Mindfulness Lessons

    

   (12 Fascinating Ways Mindfulness Can Improve Your Mental (and Physical) Health, According to Science, 2022).

    What's your earliest memory? When do you first remember realizing that you were part of society and how you acted impacted yourself and others? Have you realized that yet, and do you have the tools to deal with it? Did you know that how you feel influences how you treat other people? Being in the present moment and understanding how to regulate your own emotions are brought to light in practices like social-emotional learning or mindfulness and can help deal with some of the questions I have brought up. 

    School is meant to prepare you for life. Social-emotional learning should be integrated into school curriculums. By the age of 18 one in three adolescents will experience anxiety and meet the criteria to be diagnosed (Why is Mindfulness Needed in Education, n.d.). The percentage of students that will actually receive the help they need is significantly lower than that. Mindfulness practices can give students tools to deal with their current stress and can be useful for students down the road too. Students today have different experiences than children of the past have had.  US students are spending 9 hours a day on average consuming digital entertainment outside of school  (Why is Mindfulness Needed in Education, n.d.). As a teacher, it is important to note this because it means our students' out-of-school experience is not the same as when older generations and I were in school. Social media and the constant consumption of outside media can manifest other outside stress on top of school stress. Social-emotional learning also perpetuates an opportunity for teachers to learn. 

    Teachers can become proficient in managing their stress and emotions with the techniques they try to relay to their students. Teachers also report high rates of being stressed out and a little under half of the educators report having “not good” mental health (Why is Mindfulness Needed in Education, n.d.). Social-Emotional Learning will be a mutually beneficial experience for students and teachers.

    It is going to take a lot of patience for teachers to implement mindfulness, and I don’t want this task to come across as an easy, smooth-road-ahead journey. In the documentary, Room To Breathe the mindfulness instructor in a middle school class found herself having a difficult time getting children to take mindfulness practices seriously (Long, 2012). Her patience and persistence did eventually pay off, but only after removing the students who were consistently causing disruptions. After this class, 80% of the student reported being able to calm down easier when upset, 58% focused better in class, and 40% used it to avoid fights or arguments (Long, 2012). When discussing the students that were removed from the mindfulness class, I found it interesting that she noted “These are probably the students who needed this [Mindfulness] the most.”(Long, 2012). To me, this means that it may not have been the time or place for these students to learn mindfulness, and that is okay. 

    The journey to learning mindfulness may not look the same for everyone. I can only speak from my own experiences. I have been actively searching for tools to manage my anxiety and depression for a few years now. Of course, therapy was helpful, but it did not always feel like enough. I started to seek out mindful activities, like stream-of-consciousness journaling, and meditation. I began watching Headspace Guide to Meditation on Netflix. I found this to be a great way to open up my way of thinking, especially about my brain and the way it works (Thornton & Wilson, 2021). I also liked the app headspace, which gives you free, but restricted access to some mindfulness practices and videos. For a fee, you can have unrestricted access to their app. I also tried out Aura another mindfulness app. My only problem with this app is you are required to pay for access, but I appreciate that they truly curate an app that generates what you want to focus on in your mindfulness journey, and categorize it specifically so that you can focus on one aspect at a time. For a while, I felt that I had a pretty good handle on being mindful until I was brought back to reality when babysitting the other day. My nephew is going through a potty training regression at four and I found myself overly frustrated and angry with him. I realized I needed to be able to regulate my own emotions before I was ready to interact and find a working solution to the problem at hand. 

    My anger and frustration were not productive in the conversation, and it reminded me that mindfulness is not going to be a one-time lesson, but rather an ongoing learning journey that will constantly need practicing. If practicing mindfulness starts at a younger age and is taught in schools, it gives students more time to cultivate their tools and face life with wisdom and compassion. In my reference section, I have also added some websites that give tips and information on implementing mindfulness into your classroom or daily life. 

References and helpful links:

Long, R. (director/ producer). (2012) Room To Breathe [film]. ZAP Zoetrope Aubry Productions.

Schwartz, K. (2019). Nine ways to ensure your mindfulness teaching is trauma informed. KQED Mindshift. https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/53228/nine-ways-to-ensure-your-mindfulness-teaching-practice-is-trauma-informed

Wilson, N., & Thornton, C. (Directors). (2021). Headspace Guide to Meditation. Vox Media Studios. https://www.netflix.com/search?q=heads&jbv=81280926

Why is Mindfulness Needed in Education. (n.d.). Mindful Schools https://www.mindfulschools.org/about-mindfulness/why-is-mindfulness-needed-in-education/

  12 Fascinating Ways Mindfulness Can Improve Your Mental (and Physical) Health, According to Science. (2022, September 11). Real Simple. https://www.realsimple.com/health/mind-mood/mindfulness-health-benefits