Mindfulness - Being in the moment

Mindfulness, there’s a lot of talk about it, but what exactly is it, and how can it help you working in a busy school environment?

It isn’t about yoga poses, spiritual enlightenment, emptying your mind or simply chilling out, it’s about becoming aware of the here and now. Mindfulness can help us enjoy our immediate environment, to understand ourselves better, and experience things we might have taken for granted.

Paying attention to where you are currently, choosing not to get caught up in the rush of the world around you can have positive effects on your mental health, including fostering early warning signs of stress or anxiety, and placing you in a better position to work with them.

It’s a reconnecting with our bodies, and the sensations that we feel, however ordinary they might initially seem. It could be the opening of a classroom door, the feel of the pen whilst you’re marking an exam, or even the smell of the school canteen!

Mindfulness can help regulate and reduce stress, as well as increase self-compassion and teaching efficacy.

Three ways to be more mindful:

Stop and notice – remind yourself to step back from the busyness of everyday activities to give both your body and mind some welcome space.
Make it a habit – pick a time during the day that you will dedicate to the practice.
Do something different – it could be a new route to work or seat in the staffroom, it’s up to you!

We’ve touched upon how mindfulness can help you, but what about the pupils, what can it do for them?

Wellbeing and mental health – recognising worry, managing difficulties, handling exams stress and developing a more mindful awareness.
Concentration and cognition – understanding and directing their attention with greater awareness and skill.
Social and emotional learning – developing a greater awareness of ourselves and of our relationships with others and how to manage them.
Behaviour – potentially helping them to self-regulate more effectively, manage impulsivity, reducing conflict and oppositional behaviour.

The Mindfulness in Schools Project (MiSP)

We are working together with the charity, MiSP, to help bring mindfulness to schools to achieve a cultural shift in the approach to pupil’s mental health and wellbeing, treating the teaching of mindfulness as seriously as any other school subject. MiSP operates across the UK, as well as via partnerships internationally and is the most established provider of mindfulness training for schools, delivering world leading curricula for classroom based mindfulness. Written by teachers for teachers, the materials are based on rigorous research in clinical psychology and neuroscience and used successfully in a wide range of educational contexts.

Visit mindfulnessinschools.org to find out more.