Voice Up: Voices of Hope and inspiration

I have to admit that I wasn't expecting to be inspired and excited by listening to a group of teenagers talk about their dreams. But thats exactly what happened when I went along to the Voice Up event  on Friday 30th january at Renaissance College Hong Kong (RCHK).

Organised by a Year 12 student at RCHK Phipson Lee Voice up has been inspired by the TEDx talks around the world. For these events, however, it is young people talking about their Dreams and issues close to their heart. Eight teenagers and two adults from schools across Hong Kong and from an environmental organisation.

I heard about: 'Why you should vote', 'Why you should do, and not just dream' , 'What happens when the american and chinese dream collide!' and the 'Why silence is not an option!' These were just 4 of the 10 talks on offer on an evening augmented by some great music from RCHK students.

What struck me was how aware the students were about the issues that faced them. Full of passion and reason, they were talking about what it means to fail academically, the pressure to follow others dreams and not their own, and the pressure to succeed. 

What also struck me is the amount of positive psychology  the students were talking about. Although they didnt use the terminology, there was a lot of discussion of growth vs fixed mindset, character strengths, emotional balance and positivity ratios, grit and resilience and gratitude. Such an awareness of aspects that impact on their wellbeing and success was truly encouraging!

The audience was made up of teachers and students from across Hong Kong schools enthusiatically cheering the speakers they knew and all the other impressive speaches.

I was left energised to think about aspects of my own life, my dreams and actions. As a result I was struck by how inspiring this would be for all teenagers 13 and upwards, to show them that thinking and talking about your dreams and the struggles you face is a good and natural thing, and something everything should pursue.

A great event and one I hope is repeated in years to come, and across different schools. Well done Phipson and the team, and well done RCHK for supporting the event

Nasty or Nice: How kind are we to ourselves or others?

The Students started off today with a safe place meditation. They were asked to think of a place they could go to in their minds when life got hard and full of worries. This place would be full of positives and feel completely safe for them with no demands.

For some this place was their house, for others this was with friends at school. 

For a large majority the place was outside of Hong Kong, at a holiday destination, or a grandparents house. It was often in their country of origin, and often in a quiet countryside location, a field, a forest or a garden.

The following discussion centered around being kind and unkind to self and others. A mention of siblings allowed the children to easily understand how frustration with one thing led them to take out their frustration on another person, often a younger brother or sister. So a difficult maths task would lead them to shout at their parents and/ or siblings, blaming them for their difficulty. We discussed useful alternative actions when you were angry or frustrated. The students generated the following:

• Punch or shout at a pillow
• Bounce on their bed.
• Do something nice for someone.
• Do something active. (run, trampoline etc.)
• Do something creative.
• write in a  frustration journal, or write a letter that they rip up.

We also discussed how burying your feelings with candy didn't help in the long run as it just suppressed the emotions rather than acknowledging and dealing with them.

What was really positive, was that the students talked at great lengths about all the kind things they had done for themselves and others over the past week. We discussed how people who perform spontaneous acts of kindness are often more happy and successful in life.

So this week the students are going to take special notice of when they are kind or unkind to themselves or others. You can really help them by noticing and commenting when you observe kindness or unkindness, but try to err on the side of positive noticing!

Next week is the final week of the course and we will look at the Secret of Happiness! 

The Worry Factory: Students share what is on their mind...

With two weeks to go on the mindfulness matters course we turned our thoughts towards thoughts and worries.

Thoughts are the storyteller in your mind, sometimes wanted and sometimes not.... 

An interesting discussion followed trying to think about nothing for 15 seconds. A really hard task only achieved by those who held their breath!

I asked the children to share with each other what they worried most often about. They could volunteer these worries in a class discussion if they wanted.

The results were unsurprisingly similar across all four classes, and typical of children their age about to make a big transition:

• I worry about people close to me getting ill.
• I worry what other people think of me.
• I worry about my gran because she is ill in hospital.
• I worry about spiders.
• I worry about snakes.
• I worry when my parents argue...I worry they might split up.
• I worry my dog might die.
• I worry what older children might do to me when i get to KGV.
• I worry I'll get lost and be late for lessons when i get to KGV.
• I worry the work will be really hard.
• I worry about peer pressure.
• I worry about doing well in tests.
• I worry about remembering things in tests.
• I worry about burglars in my house.
• I worry about murderers in my house.
• I worry because my dad is ill.
• I worry when my mum is sick.
• I worry about growing up...

