It is extremely important that teachers in the local schools are trained in mindfulness. There are many benefits that come from this training that can change the behaviors of students for the better. Not only will this better students, but it will also better teachers. Most students come into school carrying anxiety from various things, including sports, family issues, academic pressure, and even economic problems. So, it is unrealistic to expect young students to learn and carry the weight of their futures in these conditions. All these stressors can be eased by one simple thing: mindfulness. In the article “When Mindfulness Meets the Classroom” by Lauren Cassani Davis, it discusses the opinions of the trained teachers helping their students …show more content…
Spending even 10 minutes a day doing breathing exercises can make a huge impact on school performance, including an increased amount of focus and motivation to better themselves academically. Breathing exercises are also useful outside of school, helping with sleep schedules and better mental health. School can be a very stressful and scary environment for many students. But, having teachers who are trained in mindfulness, these feelings can be completely flipped into a calm and productive environment. Not only will students use these practices in school, but also in the future. They can come out of class learning a skill that will always be helpful and stick with them for the rest of their lives. On top of individual student benefits, trained teachers will transform the classroom environment to be more positive and improve the overall learning …show more content…
Coming back to class like this has a major impact on the other students in class who can now focus without distraction. Teachers, don't worry about that! This practice will also benefit teachers by facilitating their work. For example, “Beyond helping his students, Gonzalez also thinks mindfulness helps him cope with the strains of teaching. He believes he now draws clearer lines in his relationships with students- giving them the skills to help themselves, rather than feeling that he needs to be the one to heal them- and copes more healthily with the trauma the job exposes him to.” (Davis paragraph 20) This way, teachers have a weight lifted off their shoulders as students can apply these mindfulness techniques to themselves. Even though some may say it's not fair for teachers to have to get trained, however, they can get a personal gain out of it. In addition to this, the school system will have a much better appeal. If there are these trained teachers, the rates of detentions and suspensions will
In a world that is filled with constant chaos, movement, and business, we need to be able
Meditation is an important psychological practice that protects the brain against aging as well as enhancing an individual’s ability to learn new things. This practice achieves this through sharpening focus, lessening stress, lowering blood pressure, and relieving chronic pain. Generally, it helps a person to experience greater calm, connect with deepest feelings, and challenges tendencies of self-judgment. Consequently, meditation leads to open doors for actual and accessible happiness for an individual. According to Salzberg (2011), meditation is basically training an individual’s attention in order to become more aware of inner workings and external incidents (p.7). After becoming more aware of inner workings and external incidents, a person can choose his/her actions towards things that are visible. While each global religion incorporates some kind of thoughtful exercise, meditation in today’s world is usually practiced separately from any belief system.
The article Mindfulness: Theoretical Foundations and Evidence for its Salutary Effects, Psychological Inquiry by Kirk Warren Brown, Richard M. Ryan & J. David Creswell seeks to address different aspects of mindfulness and propose future research. Five main topics are discussed, the characterization of mindfulness, mindfulness compared to other theoretical treatments, different interventions that are designed to improve mindfulness, key processes that may provide reasoning for mindfulness success, and shrouded areas concerning mindfulness. The purpose of the article was to show that there are different perspectives on mindfulness and that more research is needed to develop a better understanding. Even though the mindfulness practice has been utilized for centuries, there have been countless studies in recent years concerning mindfulness. The article pinpointed the concept of mindfulness as being rooted in Buddhist psychology but also shares conceptual kinship through ideas from Western European and American culture contributions.
Mindfulness is a skill that takes time to develop. It requires a certain level of effort, time, patience, and ongoing practice like any other skill. Mindfulness is taught in a number of ways. Meditation is one of the key techniques used in
The use of alcohol and substances among adolescents has become a behavior that has been increasing all over the world. Over the years, substance use issues amongst adolescents have been treated with various forms of psychotherapy. More recently, research has shown that mindfulness based interventions aid adolescents with substance abuse problems in their recovery, maintaining sobriety, and to shy away from peer pressure (Burke, 2009). Mindfulness interventions may be beneficial for this population by aiding them to be non-judgmental, express openness, and accept their thoughts and feelings, hence impacting their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors (Robinson, Ladd, and Anderson, 2014). Adolescent substance use and misuse has become a public
Impulse control and decision-making, both executive functions, are believed to center in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (Bechara, Damasio, Damasio, & Anderson, 1994). Damage to this area increases deficits in decision making (Bechara et. al.,1994). Research has shown that chronic heroin use negatively impacts an individual’s ability to restrain impulses, leading to lack of planning and decreased adaptive and social cognition (Pau, Lee, & Chan, 2001). Heroin is a powerful opiate that crosses the blood-brain barrier and produces potent euphoria (Pau, Lee, & Chan, 2001). Impulse control is defined as an individual’s tendency to act on arising wishes or urges (Murphy & Mackillop, 2012). Greater mindfulness has been shown to decrease substance dependent individuals’ urge to use substances (Murphy & Mackillop, 2012). Mindfulness focuses on the emphasis on staying in the present moment, the natural impermanence of things in an individual’s environment, and the awareness of actions such as noticing what is experienced without judgment or reactive behavior (Murphy & Mackillop, 2012). Research on the implementation of mindfulness techniques and their ability to decrease impulsivity is necessary in order to examine the ways heroin-dependent adults react cognitively, behaviorally, and physiologically to external stimuli.
