Mindfulness Matters!

One of the things we hope to see as a byproduct of practicing mindfulness is an improvement in student's ability to self-regulate. We recently surveyed the students about their use of mindfulness to see if they were using it outside of our lessons, for what purpose and whether it has been helpful to them. Their examples were rather eclectic so I wanted to share with you some of their comments which represent the themes that seem to be emerging.

"When I was doing homework there was a math problem that was really hard and I got really frustrated and then I thought about mindfulness and I took three deep breaths and it calmed me down, and then I thought about the problem and I understood it."

"I used mindfulness when my friend and I where in a fight and I took a deep breath and relaxed and I responded kindly and the fight was over." 

"I was in a frustrating class and I stopped and took 15 deep breaths and then reminded myself that whether I reacted or responded would make the situation better or worse, this helped me a lot."

"I was frustrated in football and I had to calm down so i got subbed out and practiced mindfulness."

"It helped me by making me feel less stressed doing homework."

"I used it when someone was being rude to me. It helped me so I wouldn't explode and start yelling at her."

"It helped me because my brother can be annoying so when I practice MindFullness it helped me ignore him.
(and I used to scream at him )!"

"I used it to calm down when I was very overwhelmed."

"i find mindfulness helpful for me when i get angry and frustrated it helps me calm down."

"mindfulness if good for you all around in every way and it can be fun!"

Clearly, they are beginning to use mindfulness to help them calm down and deal with stressful situations. That is definitely something to celebrate. However, another one of our long term goals is to have mindfulness positively impact their ability to focus.  If you take a look at the data below, you will see that this is much needed! 

78% of kids report it is hard for them to pay attention &

85% say that they are easily distracted!

October data