Why Mindfulness?
Challenges Our Students and Teachers are Facing
Students
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these harsh realities facing young Canadians and our teachers. We must provide our teachers and students with a self-care tool kit that guides them to slow down, cultivate self-awareness and inner resources to navigate challenges with more confidence, ease, resilience and self-empowerment.
Teachers
Education with Covid-19
New Challenges Teachers and Students are Facing
At the beginning of August of 2020 Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations
described the Covid-19 pandemic as having led to
the largest disruption of education in history, with over a billion children having been affected.
He stated that we are at a defining moment for the world’s children and young people,
and that we have a generational opportunity to re-imagine education
and for all the chaos, the grief, trauma and disruption that the pandemic has caused
it has also created that space for re-imagining education.
“only when it is dark enough can you see the stars” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Statistics in Education
With Covid-19
World Health Organisation (WHO) calls violence against children the hidden crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Canada, Kids Help Phone has reported an increase in specific conversations about
physical, sexual and emotional abuse.
As kids are back to school, report of suspected child abuse may increase, once children
are seen by trusted adults in their schools.
Increased workloads in a pandemic are detrimental to teachers’ physical health and well-being. Teachers are infrequently able to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
44% state that they have concerns with their mental health and well-being.
92% say that access to technology and learning materials was a barrier to equitable quality public
education.
Upholding basic levels of daily physical health is becoming progressively more difficult for teachers.
89% report concerns about student emotional health.
Educators note that students are isolated and missing social connections with their classmates and schools, and they are concerned with students returning to school after a period of detachment.
99% have concerns about the return to school buildings discussed anxieties around not knowing the plans, adding that
constant changes from Ministries of
Education, without proper time and supports to adapt, have taken a toll on their mental health and well-being.
Source: CTF/FCE Teacher Mental Health Check-in Survey Pandemic Research Report
Benefits of Mindfulness in Education
Scientific studies confirm the benefits
but the best proof is one's own experience!
Benefits for Students
⌾ Attention and Learning Skills
- Attention, Focus
- Cognitive Development
❥ Social & Emotional Skills
- Behavior in School
- Empathy & Perspective Taking
- Social-Skills
- Improved Self-Regulation
⌇Resilience
- Emotional Regulation
- Reduced Anxiety & Stress
- Post-Traumatic Symptoms
- Depression
- Impulsivity
- Reduce Depression and Improve Mental Health
Source: mindfulschools.org
Benefits for Teachers
Well-Being:
Greater mental flexibility, reduce stress and burn-out, emotional regulation, relationship
management skills, sense of time urgency, and fewer symptoms of mild depression
Teacher Effectiveness:
Professional improvement, increased job satisfaction, heightened sense of efficacy, emotional awareness and resilience, classroom management including trauma-sensitive pedagogy
For fast acting relief,
try slowing down.
- Lily Tomlin
What students and teachers are saying:
Mindfulme School Program
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive,
and go do it. Because what the world needs is people
who have come alive.” ― Howard Thurman
Mindfulness
Online Learning
Online learning from 60-minute introduction to mindfulness to
eight-week programs for children, teens, young adults, adults, school staff, and families.
Mindfulness
School Program
Providing teachers and students in a secular manner through research-based programs, simple understanding, and mindfulness practices that include Social-Emotional Competencies & Life Skills that they can incorporate in their daily life.
Mindfulness
at Home
Personal Instruction is offered to your home's comfort to explore mindfulness as a tool for connection, to support social-emotional needs and well-being.
"When the mind quiets down, the body quiets down.
When the body quiets down it goes into homeostasis or self repair."
Scientific Research Results
"Mindfulness" Journal Articles Published by Year
Peer-reviewed scientific studies of meditation have grown exponentially since the 1980s,
with more than 1000 studies published on mindfulness each year.
Research Studies Reading
Mindfulness for Children and Teachers
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for the Treatment of Adolescent Psychiatric Outpatients: A Randomized Clinical Trial - Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
How does mindfulness modulate self-regulation in pre-adolescent children? An integrative neurocognitive review - Elsevier (NEUROSCI BIOBEHAV R)
Implementing Mindfulness Practices With Parents of Young Children in a Low-Socioeconomic Status Neighborhood. - Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association
Youth-focused group mindfulness-based intervention in individuals with early psychosis. - Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
Putting your mind at ease: findings from the Mindfulness Ambassador Council programme in Toronto area schools - Journal of Children Services
Integrating mindfulness training into K-12 education: Fostering the resilience of teachers and students. - APA PsycInfo
Effectiveness of Mindfulness Interventions for Mental Health in Schools - Mindfulness (Springer)
A Systematic Review of Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Youth in School Settings - Mindfulness (Springer)
A Systematic Review of Mindfulness-Based School Interventions with Early Adolescents - Mindfulness (Springer)
The Effects of Mindfulness-Based Interventions on Cognition and Mental Health in Children and Adolescents- Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
Efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Attention and Executive Function in Children and Adolescents - Mindfulness ((Springer)
Mindfulness Interventions with Youth: A Meta-Analysis - Mindfulness (Springer)
Mindfulness - General Research
Feasibility, Acceptability, and Psychosocial Outcomes of a Mindfulness-Based Interactive e-Book for Young People with Cancer. Journal of Adolescents and Young Adult Oncology
Cardiovascular and nervous system changes during meditation - Front. Hum. Neurosci.,
Systems biology research study reveals benefits of vacation and meditation - Mount Sinai School Of Medicine
Intensive Lifestyle Changes for Reversal of Coronary Heart Disease American Medical Association
Mindfulness meditation helps fight insomnia, improves sleep - JAMA
Meditation Can Lower Blood Pressure, Study Shows - Int J Hypertens.
Strengthened Hippocampal Circuits Underlie Enhanced Retrieval of Extinguished Fear Memories Following Mindfulness Training - Biological Psychiatry
Effectiveness of a meditation-based stress reduction program in the treatment of anxiety disorders - American Journal of Psychiatry
A randomized controlled trial of compassion cultivation training: Effects on mindfulness, affect, and emotion regulation. - Motivation and Emotion
Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density - Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging
