M
indfulness has spawned
a global industry of
evening courses, books
and apps, and it is used
by all kinds of people from corporate
executives and nurses to sportsmen
and primary school children.
But what is mindfulness? Actress
Goldie Hawn does a pretty good job
of explaining it in her YouTube film
promoting MindUP, the educational
version of mindfulness. She explains
it as a way of quieting the mind, in
a bid to reduce stress and increase
optimism.
Sounds like meditation?
Psychologist Janneke Nefs from
Happy Kids, an organisation that
teaches mindfulness to children,
explains, “A central part of
mindfulness is meditation, but
meditation is a broader term, being
part of many other traditions and
practices… Students of mindfulness
will also be taught to understand their
thoughts and emotions.”
Brain training
Beacon Hill School (BHS), part of the
English Schools Foundation, adopted
the MindUP programme in 2012.
A wave of ‘mindfulness’ has swept over society, but is it
a useful technique for children?
Vicky Hill
finds out.
Vice Principal Rachael Dewhurst
explains why they made space in the
timetable for mindful thinking. “The
world we live in is demanding. At BHS
we recognise this and feel strongly
that our students need to be taught
explicitly how to be resilient; for
some children resilience is not innate.
Therefore, we adopted the MindUP
programme to enhance our existing
Personal, Social and Emotional
curriculum.”
Teacher Andrew Greene describes
what happens in the classroom.
“There are a number of guided lessons
on the parts of the brain that help us
make decisions. We discover how to
use our brains and how we can have
a positive attitude. We do a breathing
exercise three times a day to calm our
bodies and brains. Students explore
how taking time to listen, smell,
or touch more carefully makes the
prefrontal cortex (PFC) better at its job
of problem solving. They learn that
the amygdala, which causes the flight
or fight response in us, often misjudges
the danger of the situation, causing
us to hurt others or freeze up when
it isn’t helpful. We actually use these
big, complex words with the students
Mind
yourself
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