Elinor interviews primary school teacher and MiSP Associate Trainer, Chris Alekkou:

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Elinor interviews the founder of Teachappy and author of the award-winning Wellbeing In The Primary Classroom – A Practical Guide To Teaching Happiness, Adrian Bethune:

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We are clearly living in challenging times. The pandemic has been difficult for all of us in different ways and highlighted the inequalities and discrimination in our society. There is suffering throughout the world through continuing conflict, including the new one we are witnessing in Europe. We are seeing the impacts of climate change on habitats and the people and species that make them their home – with the knowledge that, without collective action, there is likely worse to come. Many of us feel powerless, even if we are doing what we can.

Educators make a huge difference – but they were under pressure before the pandemic, and this pressure has only increased in the last two years.

In a survey of teachers at the end of 2021, the wellbeing score for staff was lower than 2020:

• Nearly eight out of ten teachers experienced symptoms of poor mental health due to their work
• Seven out of 10 reported stress
• More than eight out of 10 senior leaders reported stress
• Over half considered leaving the sector in the past two years due to pressures on their mental health.^[i]

Children and young people’s (CYP) mental health is also suffering, as parents, educators and those working in CAMHS are experiencing day-to-day. A year ago, rates of probable mental disorders in 6- to 16-year olds had increased from one in nine to one in six, since 2017, and 39.2% of the age group had experienced a deterioration in mental health.^[ii]

Burnout can also be a problem, particularly for the most conscientious^[iii]. Care is needed for ourselves, each other and our planet, but we can’t pour from an empty cup.

All of us need to be resourced in order to take care of others. Being able to handle our emotions skilfully can also be helpful because how we are tends to impact the ‘climate’, in school and at home, for the children and young people we care for.

Self-care and self-regulation are fundamental learnings that benefit educators, parents and carers who come on MiSP courses. Once they have ‘put on the oxygen mask’ for themselves they are able to teach others – because of their modelling as well as training to deliver MiSP curricula for children and young people.

Mindfulness can be defined, simply, as ‘choosing to be present with curiosity and kindness’, but it is so much more than that. Whilst mindfulness isn’t the only way to wellbeing, it is a way which threads through and supports other approaches with two simple questions. What is happening in this moment? What is needed (do I need)? Mindfulness helps us see things clearly, with an open mind and respond skilfully and compassionately. When we know where we are, including how we are feeling, we are better placed to choose what to do next. Mindfulness is a way, also, particularly in the context of children and young people, to support learners (and educators) of all ages to move from surviving towards thriving.

What teachers and other educators say about our course for adults:

“It’s life changing”   

“I think the course is incredibly valuable – I wish I had known this when I was at school and now feel very motivated to help out young people learn mindfulness.”

“I have found profound benefit in taking this course”

“I am definitely more aware of when I’m feeling wobbly and I’ve learnt techniques to help myself. They truly do help, not just within the school environment but personally in every-day life too.”

“Mindfulness is so important for both pupils and staff. I have seen such a positive effect on us” 

What children say:

“The practices help me when I’m sad.”

“I did the breathing exercises when my sister was winding me up. They helped me to settle and stopped me from fighting back like I normally would.”

“I did the tummy and chest breathing before I did my swimming competition because I was scared and nervous. It helped me to settle and focus, and I won the competition!”

“It helps me with my work, when I need to do activities.”

“Peaceful.”

“Joyful.”

Adult learners also tell us they value coming together as a community, building shared experiences and intentions to support and empower the children and young people they care for by sharing mindfulness with them.

A community of adults, children and young people where awareness, open-mindedness, clear-sightedness and compassion is embedded in learning, through mindfulness and leads to the ability to resource themselves and make skilful choices in challenging times, is surely what we need for our world now and in the future.

If you would like to find out more about mindfulness and the role it can play for you and the children in your care then the MiSP Conference might be a good place to start. The Conference is taking place online on Saturday 18^th June and will include views, advice and evidence from school communities, wellbeing experts and much more:

Find out more on our Conference page.

^[i] Education Support Teacher Wellbeing Index

^[ii] Mental Health of Children and Young People in England 2021

^[iii] From research by Professor Marie Asberg, Karolinska Institute, shared in Mark Williams and Danny Penman’s book Mindfulness Finding Peace in a Frantic World which is the course reader for our .begin course.

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Gogglebox on Christmas Day at 9:15pm was not where I was expecting to find mindfulness.