I asked the children what they could do about these worries and we came up with a list of helpful approaches.

1. Acknowledge that you are worried. Sometimes just recognising that you are worried, and that it is an emotional state that will pass can be helpful.
2. Share your worry with someone. We agreed that sharing with a friend or parent can often make the worry smaller or go away
3. Write the worries down. Sometimes a list of the worries can get them out of your head and turn them into concrete problems to deal with
4. Do some belly breathing as a focus on your belly and becoming calm often takes attention away from a worried head 
5. Use come scaling questions. e.g. On a scale of 1-10 how worried do I feel? then On a scale of 1-10 how big a problem is this actually? Sometimes this can really help

As a parent sometimes its good to share your own worries and how you manage them as it will often help a child talk about theirs.

In america a large, national survey of adolescent mental health reported that about 8 percent of teens ages 13-18 have an anxiety disorder, with symptoms commonly emerging around age 6. 

Using the strategies above can be a real boon  in helping students reduce any anxieties and be happy.

Clearwater bay Mindfulness matters Week 4: Seeing what you want

Today we looked at their 'movie mind' and having faith in the future. The were students really engaged, interested and focused, and it was hard to stop the discussions and keep to time! 

Visualisation is a difficult skill to master but they really had a go at it including the wonderful but tricky wishing tree activity where they try and visualise a heartfelt dream/ desire and let it go, and have faith that this positive change will happen at some point in the future.

Their practice with mindfulness is really paying off, and you can feel the increase in focus, and attention. One student has already mentioned using the spaghetti test each night as when she does she gets to sleep really quickly instead of it taking and hour!

We finished the sessions off today with a great mindful movement activity. and if you'd like to try it out with your children, here it is!

Next week: Emotions and the world of thoughts

Raisin' the Bar: Paying more attention to the everyday things that we do!

This week was focused around sensory exploration, paying conscious attention to things that perhaps we take for granted.

For the students the session started off with an activity around checking out the internal 'weather forecast' of their feelings, and a discussion of how quickly the 'weather' can change. Although easy for some who were able to say for example that the weather was 'Foggy' (They felt sleepy) or 'sunny' (they felt happy and energetic), for others this was a tricky task.We had a good discussion about the idea that it was checking how you feel rather than the imagery that was important. For one group the discussion got on to the movie 'Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs 1+2' Some of the students said they could equate emotional states and mood to the food that came from the sky, or to the 'Foodimals' different moods and characters! 

All the students got the idea that their mood affected how they felt during the day, but that this mood was as changeable as the weather i.e. they were unlikely to be angry for a whole day or happy for a whole day, and it was useful to notice how they were feeling at particular points.

All four classes had a great discussion about paying attention to routine things. I asked them all whether their parents  asked them about their day when they got home? There was a unanimous raising of hands! and a pretty consistent set of stock responses that the students gave:

'So what did you do today at school?'

• 'nothing'
• 'stuff'
• 'writing'
• 'maths'
• 'break and lunchtime'
• 'I forgot'

The students really got the idea that it was hard to remember specifics about what they had done each day because it was encased in a routine framework that varied little on a daily basis. We talked about what parents could ask instead and they agreed that 'Tell me one interesting or exciting thing that you did today?' might be a question that got more information out of them!

Its interesting to think form a parental perspective what would you say if every day your children asked you 'So what did you do at work today?' How many days would you respond ' oh emails, meetings and reports' or just...'stuff'!

Illustrating our discussion around not paying attention to routine things we discussed the idea that most car accidents take place on roads familiar to a driver and close to their home. The next activity asked them to try and regard a very familiar object  as if they had never seen it before, and describe it using the senses available to them.

The student's  approached the task of trying to see, hear, smell, touch and taste a raisin as if it was the first time they had ever seen it with a lot of interest and enthusiasm! 


