INTRODUCTION TO MINDFULNESS FOR SCHOOLS Jeremy Morris Educational Psychologist and Cognitive Behaviour Therapist

Outline Mindfulness: What is it? How does it help? How do we get there? The Mindfulness Attention Programme (MAP) Let’s have a go?

WHAT IS MINDFULNESS?  Mindfulness means paying attention to what’s happening in the present moment in the mind, body and external environment, with an attitude of curiosity and kindness. Report by the Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group (MAPPG) 2015 Where is your attention NOW?

HOW DOES IT HELP? RReducing worry and rumination

Mind Wandering Experience of sampling results connected to Mindfulness The frequency of mind wandering in a real-world sample was considerably higher than is typically seen in laboratory experiments. Surprisingly, the nature of people’s activities had only a modest impact on whether their minds wandered and had almost no impact on the pleasantness of the topics to which their minds wandered First, people’s minds wandered frequently, regardless of what they were doing. Mind wandering occurred in 46.9% of the samples.

Mood Congruence  Happy moods lead to increased number of happy memories retrieved and increased speed of retrieval  Sad mood likewise

Cutting worry/rumination short Rumination Mindfulness Improved Mood

Schonert-Reichl, et al  4 classes of combined 4th and 5th graders (N 99) were randomly assigned to receive a social responsibility program that included mindfulness, versus a regular social responsibility program.  Measures assessed executive functions (EFs), stress physiology via salivary cortisol, well-being (self- reports), pro-sociality and peer acceptance (peer reports), and math grades.

Schonert-Reichl, et al  Relative to children in the social responsibility program, children who received the program with mindfulness:  (a) improved more in their cognitive control (Flanker task) and stress physiology (Salivary cortisol);  (b) reported greater empathy, perspective-taking, emotional control, optimism, school self-concept, and mindfulness,  (c) showed greater decreases in self-reported symptoms of depression and peer-rated aggression,  (d) were rated by peers as more prosocial, and  (e) increased in peer acceptance (or sociometric popularity).

How do we get there?  Mindfulness involves being more in the present.  Letting go more readily of our worries about the future and our ruminations on the past  BUT how do we get there?

MAP Course Outline

Sessions 1 & 2 Focus On breathing and the body Anchor In the present

Session 3 & 4 Widening the angle Foreground and background – noticing feelings and judgments

Sessions 5 & 6 Holding on and Letting go

Sessions 7 & 8 Facing the difficult And Summary

And Practice: Meditations in class and guided meditations to download Meditations in class And/or guided meditations to download

Summary  Mindfulness is paying attention on purpose to the present moment in a particular way.  There is a good evidence base for its helpfulness with adults and an improving one with children.  It has potential both to support negative emotions (such as anxiety) and develop positive ones.