For those of you who don’t know what it is, Gogglebox is a TV show where you watch other people watching telly. A form of reality TV, imagine a camera on the TV itself, looking back at the viewers in their armchairs and sofas, and showing you their reactions to whatever was on that week. Now in its 18^th season, this Channel 4 series is hugely popular. I usually begin watching it because my older children like it but end up enjoying it and feeling unexpectedly proud to be British. However curated and artificial it may be, Gogglebox offers a snapshot of how wonderfully diverse the UK audience is and what an important role humour plays in bringing us together.

This Christmas Day special was showing highlights from 2021 and so far we’d seen the Gogglebox gang reacting to I Can See Your Voice, Nadiya’s Fast Flavours, Mastermind, Ready to Mingle, Strictly Come Dancing, Squid Game, Sex Actually with Alice Levine, Line of Duty, The Mating Game and An Audience with Adele.

How, then, did mindfulness get onto Gogglebox?

It wasn’t a cookery programme with a Great British Bake Off victor, a cult-hit South Korean thriller, one of the BBC’s biggest ever police dramas or the star-studded comeback of a globally successful singer songwriter. And it definitely wasn’t a wildlife documentary about the mating rituals of flamingos and bowerbirds.

No. We were about to observe this entertaining sample of Brits watching a Headspace collaboration with Netflix called Headspace Guide to Sleep. I already knew about the Headspace content on Netflix and had clocked it as another significant indicator of how mainstream mindfulness was becoming. I was, metaphorically at least, holding my breath. How would the Goggleboxers respond?

The first thing I registered was that the Gogglebox producers had chosen a Headspace episode that was in the sweet spot of mainstream mindfulness: mindfulness as a break from our digital devices and mindfulness as a way of helping us get to sleep.

“Are your devices keeping you up at night?” asks the soothing voice of Headspace’s Eve. “YES!” shouts Ellie from Leeds, startling the poor greyhound nestling in her lap. “My devices ARE keeping me up of a night-time” agrees Daniel from Brighton.

I do my best to let go of the fact that, for all its beauty and depth, meditation was being cast on national TV as a kind of melatonin substitute, something that helps you get to sleep, but if this is how it helps people then, well, why not? MiSP’s Beditation practice has a similar aim. When Anne from County Durham is grateful for this opportunity and says “Oh brilliant, thank you very much, pet”, she means it.

“Let’s begin the exercise by lying flat or at a comfortable recline, relaxing and sinking down” continues Eve.

And as I watch the various characters shuffling into different positions, some stretching out on their sofas, others sinking more deeply into their armchairs, it occurs to me how similar this is to trying to teach mindfulness to teenagers in a school classroom. They haven’t chosen to be doing mindfulness as adults on a ‘normal’ mindfulness course have. They will instinctively want to chat to each other. They will give you a chance and have a go, but only for a certain length of time before they make up their minds as to whether it is or is not ‘for them’. And they will be playful.

When asked to bring attention to the breath, Sophie from Blackpool teases her brother, Pete: “Yours stinks so don’t bring any attention to that!”, and he laughs. With a mischievous glance and raising of the eyebrows, Daniel chooses to rest his head in the lap of his husband, Stephen. Mica asks her partner Marcus “You comfortable like that, baby?” and he replies “I’m grand. I’d be even more comfortable if you’d stop talking”.

When they are invited to breathe in to the count of four, Daniel says “I can only breathe in for two”. When they are asked to hold it for four, Sally from Birmingham comically waves her arms as if she is suffocating. And when told to breathe out for 6, Sophie’s patience finally expires: “I’m gonna pass out. It’s s***t this”. “How long is this going on for?” protests Lee from Hull. Julie from Manchester sneezes. “How are we going to sleep when you’re sneezing” complains her husband, Tom. Meanwhile, Izzi sees her sister Ellie reclining peacefully and hurls a furry black cushion at her, howling with laughter.

For some, the invitation to “count backwards from a thousand to zero” is greeted with shrieks of horror, an “It’s boring” from Stephen and a “F**k that” from Ellie. But for others it seems to connect. Marcus and Mica lie back on their sofa, still; Jenny topples towards Lee and rests her head on his shoulder; in Wiltshire, Giles gently lays a blanket over Mary to keep her warm.

This 5 minute Gogglebox sequence is much closer to the challenge of teaching mindfulness to teenagers in the classroom than you might imagine. Things are slowly changing and whilst more young people are trying mindfulness through apps like Headspace than even two or three years ago, for the majority it is still rarely on their map. The entertainment and social media world that surrounds them is far bigger and more exciting than any mindfulness animation or classroom teacher.

