Mindfulness for Kids
The latest issue of Greater Good Magazine is out, and I want to recommend not only the magazine as a whole but also a specific article in this edition: “Mindful Kids, Peaceful Schools.”
The piece echoes one I read a few months ago in another of my favorite magazines, Ascent, a Canadian publication. That article was entitled, “The New ABCs - Awareness, Balance & Compassion.”
Both essays suggest that children can benefit greatly from the practice of mindfulness: intentional silence, breath awareness, attention to sensory stimuli, physical relaxation. Studies have found that mindfulness sessions result in more cooperative students, better listening skills, longer attention spans and even improved test scores.
While mindfulness is often considered to be a notion of Hatha Yoga or Buddhism, quiet meditation has a place in almost every religion and therapeutic regimen. Your tradition may call it prayerfulness or meditation or yoga or just daydreaming, but most of us know we benefit from some “down time” to commune as spiritual selves and we all can benefit from listening to our hearts.
Whatever the label we give it, in the context of a hectic school day, this sort of personal time out has been increasingly hard to come by as teachers and students focus on accountability measures and standardized testing. Now researchers are discovering that as schools have become more stressful, class time actually is less nurturing for kids. In answer to that, groups like the Goldie Hawn Institute , the InnerKids Foundation and the Mindfulness Awareness Research Centre as well as many others are introducing the idea of mindfulness curricula into educational settings. Further, some teachers who enjoy their own meditative moments are inviting their students to do the same.
Most of us have found that we perform tasks less well when we are distracted or worried or nervous or tired. Mindfulness is based on the fact that we can make intential positive responses in those situations; we can return ourselves to a healthy state of mind! Scientists tell us we can even control our breathing, our heart rate, our cortisol levels and our immune responses. If so, mindfulness may be our path to that control.
So what does mindfulness look like in a classroom? That is not easily answered; inner peace does not have a standard presentation. Sometimes it is a quiet group time after lunch. Sometimes it is guided meditation before tackling a creative assignment. Other times, it is breathing exercises before an exam or silence in the face of anger or stillness after confrontation.
Here’s how writer Juniper Glass describes one session:
…twenty six-year-olds are learning a lesson. They sit quietly, listening. Then they sit quietly, feeling. Then seeing. Then smellling. They are led gently through the five senses by their teacher. The lesson is called, “Mindful of Nature.”
I am most intrigued by this idea of mindfulness in the classroom because for the past few years one of my most successful writing assignments with kids and adults has been what I called Guided Imagery. It involves having participants close their eyes and imagine a specific location. I usually suggest a room they know well or a natural site they enjoy. I then walk them through a virtual experience of the place: how the air feels, what they can hear, what they can smell, what colors they see, etc. The resulting poems, stories and essays have been delightfully image-driven and remarkably honest. Now I realize–we were using mindfulness without knowing it!
University of Massachusetts Medical School faculty member Jon Kabat-Zinn defines mindfulness as:
Paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgementally.
That is an attitude that can be crucial in many adult situations from business to law enforcement to education to medicine. Think about your typical day and ask yourself:
- When would it help me to be more mindful?
- How could I make time for meditative breaks?
- Who else might join me in being mindful?
- How might mindfulness transfor my workplace?
We live in a crazy, chaotic world that teaches our children to expect crazy, chaotic lives. What if we offered young people a truth often have forgotten: that taking time away from stress to think, to listen, to be calm or to pray can be more positive in our lives than any medicine we take, any vacation we take or any material possessions we acquire.
So what are you waiting for? It’s time to take care of you.
Experience Mindfulness Every Day– What a Blessing!
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