Mindfulness: Avoiding The Temptation to Over Think and Overreach as Teachers

What is Mindfulness? 

Unpacking what 'Mindfulness' is can be mixed and confusing. It seems while many teachers talk about mindfulness, each does it for different reasons, and with different understandings of what it is. At times, the concept of mindfulness, can become lost in the challenges teachers have at times, handling and teaching diverse students.

Ask three teachers what mindfulness is and I suspect you will be given three different answers. Ask the same people why they believe in it, and again you will have different responses.

So, what can we agree on? Dr Stephen McKenzie and Angela North have written an interesting book titled 'Mindfulness at Play' (Exisle Publishing, 2023). Their definition of Mindfulness is, "a state of simply being fully focussed on whatever we are doing". In other words, screening out distractions and "paying attention". But something which in essence is very simple, can become somewhat messier when people try to overlay different philosophies on it. Some advocates even try to align it with religious practices like Buddhism and Hinduism. We need to avoid this.

Not Overthinking Mindfulness

One of the mistakes I see being made with talk of mindfulness in schools, is for some teachers to apply specific world views or religious philosophies and beliefs over what are simply practical and helpful life practices.

I think we would be wise to stick to simple definitions like Stephen McKenzie's "Mindfulness is a state of being focussed on whatever we are doing" ('Mindfulness at Play' Exisle Publishing). As McKenzie explains, it is essentially:

 "...the practices of paying attention, being able to direct our attention, and accepting what we pay attention to."

Removing distractions in life will always help people to focus, concentrate on tasks at hand and pay attention. The great challenge we have as teachers and parents, is that the world is filled with constant distractions, by which we allow ourselves to be distracted. For example, how many of us can allow texts as they ping on our phones, to lay untouched? And for how long?

How often can we sit still in contemplation and notice the world around us? I walk everyday along a beautiful river near my home, usually with my wife, but sometimes alone, or on my bike instead. You'd be amazed how often I see people walking through the beauty of the world in conversation on their phones. I see one young man every day, his head is pointed at the ground, and his eyes never leave the phone screen. I have never seen him look up to see the sky, nor the many birds of the water and sky. It amazes me that he hasn't run into something.

What can we do as parents and teachers?

There is much good advice in McKenzie and North's book, but I'd urge you NOT to over complicate the concept. Avoid linking it to philosophies and faiths that prescribe what it is, and how such things increase mindfulness. 

As teachers, avoid weaving aspects of such faiths into your desire to increase mindfulness. If you are a teacher in a faith-based school, then of course this will influence how you and your students integrate faith with life. However, mindfulness has great relevance for all, and need not be connected to religious worldviews to help our students. All teachers need to cultivate the ability to get to know our students. This requires us to give them our attention by observing and listening to them.  

Parents demonstrate to your children what it means to shut out distractions and 'noise' in their world. Perhaps be examples of how we manage distractions ourselves. Also help our children to manage time. And listen more carefully. I'd also encourage all families to share meals together without devices or the television in the background.

Becoming Better Listeners

Angela North makes a great comment in her contributions to the book:

"We all need just one person in our childhood who truly sees us - so that we feel deeply heard, understood and loved".

As a child in primary school I was from a trouble family with two alcoholic parents. Not surprisingly, I was in trouble a LOT at school. But in 4th grade I was fortunate to have a teacher who saw beyond the grubby neglected kid, and instead set out to teach me, care for me, and seek things for me to do that challenged and inspired me. This was to turn my life around.

As teachers, how well do we know the children we teach? As parents, how well do we know our teenage children? Do we try to spend time with them? This is a practice we need to work on throughout their early life. If we wait till they're 15, I'm afraid it is often too late.

A Final Comment

I like many of the ideas in 'Mindfulness at Play', but please don't read it simply looking for new strategies to enable you to make teaching easier. Nor skim read it looking for six new ideas to help difficult children be more attentive and better behaved. Sure, there are some games that calm children down that help, and activities might enhance focus. But nothing will help teachers more than simply knowing every one of their students better. What makes them tick, what do they like or not like? Are there things that excite them, what are their lives like outside school...? There are many great ideas in the resources section of the book for teachers. By all means use some of them, but don't do it to keep them busy, or make your life easier. Rather, use the ideas and help your students to:

• Pay attention
• Increase connection to their world
  
• Enjoy time with one another
• And, most of all, get to know your students better