein shares a practical, developmentally appropriate guidance on teaching mindfulness to middle schoolers. She describes how to adjust practices to this age group, with a focus on structure, repetition, and emotional intelligence. Paying attention to their emerging selfhood, a teacher can guide that emergence while recognizing that students are still very group oriented. Short, tactile practices, playful competition, and thoughtful repeated transitions help students build mindfulness habits that will last.Tips and Guidelines in this session:• modeling calm, order, and consistent rout...
2025-09-0924 minThe Conscious ClassroomLetting Go & Creating Safe Spaces: Rituals for the Conscious ClassroomSend us a textFor teachers feeling overwhelmed by global challenges and classroom responsibilities, this episode offers a lifeline of wisdom. Amy Edelstein delves into the transformative power of letting go—not as abandonment of responsibility, but as a profound acceptance that creates space for growth.Just as great trees stand witness through storms and seasons, we can bear witness, standing still, mindfully being with emotions without trying to fix them. We can practice being present with our own anxiety, grief, or despair. Inner work is essential. When we metabolize our emotions, we become capable of...
2025-08-1020 minThe Conscious ClassroomMindful Interconnectedness: Seeing Beyond Personal StressSend us a textIn this episode, Amy Edelstein explains why she included the lessons on systems thinking in the Inner Strength Teen Mindfulness Program. Teaching students how to understand their experiences within larger systems, helps them manage stress by seeing interconnections across time and society rather than taking challenges personally.You'll learn why:• Teaching teens to think in context allows them to see how their current stressors connect to broader historical developments• Systems thinking serves as powerful self-care by revealing our interdependence and reducing feelings of isolation• Underst...
2025-06-3024 minThe Conscious ClassroomTrue North: The Key to Navigating Change in EducationSend us a textIn this episode Amy Edelstein explores what it can meet to root in our True North, our deepest values, when we lean into how education needs to transform.The questions surrounding education's future form an intricate web: How do we pause and reflect while simultaneously responding to the immediate needs of our students? Who funds it and why? What outcomes do we desire? How do we serve students with vastly different backgrounds and trajectories? When confronting complexity, Amy looks at how returning to a "true north" of universal hu...
2025-04-2627 minThe Conscious ClassroomBrave New Learning: Sal Khan, AI Tutors, & the Future of Mindfulness EducationSend us a textThe educational landscape is undergoing a profound transformation through artificial intelligence, and mindfulness education stands at this exciting frontier. In this thought-provoking exploration, Amy Edelstein reviews Sal Khan's new book "Brave New Words" and unpacks the potential and challenge of AI tutors to support students' inner development, while maintaining crucial human connections.Amy examines Khan's great success with Khan Academy and the AI Khanmigo, looking specifically at how AI tutors can personalize learning experiences, making first-class education and tools more accessible. AI tutors can deliver mindfulness content in students' n...
2025-03-1734 minThe Conscious ClassroomReturning to AnalogSend us a textIn this episode of The Conscious Classroom, Amy Edelstein questions the use of the popular idiom "returning to analog." While agreeing with the sentiment that we reconnect with the preciousness of our humanity as technology continues to advance rapidly, she questions placing that sentiment within in technical context. Amy discusses the balance between digital experiences and the visceral richness of our awareness and connections and looks at some of the questions surrounding Ed-Tech and the integration of AI into the classroom. Key themes include:• Exploring the concept of returning to anal...
2025-02-0425 minThe Conscious ClassroomInspiration, Illumination & Sacred Intention: A New Year's Day ContemplationSend us a textThis episode of The Conscious Classroom with Amy Edelstein invites us to explore the power of setting meaningful intentions and to learn how to let go of will-based resolutions as the most effective means to create lasting transformation. By uncovering our deepest values and nurturing inspiration from within, we can align our actions with what truly matters to us and engage in positive change, both personally and collectively.Amy will delve into:• Identifying the value of intentions rather than resolutions• Reflecting on our deeper cares as we set o...
2025-01-0541 minThe Conscious ClassroomBeing with What Is During the HolidaysSend us a textHolidays are awe-filled and also can bring about feelings of sadness, grief and loneliness for ourselves and our students. Join Amy Edelstein in this episode of The Conscious Classroom Podcast as we explore how to let go into the present moment and find the posture that allows us to be with what is with grace, strength, and presence. The holiday season can be a challenging time, filled with mixed emotions and societal expectations. As educators, we have the unique opportunity to guide our students through these complexities with grace and awareness. T...
2024-12-1128 minThe Conscious ClassroomDedication, Transformation & the ArtsSend us a textExperience the essence of creativity and dedication with Amy Edelstein as we journey with her to CoSM, the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors in the Catskills. This episode celebrates Alex and Alison Gray, the visionary artists who have devoted decades to the transformative power of art. For their entire adult life, they have been expressing their own adventures in consciousness through their unique for of art, becoming leaders and pillars of the psychedelic art movement. They exemplify how art can be a conduit for personal and collective growth, and their center stands as one...
2024-11-2631 minThe Conscious ClassroomCreating Positive Spaces with a Grateful MindsetSend us a textCreating Positive Spaces with a Grateful MindsetIt's so simple, could it really change our outlook, experience and classrooms? In this episode of the Conscious Classroom, Amy Edelstein looks at ways that gratitude can transform our experience and deepen our understanding of presence, interconnectedness, and awe. You will see how we can shift our perspectives, working with everyday events like traffic irritation, and cultivate a very different mindset. It's not lightweight, it can have a real impact and reveal profound truths about the nature of our world. Dis...
2024-10-3122 minThe Conscious ClassroomAuthenticity: the elusive quality that ignites classroomsSend us a textDo you feel like you're authentic in your teaching and in your life? How does we "become" more authentic? Can mindfulness bring authenticity or is it more than that?In this episode, Amy unpacks the elusive quality of authenticity. We all think we know it when we see it but how do we develop it? Authenticity brings integrity and stability into our classrooms. Embracing vulnerability and aligning with our core values revolutionizes our teaching and enables our students to trust and let go so they can learn. ...
2024-09-2934 minThe Conscious ClassroomContentment in Times of StressSend us a textDiscover the secret to finding profound contentment even in the most stressful times. What if you could cultivate a deeper sense of fulfillment through mindful awareness and systems thinking? On today's Conscious Classroom podcast, Amy Edelstein guides you through transformative insights that will help you create spaces for rejuvenation. You'll learn how to harness the power of meditation to develop an inner sense of wholeness and simplicity, empowering you to maintain a backdrop of contentment no matter the challenges you face.Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode pl...
2024-08-2630 minThe Conscious ClassroomPlato Knew It All Along - Teachers, Transmission & Trustworthy ImpactSend us a textCan shifting the focus for teachers from content to connection be the key to lifting adolescent loneliness? Journey with Amy Edelstein on this episode of the Conscious Classroom podcast as she unpacks the role of teachers as moral exemplars, following the principles laid out by Plato. You'll explore how transmission occurs and why teachers impact not just academic success, but also ethics, values, and personal connection that can make a real difference in students' lives.Amy shares a personal story of how her fifth-grade teacher from Linden E...
2024-06-041h 04The Conscious ClassroomEducation Design that Works: Blending Visionary Ideas with Classroom RealitiesSend us a textIn this episode we pack two levels of insight that are mostly at odds with one another when it comes to improving educational design. We examine the dual landscape of educational innovation, where grand visions and data analysis for systemic change clash with the hands-on challenges of classroom application. Working with systems thinking, the fact that we are all innovating around the same core issue, Amy Edelstein illuminates what can become synergy between high-level design and practical program execution. For true reform to be meaningful and pragmatic, we must work with the tools t...
2024-05-0729 minThe Conscious ClassroomJim Crow's Pink Slip - Dismantling the Education GapSend us a textJim Crow's Pink Slip - Dismantling the Education Gap with Amy EdelsteinIn this episode of The conscious Classroom, Amy Edelstein helps illuminate the little-known history and ongoing influence of resistance to de-segregation within America's education system - and how mindfulness, being conscious and aware of our biases, is an important part of our work to redress inequity. Leslie Fenwick's seminal work, Jim Crow's Pink Slip, serves as a guide and compass, unveiling the long shadow left by the dismissal or demotion of a significant number of black principals and educators a...
2024-04-1832 min
The Dream Catcher Podcast[Interview] Living Your Epic Journey: How to Distill the Wisdom from Your Story (feat. Amy Edelstein)Original airdate: May 31, 2022
So many of us undervalue our own experience and overlook the wisdom that can support us daily. These habits of self-sabotage knock the wind out of our sails and keep us searching and grasping for what we have already realized.
