Student Wellbeing
From the Assistant Principal- Mrs Bullen
The Resilience Project - Mindfulness
This week from The Resilience Project we would like to focus on Mindfulness.
Working on mindfulness gives us opportunities to develop our ability to pay attention to the present moment and our thoughts. Practising mindfulness daily can help us stay focused on set tasks and reduce stress and anxiety.
There are two main ways of practicing mindfulness
The first is ‘formal’ practice, otherwise known as mindfulness meditation. This means sitting in a chair doing nothing other than paying attention in a mindful way, whether that’s for 40 minutes or doing a mini meditation for one minute.
The second way to practice mindfulness is ‘informal’ practice. This means being mindful in our day-to-day life while we’re doing things, for example, paying attention when in class, while driving or washing the dishes.
HOW MINDFULNESS HELPS TO DEVELOP FOUNDATIONAL SKILLS
According to a meta-analysis of more than 70 studies comparing more than 6,000 school aged young people, those who practised mindfulness showed:
- Better emotion and behaviour regulation than 62% of those who didn't practice mindfulness
- Better academic performance than 66% of those who didn't practice mindfulness
- Lower depression and anxiety scores than 66% of those who didn't practice mindfulness
- Better social skills than 64% of those who didn't practice mindfulness
Whole Family Activity:
Mindful Walk
- As a family, go on a walk outside in nature. This might be around your local walking track, at your local park, or just around your streets.
- While walking, tune into your senses and observe what you can see, hear, and feel. Or you might choose to focus on one of the senses. Eg: Hear: what are all the noises you can hear on your walk?
- On your way home or when you return home, share what each person saw, heard, or felt.
Family Habit Builder:
Take a moment to look out the window or around the room. What are 3 things you can see? What are 2 things you can hear? What is 1 thing you can feel? How do you feel after stopping for a moment?
Each night at dinner, ask everyone to take one mouthful of food more mindfully than the rest and think about the flavors they can taste and how it makes them feel. (They can also thank the chef!).
Participate in some mindful colouring, focusing on the colours you choose, the stroke of the pencil as you colour, the feeling of the pencil and paper on your hands, etc. You can find some mindful coloring sheets attached.
For more information visit the TRP website: