Increasing Workplace Well-being with Compassion and Mindfulness
by Holly Hatton-Bowers
Assistant Professor and Early Childhood Extension Specialist, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
The modified proverb, “it takes a healthy village or community to raise a child,” resonates more and more every day. We need healthy members of our communities in order for children to have the opportunity to learn and thrive.
As a young child growing up without stability and witnessing domestic violence and parental drug addiction, my sense of safety and security were often absent. I was very shy, anxious, and often worried. However, my early childhood caregivers and elementary school teachers were healthy members of my community. Through their displays of compassion and by giving me safe and predictable relationships, I experienced trust and a sense of belonging. I often wonder, what if these caregivers and teachers had not been healthy? What if their stressors had caused them to be less present in my life? Would I be who and where I am today?
Stress can negatively affect our health and our performance at work. When we feel significant stress, we may not sleep, we may be more reactive with coworkers, children, and families, and we feel less engaged. When this stress persists over time, our well-being may suffer and it may be difficult to enjoy day-to-day work. Our ability to be present and in the moment may decrease.
Research has confirmed that when early childhood educators and teachers are not well, they may be less equipped to provide the strong, stable relationships needed to promote healthy development and learning in children.
Sometimes, when you talk to early childhood educators and teachers, you hear many stories of how they are surviving but not how they are thriving. In a recent Gallup poll on workplace stress, 46 percent of teachers reported high daily stress, a level that is comparable to nurses. Additionally, there are reports of high levels of burnout and increasing rates of turnover in staff. Clearly, there is a need to support the well-being of early childhood educators and teachers.
Dr. Amy Roberts and colleagues at the Buffett Early Childhood Institute suggest a holistic view when supporting staff wellness. They provide a conceptual model for teacher well-being that is inclusive of both contextual and individual factors. This framework for viewing teacher and early childhood educator well-being highlights the value of not only focusing on individual-level supports and interventions but also organizational and systemic approaches. Delivering workplace interventions that promote well-being to reach both the organization and the individual creates opportunities for changing the culture from surviving to one of thriving.
While there are many ways to address well-being in the workplace, a promising approach is delivering compassion and mindfulness-based interventions. Such interventions can be particularly beneficial for enhancing early childhood educators’ social-emotional competence and psychological well-being, and can have positive impacts for child outcomes. Compassion is noticing the suffering and pain of another and wanting to help. It involves practicing mindfulness, kindness and sense of common humanity and research finds it may boost resilience and prosocial behavior. While sometimes viewed as something an individual practices on their own, mindfulness and compassion often involve learning and practicing with a community.
In 2017, our University of Nebraska Extension early childhood Cultivating Healthy Intentional Mindful Educators (CHIME) program was created using these concepts of compassion, mindfulness, and social-emotional learning as a way to promote early childhood professional well-being. Since piloting of our 8-week CHIME program delivered in small groups in person or online, we have learned many important lessons and offer the following Five to Thrive Mindful steps as guidance as you embark on your journey to enhance the well-being of your staff at Head Start.
The Five to Thrive Mindful Steps
1 The first step in implementing a compassion- and mindfulness-based program with your Head Start organization is to assess your staff well-being needs and interests. Identify if and how many staff are interested in participating in these types of programs and interventions. They may not be of interest to every staff member and they should not be forced upon those who are not interested. It can also be helpful for leadership to pause and reflect on behaviors found to be key in fostering resilient leadership.
2 The second step is to create a physical “wellness” space for your Head Start staff. In one of our pilot Head Start programs, the program designated a “wellness” room in the center. This room was a quiet place for staff to practice formal mindfulness activities, such as walking meditations and a place for them to focus on their well-being.
3 The third step is to have staff “well-being champions” and make sure that leadership staff also participate and understand these programs. They may not participate as fully as other Head Start staff but they should understand the purpose and intent. These well-being champions can provide monthly newsletters that incorporate suggestions for taking mindful moments and for practicing compassion.
4 The fourth step to identify a mindfulness and compassion program that can be implemented during the working day. Ideally, staff should not be asked to participate in these programs without compensation and after working a long day. Finding ways for staff to participate in small groups during the working day sends the message that the organization supports staff well-being and it is not simply one more task for them to do.
5 The fifth step is infusing compassion and mindfulness into everyday teaching, interactions and meetings. For example, one program began each staff meeting by taking a mindful breathing moment to become present and engaged. It is also helpful to have the early childhood teachers practice mindfulness and compassion with the families and children in their care. For example, the CHIME program has participants practice mindfulness and compassion activities with children and then reflect on what they noticed and experienced. Choosing mindfulness and compassion programs that are adapted to the early care and education settings seem to be more valuable and meaningful.
Small Ways to Bring More Compassion and Mindfulness Into Your Head Start Program
Even if you are not ready to participate in an 8-week program like CHIME, you can still find small ways to bring more compassion and mindfulness into your Head Start program.
Here are some suggested ways:
- Pause and reflect on staff well-being
- Take time to listen to others for understanding and do so without judgment
- Try practicing compassion with a guided meditation and take time to reflect on what you notice.
- Notice when coworkers and other staff are in pain or dealing with significant stressors and help them to feel safe, seen, and secure
- Begin thinking of staff well-being as something “we” need to do rather than “you” need to do. Group approaches may foster professional learning communities of well-being that may lead to greater impacts.
- Focus on building connections and collaborations centered on well-being
- Create a workplace well-being space and intentionally provide time for staff to focus on their well-being.
- Provide ways for staff to practice mindfulness and compassion in the classroom
Boosting your staff well-being with mindfulness and compassion will lead to more at-risk young children — like I was — to experience healthy and present relationships.
Holly Hatton-Bowers is an assistant professor in the Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies and an Early Childhood Extension Specialist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Holly’s primary scholarship activities focus on identifying and implementing effective ways to enhance and promote the well-being of early childhood educators, families and young children. In particular, she is interested in identifying strategies that cultivate resilience, compassion, mindfulness and kindness among caregivers and families to improve parent and teacher capacity for sensitive and responsive caregiving; particularly in the context of stress, and with vulnerable populations of children. As an Extension Early Childhood Specialist, she is active in translating and disseminating current research findings in the areas of caregiving and well-being in early childhood using an interdisciplinary approach.