There was a lot of great discussion following around thinking about the food we eat more mindfully, in terms its appearance, taste, texture etc. We also talked a lot about considering the journey the food makes to be in front of us.

The students have been tasked to pick a mealtime this week and to try and eat mindfully during this meal or just for 5 minutes of the meal. I've promised them that if they do they are likely to notice new things about the taste of food they take for granted! You could join in with them if you want and have a discussion about your experiences. 

Another suggestion is to take time on a walk you do regularly to stop for 10-20 seconds to consider what you can see, hear, smell and feel.

Next week, How we deal with situations when we long for them to change: Patience and faith and letting go

For those of you who missed the parent talk last Wednesday I mentioned a number of resources that can be used to explore mindfulness outside of this program if you wanted. For adults and older teens there is the Headspace program http://www.getsomeheadspace.com/index.aspx which gives an introduction to mindfulness through 10 minute meditations. For all ages there are free mindfulness programs available through The Smiling Mind website http://smilingmind.com.au/.

Happy to have any questions about these to tim.conroystocker@esfcentre.edu.hk

The Spaghetti Test: Year 6 students at Clearwater bay school learn some ways to refocus and increase their performance!

So this is the second week of the 'Mindfulness Matters' program at Clearwater Bay school. All four year 6 classes are having once a week lessons, learning about focused attention and awareness techniques. The course forms part of the provision supporting student wellbeing, and will give the students useful tools to ensure a positive and successful transition to their next school.

Today's focus was to help students to pay mindful attention to signals from their body, and to share a technique for relaxing their body to increase focus.

We first did a short meditation looking at how breathing deeply or breathing shallowly affected how you are feeling. We followed this with a discussion of how your body shows different emotional states: Happiness, anger, sadness and worry. 

I asked the question 'What do you notice in your body when you are worried?'and got a lot of responses about things the students were worried about. Many were worried about the Mandarin test they had that day and said that this was on their mind. Many more talked about what it was like when they worried:

• 'Worry makes everything seem bad and a lot worse than it is.'
• 'If you're worried you get upset. Sometimes I need to tell someone. It feels better when I tell someone.'
• 'When I'm worried I think a lot of 'what if's'.'
• 'I Can't think properly.'
• 'I get hot sweats.'
• 'I Try to concentrate but I get too anxious.'
• 'It Stops me sleeping.'

A follow up question to all 4 groups indicated that a significant minority sometimes found it difficult to get to sleep at night. 

There was a big consensus that when they were happy they had loads of energy and liked to do lots of things! There was also a discussion about doing things for others, and whether that made you happy, or whether you were more likely to do it if you felt happy?

As a way of preparing their body for a difficult/important/scary task, to help with worry, or to help them get to sleep I introduced the group to the spaghetti test. The students lay down and tensed and relaxed face, arm, stomach and leg muscles in turn, and paired this with belly breathing to achieve a relaxed and calm state.

The students were fabulous at this! and about half said they might try it to try and help get to sleep at night. With a couple of the groups we talked about just doing this with your arms and using breathing to calm yourself down in an situation were they were wound up or angry.

Next week we will explore how expectations can affect your experience and how to make the senses sharper!

Just sitting,and Dancing,and wishing, and the secret of happiness!: Mindfulness matters week 8, the Final sessions!

So my journey at Kowloon juniors comes to a close for the moment. The kids have been fantastic, and I believe they have learned a lot. the children will continue to practice as Matt and Dom will  run the 10 minute exercises on a regular basis for the rest of the year. 

In year 2 we looked at the difference between moving energetically and moving in a slow and controlled way. The kids loved dancing to Dancing Queen. I ask 'So how did that make you feel?' 'Like I could dance all day' answers one little girl.

The children then practiced slow and quiet walking as if they had a small butterfly on their head. The calm nature of this activity led on to a wishing meditation were the children thought of a wish for themselves, a wish for others and a wish for all the children in the world. One child wished for ice cream every day, another with a heartfelt look in his eyes wished that he could have a good day. Some wished for friendship for others, one wished for a 3d x box for all the poor children in the world, and one wished for everyone in the class to have good days, every day...