One way to overcome this is to see life as a unique epic journey and become aware of the transformation we experience through its peaks and valleys.
To help us find inspiration, I invited Amy Edelstein.
Amy Edelstein is the author of six books, including the award-winning The...
2024-04-0940 minThe Conscious ClassroomAwareness & Innovation: The Wings of Tomorrow's EducationSend us a textUnlock the synergy between mindfulness and innovation as Amy Edelstein explores the relationship between these two orientations in this episode of the Conscious Classroom. Imagine a learning environment where the air is alive with creativity, and students and teachers alike are inspired to view the world through a lens of fresh possibilities. This discussion unearths the possibilities that contemplative practice can reveal, and shows how marrying innovation and inner exploration is working. In Inner Strength Education's pilot project with 10 student interns explore the XPRIZE Connect innovation curriculum and Inner Strength Education's tools of o...
2024-03-2730 minThe Conscious ClassroomMindful Joy: The Secret Sauce in Educational LeadershipSend us a textIn this episode of The Conscious Classroom, Amy Edelstein unpacks the importance of teacher happiness and how to use mindful awareness and perspectives to improve teacher wellbeing and sense of possibility prior to making practical changes, which undoubtedly also need to occur. Amy explores the impact of educators who tap into their passion, setting the classroom tone and invigorating their students with a love for learning. In this insightful episode, she dissects how a teacher's zest for their craft can revolutionize the traditional learning space, fostering innovation and a thriving environment f...
2024-03-0325 min
Handful of Leaves | Mindfulness & Buddhism in Everyday LifeEp 9: Near Death Experience Ft Amy Edelstein- #1 Amazon Bestselling Author)About Amy Edelstein:
IPPY-award winner and #1 Amazon bestselling author
Begun her own meditation practice in 1978, spent four decades practicing, studying, researching, writing about
Founder of Inner Strength Education, which brings mindfulness, systems thinking, and social-emotional tools to under-resourced schools, training more than 17,000 teens in Philadelphia public high schools.
Created a trauma-informed free mindfulness app for teens Inner Strength VIBE, available on GooglePlay and App Stores.
Awarded a Philadelphia Social Innovation Award for her organisation’s work in Violence Reduction.
She is a Cornell University College scholar and the author of six books, including The Conscious Classroom.
T...
2024-02-2047 minThe Conscious ClassroomMindfulness Is Not A Pill, It's a PerspectiveSend us a textDiscover the keys to unlocking our children's potential in an era where education is at a crossroads and technology's influence is undeniable. This enlightening journey through the world of learning reveals how an evolved mindset, coupled with a transformative educational system, is essential for nurturing the curiosity, purpose, wisdom, and respect desperately needed today. Amy delves into the challenges presented by outdated institutions, and the pressures faced by both students and educators as they navigate the fragmented structures of modern society. While mindfulness is a tool, and a valuable one, what it reveals...
2024-02-1821 minThe Conscious ClassroomA Human Relationship to AISend us a textDiscover how the relationship we forge with AI in our classrooms can go beyond mere functionality to touch the very core of our humanity. Join me, Amy Edelstein, as we unveil the transformative potential of AI when approached with the same reverence we approach the great mysteries and subtleties of sentience and life. It's an invitation to infuse our relationship to educational technologies with wonder, respect, and a co-creative spirit that not only advances our learning tools but also shapes the hearts and minds of learners. By instilling these values, we contribute to...
2024-02-0524 minThe Conscious ClassroomScaling Compassion? AI possibilities & Real Life ExamplesSend us a textIn this episode, Amy Edelstein reflects on a recent trip to India, which raised intriguing and inspiring possibilities as she visiting with the founders of the Happiness Curriculum, that reaches 1.7 million students each day. She also explores AI potential and urgency to train AI on compassion and wisdom and scale that use for the benefit of all. She also shares the value of reflection, retreat, and time to let our minds open up to new ways of seeing as essential to keep our relationship to life and those we teach awake and alive.
