Extensive research exists on the benefits of practicing mindfulness, particularly within the field of medicine. However, it has only been recently that researchers have begun to document the many positive effects of mindfulness in education. One individual committed to bringing this growing body of knowledge to the mainstream is John Meiklejohn, LICSW, lead author of a newly published white paper entitled, Integrating Mindfulness Training into K-12 Education: Fostering the Resilience of Teachers and Students. In it, Meiklejohn and his coauthors detail the outcomes of a host of the most promising studies of this kind to date.
“Research points to the possibility that through this experiential practice students learn an attitude – a way of being - that broadens the skill sets of attention, balance and compassion.”
I was extremely fortunate to get to speak with Mr. Meiklejohn recently about the specific benefits teens can derive from bringing mindfulness into the classroom, at which time I posed to him a single question. Below is my question, followed by John Meiklejohn’s insightful and informative response:
Q: What is mindfulness and how can it enrich the educational paths of high school students in today’s increasingly complex world?
A: High school students, like students of all ages,
may come to school with stressors arising from many sources including family-system disturbances, peer conflicts, socio-cultural challenges, and vulnerabilities to physical and mental health problems. Combined with the challenges of learning and achievement, these sources of stress can, at times, be toxic to a student’s learning and development. Research suggests that excessive stress impacts the developing brain. Sustained stress in childhood and adolescence is likely to impact well-being, general functioning, and factors specific to learning such as executive function and working memory. Given that many youth exhibit learning, behavioral, attentional and/or mental health problems that are stress-sensitive or stress induced, the school setting offers an ideal environment for utilizing interventions that promote healthy brain development and function, and foster stress resilience. Evidence is accumulating that mindfulness training is one effective and cost-efficient way to achieve this goal.
“There is increasingly convincing data that mindfulness improves health and well-being by: reducing stress, anxiety and depression; enhancing immune system function; increasing motivation to make lifestyle changes; and fostering social connections.”
Mindfulness has been described by Jon Kabat-Zinn as “the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment to moment”. (more…)
