Mindfulness in Schools a Good Idea

Mindfulness in Schools a Good Idea. Positive thought very vital for attaining success in life. Good thoughts lead to better responses which helps in inculcating appropriate behaviour and finally results in success.

What really is Mindfulness and why is it important to students today and how does it help them in whatever they are doing? These are some of the potent questions people are increasingly asking nowadays. I will try and address these questions from scientific, ancient wisdom and practical perspectives.

When we were students we all had a nice dream in our heart of making a colossal impact on the society with our inborn talent. We never questioned where these dreams appeared from, but we simply knew we will make it happen one fine day. This is like standing on one side of the river bank knowing very well that the other side of the river is the place where my dreams will come to a reality. Also, we knew we will reach there eventually. The only aspect missing was to know what is required to cross over to the other side of this river to eventually actualise our dreams.

Well, at most we knew that we need a boat to cross the river but how to control the boat and row it to the exact place, this would be the missing element in all of our lives. And this is what separates ordinary from the super successful ones. Not only the super successful ones know the exact place they want to reach but they also know the means to reach- the rudder or oar of their journey to their dream land. Yes, it’s this ‘rudder’ that I am talking about- it’s called – Mindfulness and the boat is the positive thought that we can strive for. So, by using the rudder of mindfulness on the ship of positive life, one can actualise the childhood dream.

Positive thought very vital for attaining success in life. Good thoughts lead to better responses which helps in inculcating appropriate behaviour and finally results in success. So, you can see how significant our positive thought tone is to attain our dreams be in it any area of our life. Now, the biggest question is how do we have a sustained positive thought in our life where we consistently keep encountering negativities. Well, the answer is again – Mindfulness

Mindfulness is basically a method to make your mind more effective, to achieve the things that you want to achieve in life in a positive direction. It is simply about learning to manage your attention. When you can master this with help of ancient techniques clearly spoken about more than 2500 years ago, you are gradually matching it with corresponding responses and related behaviours to finally achieve success. Even neuroscientists have attested to the relevance of Mindfulness to have a truly successful life.

The flow looks like this: Thought -> Response -> Behaviour -> Success

So, it’s clear that you need a rudder to row the boat and that you need to know the direction in which you need to direct your boat.

Mindfulness will not only help students in learning to manage their attention but also give them the necessary course correction to engage in time to time from two major standpoints -attention and social emotional awareness.

In the 2011-12 school year, Mindful Schools partnered with the University of California, Davis to conduct one of the largest randomized-controlled studies to date on mindfulness and children, involving 937 children and 47 teachers in 3 Oakland public elementary schools. *¹

Studies suggest that for schools to engage in mindfulness they are likely to have beneficial results on the emotional wellbeing, mental health, ability to learn and even the physical health of their students.

With Mindfulness students can just jet-set to their goal with minimum resistance! Which means, mindfulness is the rudder that students can use to row their positive thoughts to their dream destination!

*1- http://www.mindfulschools.org/about-mindfulness/research/