If you stand in front of a teen classroom and press play on an animation then, however good it is, the responses are likely to be Gogglebox-esque. The language may or may not be as colourful as “It’s s**t this is” but, amongst those who instinctively respond positively, all you need is two or three negative reactions and the dynamic in the classroom can be lost. And if you lose the dynamic and keep on plugging away trying to teach mindfulness, there is a good chance you will do lasting damage to how certain groups perceive it.

When done skilfully it is, of course, possible, which is why our work at Mindfulness in Schools Project remains so important. The most obvious missing link in the Gogglebox piece was the humanity, the person in front of them that they liked, that they trusted, that had a pre-established rapport with them and whom they immediately knew ‘walked the talk’. Another key ingredient missing was context. For healthy evolutionary reasons, adolescents in particular need to know “What is the point?” and ‘the point’ of learning mindfulness is likely to be very different for different individuals.

And it isn’t only the children and young people who could do with understanding ‘the point’. Gogglebox was also a reminder of what a significant task lies ahead of us in educating the adults. If you are reading this you probably know that mindfulness and meditation offer so much more than just helping us get to sleep, but sometimes we fall back on the lowest common denominators in our rush to connect with as many people as possible. There are many pathways to implementing mindfulness in schools, and deploying it tactically for sleep and anxiety may be one of those, but perhaps there are others? I wonder if the innate creativity of young people themselves holds the answer.

What the Gogglebox experiment did show us, and what I urge all mindfulness teachers to cherish, particularly in schools, is a sense of humour. As well as being a healthy antidote to piety and preachiness, the ability for us all to laugh at ourselves and to accept with an open heart that mindfulness is not going to be everybody’s cup of tea is a very precious one.

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A day in the life of David Bignell

David has worked in primary education for 31 years and is currently co-headteacher at Temple Mill Primary School in the Medway Towns. Since training as a mindfulness teacher David has worked closely with the Mindfulness in Schools Project (MiSP) and delivers courses to children and adults in the education sector. He is part of the national training team for MiSP and trains educators to deliver mindfulness courses to children in primary schools. In addition, he has trained with colleagues from the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice at Bangor University, and the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, in order to bring mindfulness to adults.

When and how does mindfulness practice show up in your day? Formally with meditation practice? Informally with moments of awareness, grounding, appreciation?

I learnt a long time ago that if I don’t prioritise my practice it won’t happen due to busyness or tiredness or both. As a consequence, I have developed a daily routine which involves getting up earlier and then spending twenty minutes each on walking the dog, mindful movement and my sitting practice. This routine establishes a secure and stable basis for my day and a sense of equanimity about what it brings.

I like to end the day with a befriending practice which has the effect of calming and settling my mind and preparing me for a good night’s sleep.

In between I use mini-practices throughout the day – mindful corridor walking, taking time to eat my lunch and when I remember taking a pause between activities so that the day doesn’t get dominated by a sense of doing rather than being. I am not always successful but when I do manage to take these moments it certainly helps to sustain a sense of not being a victim to the relentless busyness of school leadership.

“It certainly helps to sustain a sense of not being a victim to the relentless busyness of school leadership.”

If you reflected back on the day where are the moments you had awareness of choices, noticing, what are those moments for you? e.g. responding rather than reacting, choices around what next, interactions with others, choices around self-care.

On this particular day I was aware of my choices in terms of the conflict between being present for those around me and trying really hard to tick off the tasks on my to-do list. One strategy I have now is to make sure that I include on that list all of the tasks that I often used to take for granted; meeting and greeting parents and children at the school gate, leading assembly, going for a walk around the school to be visible and check in on everyone. Ticking these off gives me a sense of achievement and an opportunity to feel positive that I am making a difference – not just rushing around like a hamster in a wheel.

I also know to take a pause and step back dealing with adults. When I first became a headteacher I thought it was my job to try to fix everything but I have learnt the importance of pausing, listening with full attention and then asking, “How can I help?” before doing anything else.

What about noticing ‘after the moment’ if you didn’t make skilful choices during the day? What might that look like and what do you do then? How does your practice help you meet those less than perfect moments?

Movement has become an important practice for me when things don’t go as well as I would like. Getting out of the chair, the office, the building just for a brief moment can really help me to reset and process what is happening in my body and my mind.

“I try to ensure that there is at least one thing on my list every day that I love to do.”

Another strategy I have is to try to ensure that there is at least one thing on my list every day that I love to do. For me that might be leading a dots or Paws b mindfulness session with a class of children or facilitating a Philosophy for Children lesson. These activities remind me of my core intention in becoming a teacher and help me to develop meaningful relationships with the children. It’s very rewarding at the end of the day to hear the children telling their families about my visit to their classroom and the parents seem genuinely pleased that I have taken some time to work with their children.

