Is Practicing Mindfulness in School a Good Idea?

[MariaCMeow]

Anyone look back at your tween and teen years and reminisce about how incredibly awkward and uncomfortable you felt in your own skin? Anyone, in conjunction, also realize that those quirks you felt so odd about back then have actually made you the unique person you are today? Anyone think how sad it was that you wasted all that time and energy worrying about what others thought about you? Well...I sure as hell do.

This summer I'm teaching a Girls' Lifestyle Camp to middle school students. The first half of class each day is filled with hair, skin, and nail care tips, demos, and practices. The classroom turns into a mini salon where the girls get to do each other's hair and nails, which is not only super cute to watch, but an excellent way for them to bond with one another. The second half of class each day is devoted to mind and body. This is where we talk about the heavy-hitting issues of adolescence such as self-identity, self-image, confidence, & being healthy physically and mentally.

I finished the first week already and have been pleasantly surprised thus far by the girls' receptivity to the second portion of class. We've done yoga, Zumba, pilates, and meditation. They've been game for it, most of them participating whole-heartedly. At the end of each class, I give the girls 20-30 minutes of journaling time. Their journals are completely confidential and only for their eyes to see; in fact, I lock them up everyday after class is over. I allow them to write about whatever they choose, but I always provide prompts for them to write about if they'd like to. The prompts include questions like:
"What stresses you out? How do you handle this stress? Where/how do you feel it?"
"What makes you feel awkward or self-conscious? Why?"
"How do you express yourself? Do you have hobbies or creative outlets?"

I ask questions that encourage the girls to form self-awareness. To my pleasant surprise again, the girls have taken to the journaling like moths to a flame. Originally, I was only going to make them do this for 15 minutes, but then I noticed that a few of the girls couldn't stop writing, and I've extended the time to about 30 minutes. A few of my girls write voraciously until the very last minute of class each day. This past Friday, we unfortunately ran out of time to journal, and one of the girls, who I had thought wasn't that into the journaling portion of class, inquired about it. When I told her we ran out of class time, she was disappointed. I was blown away...and I couldn't be happier or prouder.

It's so important to me to give these girls a safe environment where they can start realizing their own unique wonderfulness. I never had anything like this available to me in middle school where my anxiety and OCD started running rampant. I told the girls this as well; I've been completely open and honest with them about my struggles in middle school and let them know that I'm providing them tools now that they can use the rest of their lives. I told them if I had known about meditation, self-awareness, mindfulness, and self-acceptance, I probably wouldn't have such a heavy case of Generalized Anxiety Disorder and OCD now as an adult. I also want them to realize that it's okay to feel different, it's okay to feel uncomfortable, and it's okay to ask for help. If I hadn't been so ashamed and embarrassed of my own differences as a kid, I could've reached out for therapy a long time ago and probably eradicated a lot of my anxiety early on. I so badly want these girls to know that they aren't alone, and they should be proud of who they are, awkwardness and idiosyncrasies included. These so-called oddities are what make each of us uniquely our own selves; it's our so-called imperfections that make us perfectly who we are.

Also published at the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/maria-s ... _hp_ref=tw

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[Gareth]

Great stuff Maria, thanks for posting.

I will put some links to it on Twitter soon. We have quite a few Tweets lined up so it might be a week or so. I'll make sure that I give your Twitter handle a shout too.

I don't have time to give an in-depth answer, but in short, my answer would be yes. I feel that it is of critical importance that we teach the importance of mindfulness to our children.

[wchohan]

Firstly, it is a pleasure to be here. The beautiful part was to lead into this forum through the dense researching on mindfulness.

Our lives have now become immensely cluttered, in general, specifically with all the things we need to do and in the long run we lose track, if not of time, then of ourselves.

The incoming generation is exposed to a whole new different level and that is primarily the use of technology and the mass media, it is not to be blamed as its perfected use can established a greater stance of learning. Yet, it is not something which is embedded at birth. It is essential for us to make way for them to understand the meaning of what we call an illusion.

I agree, mindfulness must be a part of schooling, a training which must begin with the students themselves. It may only allow for greater understanding of who one is from within and have an open mind. Since advocacy is a major part of today's world, there may stand a greater possibility of having one transfer it to another.

I, only recently began the readings on Mindfulness and it is not a linear path to achieving the understanding of self, it is a lot more.

[JonW]

We have a Dharma primary school here in Brighton where I live.
I've been meaning to get in touch with the school to see if they would like to contribute to Everyday Mindfulness in some way.
I'll let you all know what they say.
All best,
Jon

[MrBlueSky]

I think a critical piece of teaching mindfulness to young people is to embody the practice I.e you talk the talk and you walk the walk. Young people are very perceptive and can see if your words and actions match.

So I think now that we have the ball rolling bringing mindfulness to schools, I think there is an equally important argument to be made for teachers adopting the practice themselves. It always feels odd to me to tell the kids they should be using mindfulness when the significant adults in their lives are not.

And in actual fact we as adults model some very unmindful behaviours for our children and students.

I teach mindfulness in schools to teens here in Canada, but if teachers were involved at adopting the practice at some level then I think this would truly transform what's going on in schools. Maybe a small portion of time each day/week is given over to teachers and students practicing together. There are probably many innovative-and even-fun ways this could be done.

Is that happening in UK already maybe ?