They liked the snowglobe and understood how their busy heads and worries were like the snow and could be cleared through mindful breathing.

 At the start of the process i was skeptical as to whether year 2s could benefit from mindfulness, or would be able to engage with it. I was very wrong, and I will miss working with this group very much!

Year 6s focused on the secret of happiness. Just a small thing to learn about! I think they got the idea that having things wouldn't necessarily make them happier, and that the secret of happiness revolved around being aware of when you were happy and noticing how often this happened.

I asked them What they liked the best from the mindfulness matters course?, What they had found difficult? and What they had learned?. Their responses knocked me off my feet:

'I sleep better now, because mindfulness helps me get to sleep'
'I can focus on things one thing at a time now'
'It really helps me calm down'
'I like the spaghetti test best'
'I feel a lot happier at school and home now'

and many more like that...All that from just focusing attention in a warm and non judgmental way on your breathing...amazing!

Looking forward to starting it all again at Clearwater Bay school, April 28th!

Safe places, invisible balloons and parents get in on the act!: Mindfulness Matters Week 7

In Year 6 the students created safe places in their mind that they could go to in times of stress or anxiety. The trick was to try and create this place without other more negative images crashing it in to make it less safe!

The nature of what is kind and unkind is important as there is a great deal of evidence suggesting that kindness and gratitude are linked to positive wellbeing and resilience.
So we asked: what did it mean to be kind? and how were people unkind? and how are you unkind to yourself?

That final question seemed the easiest for students to answer. They were very aware of when they were hard on themselves and what words they said to themselves about it:

'Im so stupid!' " why did you do that, thats dumb!' etc.

Their task for this week is to keep a card with kind and unkind written on it in their pockets. Every time they do/say something kind or unkind they have to take the card out of their pocket and put it back in the other one. Should be interesting! Lets see what happens next week?

Year 2 did some mindful movement; lifting an invisible gigantic balloon  and sending it in the air, then raising their arms like a 'proud peacock'. Both myself and Mr Parry their teacher felt proud of them because they did it so well! They also did well sitting and doing nothing, just focusing on their breathing. For some a really boring task, for others wonderful to have permission for a small slot of time where nothing was expected of them. Again the kids were fantastic at it!

For the Year 2's safe place we asked them to imagine a friendly and brave animal that would guard them when they were scared. Jaguars, dinosaurs, dogs and birds all made an appearance, and maybe the children now have something to help them if they are afraid of the dark?

Thanks to all the parents who came to the parent session. They tried the activities, and found out about the course. It was great to hear how one child's attentional skills at home seem to have really improved, and how other children seem to really value the sessions. 

Their only challenge: When will this be done in the whole school? because all the children need it. 

I couldn't agree more, why shouldn't they all have it? It has to be my mission to make it happen. But I do know I will have lots of allies campaigning with me!

Final instalment next week!

Frogs, Butterflies, Birds and deer: Mindfulness matters 6: learning to move with mindful attention

Year 6 were buzzing with the visit of students from their new secondary school but really got into the idea of thinking about and observing their thoughts. 15 seconds of them trying to think about nothing was the highlight today!

For the year 2's today was all about mindful movement. From squatting like a frog, waving arms like a bird, to standing like stork and being still as a deer. 

They finished off by lying down and letting their bodies go limp as a bowl of spaghetti

As they focused mindfully on the movements I became aware that they really seemed to be taking on the attributes of the animals they were emulating, until finishing off standing like a deer they became so still I felt i was surrounded by the animals in a woodland scene!

The focus on mindful movement and being in control of your body's movements is another way for kids to be helped to de-stress when there is a lot of tension about.

Whats interesting is that at this age there seems to be a real character difference in the kids. Some find the meditation brilliant and really benefit from it. You can see how a chance to be calm and quiet really helps them.

For others the calm quiet is really difficult but the mindful movement is something they really enjoy. They are focused and set free by the chance to move and hold a pose, and that will be a way for them to enjoy the calm.

And why shouldn't there be a difference? I dont mind meditation, but if you give me a chance I would go for mindful walking or Tai Chi/ chi gung as a way of calming down. That's what quietens my mind most. I suspect, however, that I benefit from both!