What’s your go to practice in the midst of a working day? How does it resource you?

My go to practice is just to pause, reconnect with my feet on the floor and then the breath. Sometimes just doing this is enough to re-frame the moment and introduce a sense of space and stability in the midst of everything.

What else supports your health and wellbeing? e.g. leisure/activities, routines, healthy eating, exercise etc.

Outside of school an activity that supports my health and wellbeing is to play nine holes of golf – this represents two hours of being outside thinking about nothing more consequential than which club to use next!

How does mindfulness fit with these other wellbeing choices and approaches?

Golf is great for mindfulness – if you are not fully present when you hit the ball it goes all over the place. The most common mistake that amateur golfers like me make is to look up just before we hit the ball – wanting to know where it has gone before finishing the shot! Living in the future rarely helps…..

“No act of kindness is ever wasted.”

Do you have any advice, an inspirational quote or a reason you would recommend others to have a go?

If I were asked to offer any advice it would be to remember that when you change one thing, you change everything…..and that no act of kindness is ever wasted.

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Do you ever find yourself postponing a break until the next thing is done?

With the intense demands on education staff, intensified by the pandemic, it is no wonder that day after day involves driving relentlessly from one task to another.

In addition, as educators and carers, many of us have a habit of putting ourselves at the bottom of the ‘to do list’. Does that sound familiar to you?

On top of that, when pressures are high, and we are conscientious, it is often the nourishing activities that we let go of, to make more time for the ‘to do list’.^[i] ‘I’ll just . . ….’ is one of my favourite phrases and it doesn’t serve my health or wellbeing.

Rest is not just for holidays, it needs to be woven into everyday life. With winter coming, prioritising physical and mental health is essential. In the UK if you are working both sessions of a school day you are entitled to a ‘reasonable break’, twenty minutes at least.^[ii] Making time outside work to rest is important too.

We need to take care of ourselves in order to take care of others. 

Doing nothing is hard. When life is busy it takes time to slow down. I sometimes feel like a mechanical wind-up toy that keeps whirring away long after it’s stopped moving.

Rest doesn’t have to be doing nothing and mindfulness can help. Mindfulness isn’t stopping what we’re doing, it’s knowing what we’re doing and having our mind and body in the same place at the same time. It’s how we do things as much as what we do.

When you eat lunch, can you just eat lunch? What’s it like to sit down, engage your senses, notice textures and flavours, rather than squeezing in more tasks with lunch on the side?

If you have a warm drink what’s it like to pay attention to the warmth, weight and texture of the cup, the light reflecting in the liquid, the smell and flavour of the drink?

This ‘single-tasking’ in itself can give us a break.

Dr Saundra Dalton-Smith is a medic and a parent and specialises in helping people with their work-rest balance which, let’s face it, for many of us, involves a massive rest deficit. Dalton-Smith names 7 types of rest that we all need. Physical, mental, sensory, creative, emotional, social, spiritual.^[iii]

Mindfulness maps onto all 7 areas:

Physical rest – Mindfulness is an opportunity to listen to your body and respond skilfully to its messages. Many people notice sleepiness during practice, which can signal a need for rest and be a letting go. Sleep is a vital form of rest. Physical rest can also include gentle stretching or a massage. Can we make kind choices to take care of our body which does so much for us and others?

Mental rest – When we’re constantly busy ‘doing’, the chances are the mind is busy too. Switching off is hard and this can impact physical rest and sleep. The great thing about mindfulness is that we’re not trying to stop thinking. Stopping our thoughts is impossible and just creates struggle! We are learning to change our relationship with thinking, to step back from our thoughts, give them space and release their hold on us. Can we build regular times into the day, even a couple of minutes at a time, where we can take a break and just be?

Sensory rest – We are constantly receiving and processing information during the school day, and outside through continued connection to devices. Switch them off for a while! There is no need to switch off our senses though. With mindfulness practice we choose what we take in, how we take it in and rest in our senses, receiving their messages without searching or striving. We might lower our gaze or close our eyes, to reduce visual input. We might sit and receive what we see, colours, shapes and textures. The switch is from doing to being. Easier said than done but that’s why it’s called mindfulness practice!

Creative rest – You may find this in nature or knitting, painting or cooking or just choosing things you enjoy looking at, make music, listen to it, dance round the kitchen find whatever works for you. And can you, just for this moment, enter fully into the experience?

Emotional rest – Working in education, with so many who need care, involves holding how others are and holding back how we are. Mindfulness is self-supportive. It enables us to be a friend and mentor to ourselves, to recognise, acknowledge and care for how we are and our needs.

