«Anyone can learn mindfulness»
Mr Rechtschaffen, you say that mindfulness helps teachers and learners alike.
Mindfulness can help us all to be more relaxed, focussed and emotionally balanced in our everyday lives. Teachers have a very demanding job in which it is important to be able to act non-reactively and compassionately. Mindfulness can save them from burnout and at the same time help them to better attune to their students. Students, in turn, can concentrate better on lessons and their tasks thanks to mindfulness practice. It also improves their social relationships. In general, it can be said that mindfulness helps children to be happier and less self-critical. In schools where mindfulness is taught, we experience fewer arguments and an overall more positive social environment.
More and more organisations are jumping on the mindfulness bandwagon and want to offer courses for children and young people.
There is nothing wrong with that in itself. But it is essential that anyone who teaches mindfulness has first learnt it themselves. Our children learn best by what we are, not by what we say. So the best way to teach mindfulness is to be mindful ourselves. Then, when we embody compassion and mindfulness ourselves, we can pass on the teachings of mindfulness.
Online dossier on mindfulness and slowing down
Can anyone really learn mindfulness?
Anyone really, yes. It's as simple as taking a deep breath or pausing for a moment and listening to a sound. Of course, time to practise and a well-trained teacher are helpful. But guided short exercises, such as those available in apps, can be enough to get you started. This can also help children to calm down a little and connect with themselves.
Being mindful and listening to yourself - young people in particular often associate this with some kind of esoteric mumbo-jumbo and react negatively. How do you win them over to mindfulness?
For younger children, we have to make this mindfulness thing fun, they should have fun. For example, they imitate the elephant breath, the Spiderman breath or the princess breath and learn to feel the different movements. For children and young people in general, we stick to the rule of turning mindfulness into a game. They learn best when we have conversations about the things that concern them. We talk about relationships, sports or whatever they want to talk about. We pique their interest by showing them how the mindfulness mindset can help them, for example, to play football better or be more confident in conversations.
You teach mindfulness in many ways - in sport, through music, through storytelling. Is one of these methods better than the others?
No, we do this because everyone learns in a different way. So it's important to teach mindfulness in different ways too. Sometimes I even explain what happens in the brain during mindfulness - it helps some children to understand the idea. Other children get excited about how sports stars use mindfulness. Still others learn best by performing mindful movements. It makes sense to offer different entry points to mindfulness. They all lead to the same place: being present in the here and now.
How can mindfulness change a class or even an entire school?
The schools that have integrated mindfulness report an overall calmer and more relaxed atmosphere. We often achieve this by setting up a room or even just a corner as a «mindfulness space». This is a great opportunity for the children: they can come here and find peace when they are feeling stressed. We should give children more opportunities like this to help them sort themselves out when they realise they have too much energy.
What role do the new media play? They are completely opposed to the ideas of mindfulness.
Our modern, media-driven culture has a deeply distracting, even addictive character. But this is precisely where mindfulness can be useful. It helps children and adults to recognise when they are being distracted and to refocus on what is important. When we realise that we are not there for ourselves, our friends, our family and the wonderful world around us, that is the first step towards changing it.
Read more:
- How to practise mindfulness with your children. We have put together four tips.
- Families should use mindfulness to find a more relaxed way of living together. The Hiestand family from Goldiwil tried it out.
- Mindfulness. Life in the here and now. The big dossier in April - issue 04/2018.
