Should You Teach Your Students Mindfulness? Yes! Here’s Why
Mindfulness has become a major buzz word lately, and for good reason. Research has shown that a consistent mindfulness meditation practice can produce some pretty amazing benefits to your mental and physical health. This has made many teachers wonder about its usefulness in the classroom. It turns out that teaching mindfulness to children can help teachers with a lot of common problems of practice. Teaching mindfulness can improve behavior, strengthen the learning zones in the brain, help build a strong and inclusive classroom culture, and reduce stress for the teacher.
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is the practice of focusing on the present moment. Often our minds are so consumed with thoughts, worries, emotions, and memories that we lose touch with the present moment and our bodies. During mindful meditation, the goal is to notice thoughts and emotions as they come and go through our consciousness and then gently bring attention back to the present moment, letting thoughts and feelings pass with compassion and non-judgement. Often the breath, body sensations or sounds are the focal point during mindful meditation, to help meditators ground themselves in the physical present moment. Consistent practice with mindful meditation can help people to find that same grounding as they go through the ups and downs of daily life. Mindfulness has been shown to have many physical and mental health benefits not just for adults, but for kids too.
1. Mindfulness Improves Classroom Behavior
Studies have shown that teaching mindfulness meditation can help kids improve attention, making it easier for them to grasp new concepts, stay on task, and finish work. Mindfulness has also been shown to improve emotional regulation. Kids who practice mindfulness are better able to recognize, name and cope with their feelings. Compassion can also increase as a result of mindfulness practice. Mindfulness teaches kids about kindness towards self and can reduce stress and anxiety. It also helps kids practice kindness toward others, creating a more helpful and inclusive classroom.
2. Mindfulness Changes the Brain for Optimal Learning
Mindfulness has been shown to affect three important areas of the brain that are responsible for emotional regulation, attention and learning.
The amygdala this is where our fight or flight response comes from. This is the part of the brain that quickly responds to threats. This was a useful mechanism when humans had to run from sabertooth tigers, but today it mostly spends its time telling us to slap someone who calls you a name or have a meltdown before a big exam. Mindfulness helps this part of the brain become less reactive, so that we can respond more sensibly to our perceived threats.
The hippocampus is the part of the brain that helps us learn and remember and it is the part that regulates the amygdala. Mindfulness makes this part of the brain more active. The more active your hippocampus is, the easier it is to keep the amygdala in check. This is great for kids because it can help them think before they act. The hippocampus also helps us to absorb new information and learn, an obvious benefit for kids in the classroom.
The prefrontal cortex this part of the brain that helps us make decisions and monitor emotions and behaviors. Mindfulness helps this areas of the brain to become more active helping us to make wiser decisions and complete tasks.
3. Mindfulness Benefits for the Teacher
Studies have shown that a mindfulness practice can have a positive impact on teachers too. We all know teaching is an incredibly challenging and demanding profession where stress and burnout are common. Researchers have found that mindfulness can significantly reduce stress and burnout for teachers, creating greater mental and physical well-being. This can result in less teacher absenteeism and greater teacher retention which benefits the whole school community.
A regular mindfulness practice can also improve teachers’ effectiveness in the classroom. Just as it does for students, it increases attention and compassion while decreasing reactivity. These skills are essential to sustaining a long term effective teaching practice.
4. Mindfulness Can Have a Long Term Positive Impact
Self control and positive social and emotional skills in kindergarten are shown to be predictors of healthy adult functioning. The earlier kids develop positive social and emotional skills, the better. Starting a mindfulness practice in early elementary grades could potentially have a long term positive effect on not just individual students, but also can impact our communities and the general public health.
Resources for Getting Started
So how can you get started using and teaching mindfulness meditation? Here are a few resources to help you get started.
Mindful Schools is a non profit organization that is a great resource for information and courses for mindfulness in the classroom. This is a great place to start reading about mindfulness for you and your students and develop a plan for yourself and your classroom.
GoNoodle is an online resource has tons of videos for kids including some on mindfulness, breathing techniques and yoga. It’s all delivered in a quick kid friendly way. It’s a great entry point for introducing your students to mindfulness.
CARE for teachers is a mindfulness based program specifically designed for teachers to help reduce stress and increase both mental and physical well being and effectiveness in the classroom.
Be sure to check out these helpful websites and comment below with your favorite resources for mindfulness!
