5 Things I Learned From A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Course

Read any current ‘morning routine’ book, and the chances are, there will be a chapter on meditation.

Often it is identified as an essential part of the break of dawn ‘to-do’ list.

We should wake up from an uninterrupted eight hours of sleep, exercise, drink lots of water and have a healthy breakfast. We must then do some meditation before we try, in earnest, to articulate an answer to a problematic email or plan our 7.30 am parent meeting.

In reality, despite our best intentions, we often fall short of our eight hours of sleep. We grab a quick shower and eat a snack on the way out of the door.

We then curse ourselves for emphatically NOT being part of a prestigious group of productive early risers and not being entirely prepared for the day ahead.

Despite a lack of enthusiasm in getting up early, I read a lot of research and started to include meditation into my daily schedule — although not always in the morning — a few years ago. There was no immediate enlightenment, but with a few weeks practise, it seemed to allow me a little more bandwidth to deal with the variety of scenarios that arise in a day in the life of a teacher.

I was aware I had a little more patience and found I had more energy towards the end of the day. All in, it seemed beneficial for me.

I followed the well-trodden path of app-based meditation; many of you will know the…