Minding Mindfulness: Mindfulness: A Personal Perspective

Mindfulness: A Personal Perspective
Do you find yourself getting stressed, frustrated or angry easily?  Are you impatient with your partner or overwhelmed with loneliness?  Perhaps a Mindfulness Practice could be the thing for you.  Or better yet, learn and practice mindfulness with a grandchild —perhaps on FaceTime or Zoom.

There are plenty of research articles on the benefits of mindfulness; this is not one of them.  Instead, it includes parts of my personal journey and the transformative power of teaching mindfulness and positive psychology, the science of happiness, to children.  I’m pretty sure these strategies work for adults, too!  Included are video clips which describe the MindUp Program that I used with former students and a couple of video clips on the Science of Happiness. The last one is very touching; it’s definitely worth watching.


Taking the time to be mindful can make a huge difference in your life.  It certainly has impacted mine.  I was lucky to have stumbled on meditation close to fifty years ago.  Since then, I have practiced it regularly and have added many mindfulness practices over the years.


Mindfulness can use many techniques; there is no one “right way.”  A myriad of guided imageries and relaxations can be found from a variety of sources.  One free app I like is the: Insight Timer. I sometimes use it personally, in my meditations and guided imageries and I have used it with students.  Many life experiences bring us to a place of great inner peace.  My personal favorites include being in nature. Being among trees, at a stream or at the ocean can shift me to a place of tranquility.  Calm, beautiful music also brings me a deep sense of serenity; I listen to it when writing in my journal.  We all practice gratitude once a year, on Thanksgiving, but why not do so regularly?  Mindfulness practices include gratitude. Doing what gets us to that place of “solitude” and deep happiness is practicing mindfulness. ​

As a teacher (now retired), I noticed how stressed-out and irritable even young children could be.   Many lacked the ability to self-regulate behavior and much of my teaching energy was used to help kids sort out issues.  More pressure on testing increased students’ stress level. I knew a Mindfulness Practice would help but wasn’t sure how to teach it.  Many years were spent searching and creating my own mindfulness lessons for students, starting from my first years of teaching, I longed for a step by step, research- based book to guide me.


Years later, I moved to Fullerton and began teaching in the Multiage Class at Rolling Hills.  My friend and a parent in the classroom, Lauren Stearns, MD, found a great brain-based resource to use when teaching students about mindfulness:   The MindUp Curriculium.  I purchased the book from Scholastic/Goldie Hawn Foundation.  It was research-based, inexpensive, and exactly what I had been searching for. This guide led us, step by step, through lessons to teach students to practice mindfulness. The first lesson started with how the brain works and how it affects behavior.  Lessons included mindfulness using breathing techniques (beginning meditation) and the Science of Happiness, also known as Positive Psychology.  This guide is still available for all levels, from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.  I’m looking forward to introducing these to my grandkids and see no reason why adults couldn’t learn through them, too. 


Using mindfulness practices in my classroom had a transformative effect. After students learned about their brain and how emotions are triggered, they became much more self-aware and able to control their own behavior.  They were kinder and more supportive of one another.  Students were notably happier through the lessons we were teaching.  Just spending a minute of quiet breathing could shift the classroom atmosphere.  Less time was spent on behavior management and more energy was focused on high-level learning.  Academics soared and together we experienced most of our days in a happy, productive classroom.

Anyone can benefit from the practice of mindfulness. In my classroom, I kept a photo of a staircase, asking students to visualize their “next step”. I encourage you to visualize your “next steps” to personal happiness and fulfillment. 


Could a Mindfulness Practice benefit you or someone you love? 


Prepared for MOTAL by Marcy Fry
Devoted MOTAL supporter
Resources: 
MindUp links, which describe and model the program:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ2S4lVn9mk Description of Mind Up
https://vimeo.com/189802798  Lesson 1, How Our Brain Works (for 5th graders)
https://mindup.org/mindup-lesson-2-mindful-awareness/  Lesson 2: Mindful Awareness


Science of Happiness links:  
Gratitude Matters; https://mindup.org/gratitude-matters/
The Science of Happiness:  An experiment in Gratitude (from Soul Pancake)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHv6vTKD6lg&utm_campaign=website&utm_source=sendgrid.com&utm_medium=email


Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/meditation-app