Monday, May 19, 2014

Meditation In School: Beating Stress with Mindfulness

Mindfulness Meditation in school is a practice in which the teacher and or students train their mind to induce a mode of focused consciousness, to realize a positive benefit that include alleviating stress, increasing attention, self monitoring feelings, and helping students redirect focus on academic content. Meditation in the classroom can be as simple as listening to calming music and breathing deeply. Meditation in the form of Mindfulness practice, is being employed in psychology to alleviate a variety of mental and physical conditions, including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, cutting, addictions, self-destructive behaviors, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and in the prevention of relapse in depression.

Wellness Works is a great resource for Mindfulness curriculum and teacher training if schools are interested in bringing Mindfulness benefits to their students.

Wellness Works in Schools™ is designed to motivate, educate and support students, teachers and families in developing the mental, emotional, physical, and social competencies to handle life's challenges healthfully, across school, home, work and community. Wellness Works embraces a whole person/whole child perspective and is grounded on universal health and wellness principles and incorporates mindful awareness, contemporary neuroscience, and executive function approaches to optimize strident achievement and behavior while supporting classroom teachers.

Mindfulness: A Guide for Teachers By Dr. Amy Saltzman Mindfulness is a meditative practice which originates in Buddhism, but has gained worldwide popularity as a distinctive method to handle emotions.

Words from Children on Meditation and Mindfulness Classes By Dr. Amy Saltzman

• I think mindfulness has truly helped me become more aware of focusing. I learned to bring
my attention back when it wandered which helped me with hard or confusing tests.
• It feels sort of strange but peaceful. I can’t really tell how I use mindfulness at home, but I
do know it helps me when I am mad at my brother.
• It helps you concentrate. I use it every time I have a hard test. It brings my attention back
to the test and the problem.
• When I am sad or kind of in a bad mood I take about 10 breaths and I get relaxed. I also
forget about my worries. I learned this from mindfulness. I enjoy coming here because I
forget about my troubles and I forget about all the things in my life that is sad. My sadness
just fades.
  

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