2024-01-2131 minThe Conscious ClassroomThe Power of Fostering Friendships in the ClassroomSend us a textThere's a hidden superpower in a regular teen activity that will provide support for teachers as well as students. This inclination, when activated, encouraged, and guided can create a safety net for students, build webbing so classrooms feel warm and encouraging, catch students who are falling behind, and bring out the sensitivity and protectiveness of some of the most unruly students. What is it? Friendships. Yes, simple friendships. In this episode, Amy Edelstein talks about how to structure the friendships and the positive benefits that come when students begin to support each other's...
2023-11-0537 minThe Conscious ClassroomPeace, Reason & Care in the Face of WarSend us a textIn this episode of The Conscious Classroom, Amy Edelstein shares from the heart about the impact of the eruption of war between Israel and Gaza, and that pain that is bringing to so many in the region and beyond. How do we provide steadiness and guidance within our classrooms? How do we rise authentically and demonstrate care that goes beyond divisions? Included is a long guided meditation (not to be practiced while driving), starting with open awareness to access the goodness of the human heart, and moving into insight practice, from that space...
2023-10-1724 minThe Conscious ClassroomThe Future of Education - New Teacher Training GroundsSend us a textIn this episode, The Future of Education, Amy Edelstein explores a visionary approach to teacher training. If we are to truly inspire teachers and students to engage with their own learning in an innovative and even prophetic way, the training grounds that prepare teachers to teach must exemplify that new world and its higher values. Far too many people are concerned about how AI and Augmented Virtual Reality might subvert learning and far too few are imagining the frontiers that can be created in a virtual reality training ground, where the context is...
2023-09-0430 min
Flourishing Edge Podcast with Ashish KothariMindfulness for Personal Growth: Cultivating Inner Strength with Amy EdelsteinAre you ready to explore why you should never give up seeking? In today’s episode, Anil and Ashish sit down with Amy Edelstein, an author, educator, and nonprofit leader, as they delve into her transformative experiences and the impact of her work in inner city schools. Amy shares her story and how her practices have helped unlock flourishing within the lives of teen students in one of the poorest cities in the United States. With over 40 years of experience, Amy is the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Inner Strength Education, which has empowered more tha...
2023-07-2551 min
Meditation Jam with Maria Rinné, Igniting guided meditations, guests and life!MEDITATION JAM - Celebrate life with guest Amy Edelstein - 18 of June 2023Warm welcome a new pod episode of - “Meditation Jam with Maria Rinné.
I’ve had a beautiful, and inspiring talk with transformation educator, author, meditation teacher, and adventurer Amy Edelstein.
Amy has recently written her sixth book where she shares her transformation trekking to Zanskar (northern India) in her early twenties.
We talk about this, about life and also how she today works with teens to help transform the culture we live in.
After the talk you can join me for an igniting energy meditation where we connect with a base energy, one that is from the beginnings, filled with...
2023-06-181h 14The Conscious ClassroomAI - Potential or Peril or Both?Send us a textIn this episode of The Conscious Classroom, Amy Edelstein shares insights about the potential and peril of new AI tools and considerations explored in the recent C20 meetings on Technology, Security and Transformation. As a panelist for the convening on Technology & Education, Edelstein was able to share views on the importance of teachers and teaching, and how to meet this brave new world with caution and optimism.Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode please leave a review! Your review supports our podcast to...
2023-05-2131 minThe Conscious ClassroomEmpathy or Compassion? Discovering an Orientation that Brings Energy & JoySend us a textIn this episode, Amy Edelstein looks at the difference between empathy and compassion, exploring the elements of compassion that allow it to become a source of our own joy and upliftment. She also illuminates how detachment, universality, and self-care enable us to orient ourselves around compassion and fuel our own resilience and upliftment. Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode please leave a review! Your review supports our podcast to reach more educators and share the importance of creating more conscious classrooms.T...
2023-05-0228 minThe Conscious ClassroomUncommon Leadership: The Path for the History Makers of Tomorrow - Villanova Women's History Speaker of the MonthSend us a textIn honor of Women’s History Month, Amy Edelstein was invited by Villanova University's School of Business to unpack what it takes to pursue our own calling, break limits, and strive to for excellence in our work, our personal growth, and our contribution to the world. These days, we are pressured to achieve in so many spheres, from the obligation, as leaders, to the bottom line to our own desire for a positive and holistic value set that takes into account our planet, our community, and our own interior life. As women...
2023-04-0254 min