So that's the end of week 6. Two weeks to go in the pilot and looking forward to meeting the parents next week!


For a taste of mindful walking why not get the mindful walking app on the Apple app store and Google play. a small investment for a really positive experience Try it out on a walk through an area you know well, and see how many new things you see!

Children who suffer a loss

Participants creating memory jars using salt and pastels to help remember a loss

So no mindfulness with the kiddies this week, but for very good reason. This week myself and 60 colleagues from ESF and wider took part in brilliant workshops on child bereavement and the management of critical incidents, run by Sarah Gothard a psychologist and bereavement counsellor who works with Winston's Wish http://www.winstonswish.org.uk/ the Uk's leading Child bereavement charity. 

1 in 29 children in the UK will have suffered a significant bereavement of a parent or sibling before they are 18. Thats just over 3%, yet death remains conspicuously absent from school curriculums in both primary and secondary phase. If our aim is to promote the development of resilient children should we not help to prepare them for one of the most constant and powerful factors they will experience in life: The death of someone close to them.

Conveying an understanding of how death may affect someone, and giving strategies to help is a relatively simple proposition, yet in perhaps misguided attempts to protect children, the topic is taboo, and avoided in most schools, until something serious forces the school to address it. 

So what help do bereaved children get in Hong Kong? and how many children are bereaved on a yearly basis? I don't know the answer to this yet but as one of my primary colleagues said in a takeaway from monday: 'Im going to find out and do something about it'

More Feeling Feelings, Milkshakes and millipedes: Mindfulness matters Week 5

'...I feel sad when people don't include me in their games...'


'...I am Happy when I go to Ocean Park!...'
'I am angry when my little sister annoys me...'
'...I am afraid when a teacher looks right at me...'


So when do you feel different feelings? and where do you feel them in your body? How do you know if they are big or small feelings? and what do you do with difficult ones?

These where the questions year 2 and 6 explored today. Year 6 found it a challenge to spot how they were feeling, but were able to tell me lots of instances when they were happy/sad/scared/ angry. They knew what they did when they were angry which normally involved punching and hitting something! but when I asked 'what could you do to deal with these difficult emotions?' , the answers rang from around the room 'breathing... mindful breathing...try and be calm and breathe'. When I looked at the faces I could see they weren't just saying this to please me, they genuinely believed that the techniques would work and would be helpful! Fantastic! 

They found the exercise to deal with difficult feelings quite hard and I think Next time i would try and give them some more structure and perhaps specify the type of sad memory they could think about. This is challenging activity for adults so really challenging for children. I might go off program next week and try it again! What they really loved was SHAKING LIKE A MILKSHAKE! to finish off the session. You could feel the mood level change in the classroom in an instant and it felt great to see them with happy smiling faces! Brilliant group of kids!

Year 2 built on their exploration of fear and anger last week to look at happiness and sadness this week. They listened to a story about when Fred the Frog was sad and were able to tell stories about when they were sad, and what their faces looked like when they were sad. They loved the discussion about when they felt good, and what they looked like, and drew a fantastic set of drawings with them having birthdays, playing with sisters, going to Legoland and being a flower girl at a wedding to name but a few!: All the things that made them happy.

The finale was fantastic. 30 kids with their hands on the shoulders of the child in front of them mindfully lifting their right leg then left leg and walking like a millipede around the classroom. Absolutely priceless, and they did it brilliantly.

Next week mindful movement for the littl'uns and the wonderful world of thoughts for the big'uns!

Feeling feelings and faith in the future:Mindfulness matters wk.4

'...My fear is about a dream of going to Ocean Park and there being a shark who bites my  hand off. I wake up scared and go to sleep with my auntie. She makes it not scary anymore and I dream of friendly dinosaurs...' Year 2 on what scares him

Nightmares and parents angry with each other were the biggest fears with the group of 6 year olds I was working with today.Their biggest source of anger...frustration when told by parents they can't do something. They were very honest and open about what they were  scared of, and a real hoot when they tried to show each other what an angry face looked like!

Their ability to sit still like a frog grows each week, and the impact is being felt in the classroom with incidental improvements in concentration for paired reading and other activities.