Social rest – We need people we trust, can be ourselves with and who lift us up rather than drain us. Mindfulness helps us notice the effect people have on us and make skilful choices in response. It helps us choose how we relate to others including setting boundaries.

Spiritual rest – What gives you a sense of connection that enriches you? A walk in nature? Community engagement? Spiritual rest nourishes us, connecting us to something beyond ourselves. It doesn’t have to be anything big. Can you find beauty in the little things? Notice colours, sounds, scents of the changing season? Appreciate the journey the food you are eating has made from field to fork?

Which form of rest would you find most nourishing today?

If there are activities you are already doing; could you reframe your approach, give them your full attention and rest in the process?

[i] Mark Williams and Danny Penman, Mindfulness Finding Peace in a Frantic World, p.211.

[ii] Graeme Hornsby, ‘Directed time: entitlement to breaks’, The Key for School Leaders.

[iii] Dr Saundra Dalton-Smith, The 7 Types of Rest that Every Person Needs.

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For 5 years I taught College Success Skills at a local community college. It was my personal determination to include Mindfulness in the existing curriculum. There was resistance on many levels, mostly due to the lack of familiarity with Mindfulness work in this geographic region. I was determined, so I pushed on.

The demographics of my classroom were:

• 50%  younger than 25, 35% 25-45, 15% 45 – 70
• 80% urban,
• 35% Military
• 10% People who had been previously incarcerated (we have a 2^nd Chance program in VA)
• 70% POC (predominantly African American)

Each semester I would ask the students to rate in order of importance 4 diverse qualities, from most important to least important, as they pertained to their degree choice or area of study:

Smart – Wealthy – Creative – Caring

Once they rated these qualities the class would play a game where we would guess the major, based on how the qualities were categorized. For example; Caring-Smart-Wealthy-Creative might be a nurse. Smart-Wealthy-Caring-Creative might be an accountant. Creative-Wealthy-Smart-Caring might be a Videogame designer. Over time I got pretty good at guessing their majors. This game incorporates Mindful Listening, but on the down-low.

I was always amazed at the high percentage of students that considered themselves, non-creative. To them creativity meant not only being artistic but having artistry at the level of professionalism. They seemed to carry no awareness of how we all use creativity on a daily basis.

In my experience it’s not uncommon to hear people voice their lack of confidence when it comes to creativity. It’s an interesting phenomenon that is worth exploring but for the purposes of my discussion I will only make note of the commonality.

When I would implore further discussion, it would take some time before the idea of Creativity appearing in multiple genres became more fluid and accessible. Examples included the unique designs of presentations and projects, finding a cure for an illness, a solution to ecofriendly urban housing, or even how a room is arranged. Once they blew away the walls and boundaries surrounding their definitions of creativity, they became more excited, including things like the color of their car or outfit, what their music playlists looked like, even the way they set up their study spaces, which is an important skill for college success.

I wanted them to begin to see how Creativity is actually an inherent component of our existence. I wanted to get away from the traditional and number one definition listed in most dictionaries. Creativity: the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work. I wanted to explore a broader definition.

Creativity: the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. It is characterized by the ability to perceive the world in new ways, to find hidden patterns, to make connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena, and to generate solutions.*

And with that revised outlook the discussions then began to expand, as they started exploring ways Creativity could be brought into their particular majors and areas of study. Frequently, I was told that looking at their majors through this lens actually made the majors more interesting.

Creativity is exercised continuously in our lives. It is the manifestation of choice, choices that line up and aggregate. These choices describe our individual uniqueness. Further, the choices (creativity), of multiple individuals, collectively impact and influence Culture. Culture: the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group. Once again I want to step back and look at the idea of Culture from a broader perspective.

Culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, encompassing language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts. … the characteristic features of everyday existence (such as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time

I have an interesting experience that reflects this point of recognizing Culture. I was going to the UK each summer supporting an Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme) Teen Retreat program. My post retreat senses were heightened, having just left a weeklong retreat. As I walked down the airplane ramp to catch my return flight I noticed two teenagers walking a few yards ahead. I smiled, as I knew I was headed home, by the way they walked. They were “walking American”. It stuck out so much more than usual. I was experiencing a strong sense of my own cultural tags.

On another occasion I sat with my sister in Kingston, Jamaica’s town center round-a-bout. We both marveled at how differently they walked from our own African American culture. They stood more erect. We had a long heartfelt conversation pondering what caused the difference in our gaits. Physical movements, body posture, walking, give clues to culture and can be further divided into subcategories, i.e., the stride of a Manhattan-ite, versus a Texan, ballerinas vs. football players etc. etc. etc. There is culture being displayed in each of these instances. Yes, other aspects are also present, but culture is being strongly displayed.

