Tips for Teaching Students Mindfulness

Today’s students live busy lives, and the hectic pace and many demands can often create stress. Teach your students to be more mindful, which will help them feel calmer, more grounded, and more attentive. Huntington offers a few tips for embracing mindfulness that you can share with your students:

• Focus on yourself. A big part of mindfulness is bringing awareness to your actions, like your breath, movements, and reactions.
• One thought at a time. We all have a lot to think about. It’s important to declutter the mind periodically, observing every moment and staying “in” those moments while they are happening.
• Pause and look around. Mindfulness is also about paying attention to what’s around you: sounds, sights, smells, and other people. Train the mind to stay with and commit to each thought, even if briefly.
• Acknowledge the past, but don’t dwell. Past experiences and difficulties offer the opportunity to learn and grow, but they shouldn’t interfere with our forward momentum in life. Teach the mind to recognize things as they occur, but accept what cannot be changed. Focus on the present.

Mindfulness has many benefits, from decreased stress to increased information processing speed, from better focus to improved communication. Encourage your students to adopt some of these practices and watch them become stronger, more effective students.