In schools, mindfulness interventions most commonly include meditation practices focusing on breathing and awareness of emotions. According to Follette et al. (2006), “Mindfulness practices provide a method in which people can practice experiencing thoughts and feelings that have been avoided in the past” (p. 58). These studies and interventions have mainly focused on improving students’ behavior (Felver et al., 2013; Greco et al., 2008; Lee et al. 2008; Semple et al. 2010). Students who are suffering from long-term effects of trauma are often found to act out in school, avoid work, fixate on thoughts, and show a lack of flexibility (Follette et al. 2006). These students are more likely than their peers to experience maladaptive
Mindfulness is the alteration of an individuals’ mental state in which they become more aware of the experiences within present moment, environment, body and mind through creating a feeling of calm and tranquillity, examples of this being reflection and meditation. Many induvial claims that it helps treat symptoms associated with mental disorders, anxiety, ADHD, and pain. Mindfulness based therapy is believed counter the effects of stress related disorders because it is believed excessive orientation towards the past or future can be directly related to feelings of depression and anxiety.
To begin with, mindfulness is when someone can pay attention to the present moment “without being devoted to different points of view” (Martin, 1997). Along with staying focused on the present moment, mindfulness is when the particular person does not judge the current experience as the person tries to comprehend the present situation. Mindfulness makes a person reflect on one’s self by not only figuring out one’s thoughts, but also the feelings that go along with it. The complex nature of mindfulness demonstrates that it has multiple purposes that cultivates a person into realizing the potential of the brain (Davis & Hayes,
Practicing mindfulness is something that most people probably have on their daily to-do list, but never getting around to it because they either don’t believe it’ll work or feel too busy with their lives to stop for literally just a minute to breathe. When going into this activity, my to-do is exactly what was in mind. It’s the list that is never completed. So, having this as an actual assignment was exactly what I needed to get a jumpstart on my mindfulness techniques in my daily life.
The first grant proposal addressed the effects of meditation on life-span cognitional developmental processes. From my understanding, there is a strong connection to the mindset and self-awareness, as one chooses to mediate for their own reason. Based on the informed information, meditation is used to decrease stress and maintain a healthy lifestyle. The provided background information and predicted research study will help determine the pros and cons of the process, using the meditation techniques.
In the past two decades, many philosophers, spiritual leaders, and psychological transitions have accentuated the importance of the quality of consciousness for the maintenance and enhancement of well-being. One of the characteristics of consciousness that has been discussed in relation to well-being is mindfulness. In concentration with the psychology discipline, mindfulness meditation practices have been increasingly used to treat a majority of pain, stress and anxiety-related conditions and also, increasing well-being. The ideology of mindfulness meditation has core roots in Buddhist philosophy and other pensive traditions where awareness and conscious attention are actively cultured (Brown, Kirk Warren,2003).
Children suffering emotional and behavioral disorders are in need of effective interventions and strategies that will provide them relief in stressful situations and help them self-regulate their behavior. Effective interventions for this population could result in reduced distractions (both personally and within the classroom) and enable them to increase their learning time, thereby optimizing their educational careers. An intervention of yoga and related relaxation techniques may provide students a natural and holistic approach to accomplishing these goals.
10-Minute Mindfulness appeals to me because I am at a time in my life where peace and
Living in the present allows me to live and tend to my thoughts and emotions that I often suppress or ignore. Working as a school counselor, I think that I will use mindfulness to help students with anxiety, behavior problems, and depression. I hope to use mindfulness in the future as I teach students how to use mindfulness in their own lives so that they can exist in the present and connect their mind with their body. Through using mindfulness in sessions with students and possibly in the classroom setting, I will give them a tool to help manage and become more self-aware of the thoughts and emotions they experience so they can learn how to better tend, express and manage them. However, without practicing mindfulness myself I would not have understood its power in the work of my client’s