Culture is the glue that connects community. Community expresses our co-lived experience through our culture and creativity. It’s dynamic, in a constant state of flux, yet at the same time it’s old and ancient.

Community: a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests.

Community used to be a more static idea based on location and geography but through the work of educators and psychologists the notion of geography as the sole or paramount definer has changed. Seymour Sarason is considered, by many, to be the founder of Community Psychology. In contemporary culture Community Psychology is the branch of psychology at the forefront of community social justice work.** Sarason began to define community as a psychological conceptual space coining the term “sense of community”. He initiated the idea and research into Test Anxiety in the 1950’s. Sarason started his work back in the 1930’s and lived until 2010. Impacting the field throughout his life.

I feel this next component, Contemplation, is crucial as it is our work as Mindfulness Educators. I feel compelled to explain that in my universe, Mindfulness falls under the broad heading of Contemplative Practices. Please take a look at the Contemplative Practices Tree diagram. There is a myriad of activities considered contemplative. ***

I’m a drummer, poet, storyteller, dancer, gardener, meditator, etc. All of these are located on the Contemplative Practice Tree. Considering this perspective, contemplative practices are universal, broadly found in cultures and communities on all continents. Our rigid definitions can make us blind to their existence much like my College Success class that felt only professional artists were creative. Perhaps this analogy will help. New students often comment, “I can’t drum I have no rhythm.” I usually respond with, “You have a heart and it beats. It’s the first drum. Yes, you do have rhythm you just need a guide to help show you how to access it.” I would say that is the same in Mindfulness education.

I find most of the definitions we use for Contemplation and Contemplative Practices to be rigid, reflecting Western Lineage concepts. They ignore the way Mindfulness/Contemplation are practiced in all cultures. It may be unintentional however this definition seems to rest in the notion of thought, i.e., “Mind-Full-ness” as “me”. I perceive it differently, there is more to add to that definition. Contemplative Practices do not dwell predominantly in thought but equitably in awareness and feelings encompassing “me as we”. As we continue to practice, this understanding deepens. The definition I find closer to my experience is “awareness” in place of “thought”. Awareness of self in all its complexities, from the most intimate, to as far out as the concept of self is able to achieve, ever deepening, growing, and expanding.

Contemplative Practice: expressing or involving prolonged investigation. Awareness

Contemplative Practices, often partnered with Creativity, are used inherently by all communities to transmit teachings, morals, hopes and dreams. Visual art, games, music, storytelling, and play are excellent tools for delivery as

1) one generation passes their history to the next

2) younger generations introduce new concepts on ways of being

3) various diverse groups within a community bring about change in patterns, traditions and beliefs. (e.g. Blues, Rock & Roll, Rap, miniskirts, bell-bottoms, “my bad”, Queer, Me Too)

Contemplation enhances and deepens the awareness of the dynamics of culture, creativity, and community. Contemplation can go beyond being aware, expanding to find diverse ways to teach concepts. Taking it a step further, coupling contemplation with creativity provides flow, breaking and loosening traditional roles, ideas, and hierarchies, increasing the opportunity for equanimity. It supports divergence and alteration, aka evolution. The Mindfulness Educator sits, stands, walks, and dances in the eye of this beautiful Creative Contemplative Cultural storm.

I am calling these the 4 C’s.

Creativity – Culture – Contemplation yield Community

So…

When I go in the classroom to teach Mindfulness or other contemplative practices my first notion is to find out who I am, within the community, and why I have been asked to come? What aspect of the community am I being asked to attend to? Even if I am the initiator, the same question remains, “Why am I here?”

I believe win-win situations work best for all involved, therefore my next question follows, “What am I getting out of this? What is my benefit? This may be due to my cultural heritage as an African American, but I have low trust in anyone who comes into my community and expresses they are there, just for me and it’s all from the goodness of their heart. If that is the case, then what is their incentive to stay until the work is done? What stops them from just dropping out? This cycle has been repeated generation after generation in many communities. By sharing my goal(s) and transparency, I invite them to participate in its achievement just as I seek to add value to the community with my work. This is a co-creation. Whatever the response, the community will provide crucial information. Where are they with this?

Having this information, I check into my toolbox. Well… maybe it’s a fashionable briefcase with rolling wheels. It contains the Mindfulness Practice skills I have been trained to teach. It also contains my culture as well as the parts of me that I bring to share, my gifts, vulnerability and curiosity. I seek to set the stage for reciprocity whether boardroom, substance abuse counseling agency, athletic team, dance group, teen retreat, yoga teacher training or multi-generational Dance Drum & Meditation workshop.