The innocent engagement and enthusiasm for talking about their feelings is just fantastic.

'...Sometimes I see my Grandma in my mind sitting on my bed. She passed away last year...' year six student on visual images that sometimes creep into their minds

Year 6 were amazing, and I'm going to say that again they were amazing! 

We looked at their 'movie mind' and having faith in the future. They were so engaged, interested and focused I just wanted to stay and talk to them for ever! Visualisation is a difficult skill to master but they really had a go at it including the wonderful but tricky wishing tree activity where they try and visualise a heartfelt dream/ desire and let it go

Their practice with mindfulness is really paying off, and you can feel the increase in focus. 

Next week more feeling feelings!

Mindfulness matters Week 3: 'Raisin' awareness of the senses!

'Its Soup... How can I

 eat soup Mindfully?' 

Year 6 student approaching  their  lunch  after  today's  session

So after a two week break over Chinese New year the students returned to Mindfulness matters week 3. This week was focused around sensory exploration, paying conscious attention to things that perhaps we take for granted.

The Year 2's  approached the task of trying to see, hear, smell, touch and taste a raisin as if it was a strange object from the moon with a lot of wonder! Some of them were amazed at how strong and bitter the raisin tasted, and the difference in texture between the outside and inside. All were surprised that raisins had a sound when you roll them next to your ear!

Their patience was tested when they were asked to slowly walk  mindfully  around their shared area concentrating on their feet and how it felt to walk, but they were completely calm by the time they got back to the classroom!

For the Year 6's the session started off with an activity around checking out the internal 'weather forecast' of their feelings, and a discussion of how quickly the 'weather' can change. They too did the raisin activity, and agreed to try and eat their lunch slowly and mindfully. Following a short activity sitting still like a frog, their teacher commented on how much better they are getting at quickly paying attention to their breathing!

Next week, feeling feelings for the Year 2's and Patience and faith for the Year 6's

Mindfulness matters Week 2: Students take the 'spaghetti test'!

'I felt like I was so relaxed...like i was sinking in to the floor...'

So week 2 of the program and the teachers report that the children are really enjoying the mindfulness exercises and asking when they are going to do them in the day. The focus for this session was all about the body, recognizing pain and tension and trying to relax.

The Year 2s had a good shake then stopped, and discussed where their stop button would be if they had one, and when they might want to press it! They had a go at clenching and relaxing their fists, talked about when their body hurts and where, and finished off with some yoga exercises, stretching like a cat in the sun. We also tried sitting still like a frog again.

Its interesting that I can see almost a split developing between those who like doing the movements and those who like being still and breathing. Lets see how it goes over the next few weeks, if they come together, drift further apart, or if this flips completely?

Year 6 also had a focus on the body but at a more sophisticated level. After an extended sitting still like a frog we talked about recognising body signs of anger, happiness and worry. We finished off with the 'Spaghetti test' In this exercise the object was to help the students become relaxed as a plate of spaghetti! They lay down on the floor of the classroom with coats for pillows, and then received instructions to tense and relax different parts of their body, breathing out all their tension.

For a large number of the students this was very powerful. They commented on how relaxed they felt, how they felt like they were sinking through the floor...there were a lot of smiling faces! I've asked them to try it out if they feel stressed, or if they cant sleep, or just if they want to relax. Lets see how many of them have used it by next session! Nothing next week as its Chinese new year

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Cuddly Frogs and learning to Breathe: Week 1 of 'Mindfulness Matters' at Kowloon Junior School

--'You've got the talking stone, what did you think about the meditation?'

pause

--'You're frog is so cuddly!'

--'Brilliant!'

So the dangers of getting too plush a puppet for Year 2s are illustrated, but it was part of a wonderful process in fantastic opening sessions for year 2 and 6 at Kowloon Junior school. 

‘Mindfulness matters’ is an eight-week mindfulness/ Attention training course for children in primary schools.  The course teaches  how to be mindful or attentive. The half-hour lessons take place once a week at a set time  delivered by  a specially trained mindfulness teacher. In addition, 10-minute exercises are practiced on the other schooldays delivered by the class teacher.