Though the tools that we teach across the Mindfulness Education genre are pretty universal the method I use to deliver the tools is dynamic and shape-shifts depending on the community I serve. I must be aware of the

1. Community – the individuals/collective in the space,
2. Culture – the way they are collectively expressing their identities,
3. Creativity – through their choices of expression.

I can remember stories of how slave women would tie their head kerchief’s, in a special way on Sundays, their day off. It was their creativity being expressed in a recognized community cultural form. It was a small but very important expression. Today African American women are known for their hats, headwraps (or geles), loc jewelry, and various hair adornments. What one does with one’s hair and coverings is still a highly honored expression harking back to African ancestry.

A possible Mindfulness lesson in a community with these roots would be to facilitate a session on the Art of Head Adornments. I would have everyone bring or create a head ornament.

Exercise:

Using Mindful Seeing, ponder a person’s headwrap for thirty seconds and write every descriptive term you can think of. The person with the most descriptors, rings the bell for the mediation at the end of class. (note: the person ringing the bell has power over time).

Questions for self-observation/contemplation:

• What was going on somatically while doing this exercise?
• While observing another?
• While being observed?

As the teacher: What information do I learn about this community as they share. Information that can be used as I move forward in preparing other lessons.

As the Mindfulness teacher I am in exchange/interchange with the community I am serving.

• How can I be aware of identity(s) in this community?
• How can I engage all members of this community?
• Where are the cultural intersections that I can plug into? I want to become a member or at least a welcomed guest.
• What part of my culture can I share with them?
• How can I bring out the Mindfulness (contemplative) aspect of our cultural connection(s) and intersections?
• How can I present Mindfulness as being relevant and of value to their community?
• How do I facilitate this community teaching me their Cultural & Contemplative practices
• Including designing our own version of teaching the basic Mindfulness Contemplative practices, thus creating a revised version of this community of which I am now included?

Weaving together Mindfulness practices, games of inquiry, safe space establishment, deep curiosity, respect and appreciation I then embark on a journey with this community, curious to discover where we meet on the other side of this learning experience. This curiosity is even more heightened if I am with a group that I have trouble finding intersections (i.e., it’s a group I would normally not hang out with). This means I must go even deeper in my own Mindfulness practices to gain that sought-after awareness.

For the Mindfulness Educator this journey is the Ecstasy of teaching that Bell Hooks discusses.

…The classroom, with all its limitations remains a location of possibility. In that field of possibility, we have the opportunity to labor for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress. This is education as the practice of freedom.****

There are jewels waiting to be discovered by those willing to take the road and go through the trials of discovery. I ask myself, “How does this particular community express itself? How can I share Mindfulness with the unique individuals as well as the collective community? My trusted companions are the search for culture and the creativity I use to connect with it. My objective is authentic expression that creates value.

So, my last story to share is from a student in my Mindfulness for Yoga Teachers course. The students’ assignment was to find a way to express creativity. Each person had their own unique expression of the assignment. One person came up with a vision board. Another, a daycare owner, talked about a challenge her center was facing. She ran a Before Care center. Children of different ages were dropped off in the mornings before school. Her oldest were eight, nine, and ten, “tweens”. Her youngest were toddlers. Apparently, these older girls were really going through it. She said their hormones were flowing, creating arguments, power plays, bossiness, tears, the full gamut. She needed a way to have her center much more calm before these children were taken to their respective schools. Starting off each day with such chaos wasn’t good for anyone. She kept sitting in mediation seeking an answer. Then one came to her. She made those “tweens” the greeters. They would greet and help the younger students find their places, take off their coats, get their morning snack and all done with joy and full attention. She was amazed at the change in culture of her Daycare community. I asked her where she found the model she was using. I asked all the students. They looked quite puzzled. Perhaps she remembered it from some book, or using the extracurricular model in schools, or it was just in her mind.

I asked about the model possibly being a universal. Could this set-up be found in many communities where the older children often take care of the younger ones, especially in group settings. Everyone’s face widened, “Of course.” “Perhaps through your Mindfulness you tapped into your own innate remembering.” Sometimes we feel to do this work we have to read it somewhere. But there is an abundance of information right in our own lives or right beside us in the community, an ally, advocate or if we’re fortunate enough, an elder. We just need to find a way to listen, i.e., Contemplation, Meditation, Mindfulness.

The 4C’s just like Mindfulness are inherent qualities that we (and communities) already possess. As Mindfulness Educators we are the guides, the archaeologists, anthropologists, the adventurers exploring ancient paths that have been long forgotten but not erased and are being re-discovered by and in the work we do.