One class in Year 6 and one  class in Year 2 will be piloting the course with some before and after data collected form the children, parents and teachers.

In year 2 the focus in the first session was on the introduction of the attention bells, the talking stone, breathing, and sitting still like a frog. The students were engaged and attentive, (despite the distractions of the plush frog!), with just a few finding it really hard to sit still. This is a difficult task for 7 year olds, but there were some great moments of calm and stillness. They loved the Breathing Rhyme:

B is for Breathing

Full of fresh air from up high

it comes in through your nose

and goes out again with a sigh (pppphhhhhhh) 

Suffice to say they were really easy to re-energise with the popcorn method at the end of the session!

In Year 6 the focus of the students was outstanding. They were interested and attentive from the outset, listening and applying a great degree of thought to any questions posed. They were really interested in a discussion about attention and memory and were so still during the first attempt at sitting still like a frog you would have thought they had practiced for years!

All told both groups were a credit to the school and I'm looking forward immensely to session 2!

The book accompanying the program ‘Sitting still like a frog: mindfulness exercises for kids (and their parents) is published by Shambhala, and available through Amazon or the Book depository.

I think some of you haven't been paying attention...

A familiar lament from many a classroom teacher, but whilst the teacher is concerned about the students paying attention to her instructions, perhaps the real concern should be that they haven't had the opportunity to pay attention to their own physical and emotional state?

The capacity to be mindful of ones current emotional state is something that has come on to the agenda of many schools in an age where its difficult to focus on the self without being bombarded by multiple calls on our attention from a new Facebook status, a retweet,someone +1'ing one of our posts, being ousted as mayor of our local Starbucks, or simply receiving a text or email. Now I love all this stuff, but I want to be able to stay in control of it as well!

Students are managing more information sources and demands on their attention than ever before, but evidence shows that their ability to manage all these stimuli rather than be managed by them has been seriously degraded. Even the Daily Mail agrees and has agreed that there is no gender difference in the degradation. There is even challenge to the idea that any of us can multitask at all! 

So if Multitasking, or attempting to multitask is the problem, whats the solution that allows us to stay focused and deal with tasks efficiently as they arrive?

Many would argue that mindfulness as an approach and mindful meditation in particular are the answer to this. 

I spent 8 weeks before last summer attending a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course. Two and a half hours of class, plus around 6 hours of practice outside of class,  a week, and  attendance at a one day silent retreat. How did I fair? well not naturally being a quiet minded chap I absolutely hated it at first; my back was uncomfortable during meditation, I kept falling asleep during the bodyscan, and thoughts just crashed in on me all the time. But as someone once said 'I am not a quitter' so I persisted and with practice I started to enjoy some of the exercises particularly the Bodyscan, mindful walking, and 3 minute awareness of breathing. I started to be able to breathe away my anxieties and stresses, take some minutes to refocus my attention and to be in the moment, however pleasurable or painful that was. 

I make no bones about this...it was pretty life changing. I don't practice every day, but I've got a set of tools that allow me to refocus, take care of myself, and ultimately support my wellbeing. I would recommend anyone to take the MBSR course.

But how does that help the kids in school, wheres the time to do a 40 minute, or even a 10 minute meditation? The answer is that there are mindfulness programs to suit every level of school engagement, and most have a growing evidence base around effectiveness with students.

For School Practitioners who have completed the MBSR course programs such as .b and Mindfulness Matters give an in depth introduction to mindfulness practice for children. The Phuket International Academy at Thanyapura uses .b for its secondary students. For its primary students it uses the MIND UP, program which is a gentler introduction around short breathing exercises and some very good neuroscience related to what part of the brain does what, and how you can regulate it.

For those of you that would like to try before you buy! why not go to the Smiling mind website. There are free mindfulness programs for all ages with recordings to listen to and other activities. I'm doing it with my two boys ages 7 and 10 and they love it! Try the rock the boat activity its great

Time will tell how the mindfulness in schools movement develops, particularly in Asia, but given the increasing incidence of mental health difficulties in schools these are approaches are certainly something we should consider. The evidence suggests they would provide an effective framework of support for emotional wellbeing for children and adults in our schools.