Creativity – Culture – Contemplation yield Community

The differences between people need not act as barriers that wound, harm and drive us apart. Rather, these very differences among cultures and civilizations should be valued as manifestations of the richness of our shared creativity. Daisaku. Ikeda

*(Please see the Introduction, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. By Betty Edwards © Notice how the word Mindfulness can be substituted for the artistic terms. It even discusses how meditation is actually using the same areas as creative/artistic work)

** What is Community Psychology (you may need to copy url into your search bar)? https://www.scra27.org/files/2913/8991/6304/What_is_Community_Psychology_Handout.pdf

*** Please see handout: Tree of Contemplative Practices http://www.contemplativemind.org/practices/tree)

**** Ecstasy, Teaching and Learning Without Limits from Teaching to Transgress, Education as the Practice of Freedom by Bell Hooks ©1994

The post The 4 C’s: Creativity, Culture, Contemplation, Community. appeared first on Mindfulness in Schools Project.

The session was delivered by Catharine Driver,  an independent consultant and trainer for EAL with over 30 years’ experience teaching pupils with English as an additional language, speaking on behalf of NALDIC.  This was an fascinating and informative introduction to the issues children and young people with EAL face, and the practical support that schools can provide. Here are some overview notes from the session:

What is EAL?

Who are EAL learners?

Initial Assessments

Acquiring Proficiency

Further information

We are very grateful to our supporters Towergate and The Education Broker, whose support enables us to provide these sessions for free, and who are committed to improving the health and wellbeing of young people and staff in the education sector. Please visit their websites to learn more about what they do or call on 01438 739626 to discuss your insurance, risk management and health and wellbeing requirements.

If you are a member of our Hub you can view the recording of this webinar.

Not a Hub Member? Find out about the benefits of membership.

We hope that you can join us at the next webinar in this series.

The post Strategies to Support English as an Additional Language in Schools appeared first on Mindfulness in Schools Project.

These informal sessions are 90 minutes and MiSP Hub members are welcome to come along with a specific question or theme to cover and the MiSP team will offer any tips, guidance or further information to help you. The opportunity to work with you face-to-face (on Zoom) is really important to us and these sessions give us all space and time to connect. It’s also okay to simply turn up and listen to what is being raised by others as often common themes arise that can be of help to everyone.

Some examples of the questions and themes discussed are below and we are hoping to use these to update our Top Tips advice in the Hub so you can be sure of the latest guidance in one place.

• How can you structure Paws b over a number of years in the same school?
• How can we manage lessons post lockdown?
• What if no-one talks during enquiry?
• How do I pitch the ‘hot cross bun’ of experience in teenagers’ talk?
• How do I deal with reluctant learners?
• What to do when pupils find it difficult to recognise any feelings or emotions
• Pupils are not doing home practice. How can we encourage them?

So, if these issues, or other things are coming up in your lessons and you’d like to chat them through or simply spend some time with people delivering our course and share ideas please come along to a surgery for the curricula you are trained to teach.

Upcoming surgeries are listed below and on our Course Schedule, these surgeries are FREE to Hub members so please consider renewing if you haven’t already done so:

• .b Teacher Surgery (Alternative Provision Settings) 20th May, 4.00pm
• Paws b Teacher Surgery 24th May, 4.00pm
• .b Teacher Surgery 25th May, 4.00pm
• dots Teacher Surgery 28th June, 4.00pm

You can find more information about the surgeries on our Teaching Surgeries page, or, if you are a Hub member, login and go to the Teacher Surgeries Hub page to register for FREE.

The post Surgeries to support your teaching appeared first on Mindfulness in Schools Project.

The session was delivered by Colin Foley, Training Director of the ADHD Foundation, who gave an engaging and informative introduction to neurodiversity, in particular ADHD, and the practical support that schools can provide. Here are some overview notes from the session:

How common is neurodiversity?

What is ADHD?

How can schools support neurodiverse CYP?

Additional Information

We are very grateful to our supporters Towergate and The Education Broker, whose support enables us to provide these sessions for free, and who are committed to improving the health and wellbeing of young people and staff in the education sector. Please visit their websites to learn more about what they do or call on 01438 739626 to discuss your insurance, risk management and health and wellbeing requirements.

If you are a member of our Hub you can view the recording of this webinar.

Not a Hub Member? Find out about the benefits of membership.

We hope that you can join us at the next webinar in this series.

The post Supporting Children and Young People with Neurodiversity appeared first on Mindfulness in Schools Project.