Imagine you are in a dark room where it’s pin-drop silent. Gradually, as you stay still, some light eats away the darkness, revealing to you a poisonous centipede advancing towards you. For your safety, you jump and move away. This scenario is a perfect representation of mindfulness and its effect. If not for that light, the potential danger wouldn’t have been clear and avoidable. Hence, mindfulness–a mindset involving living in the moment along with being neither over-reactive nor overwhelmed–could be of great use to all ages, particularly to school-students, as it helps us ‘tame’ and cope with our minds for easier and better lives.
Firstly, let’s look into how mindfulness alters our brain activity. There is a certain part of the brain known as the amygdala that controls the fight-or-flight response, switching on when we feel stressed or anxious. Mindfulness revolves around developing the ability to manage this process more effectively. When under control, strong emotions can be managed easily while the calm situation in the mind allows the brain to get more accurate information about the task or surroundings, thus leading to enhanced flexibility, creativity and lateral thinking. Even after practicing mindfulness, it is still common for negative emotions such as frustration to arise, however research shows that the mind is faster at recovering from them. Overtime, practicing mindfulness and meditation reduces the size of the amygdala, which eventually reduces levels of detrimental stress hormones.
Presently, while more and more individuals have started to take up being mindful globally, schools have also started to promote mindfulness in their classrooms. This has been done in several effective ways; prior to lessons, students should engage in up to 10 minutes of meditation regularly, and at the end of the school day, they have to stay in silence to reminisce their deeds. Meanwhile, since the school has the ability to greatly influence students, they have spread awareness and motivation to take up mindfulness by holding assemblies inviting a doctor or other suited people over; putting up posters and campaigns; making it mandatory to engage in meditation or other activities that develop mindfulness. All the implementations should be done on a regular basis as similar to how regular physical exercise can develop and alter the body structure, regular practice of mindfulness can alter the brain development in beneficial ways.
The practice of mindfulness enhances vital abilities within students such as concentration, attention, awareness and having choice to emotion and thoughts, so there are a handful of benefits that can be obtained through it. For example, it helps students to focus better on a task or decision, think thoroughly and clearly, and finally allows a better choice or decision due to better awareness. Not only that, it helps them to remain calm under pressure and this means students can face situations like exams and sport better. Moreover, students’ academics would improve due to the enhanced ability of productivity, flexibility, creativity and memory. Overall, it has a positive impact on mental health, which should essentially be maintained for a quality life.
The introduction to mindfulness to schools would carry heavy advantages. Mindfulness would certainly improve everyone’s lives, particularly the students’, who need it the most, and perhaps the solutions students seek in their young lives lie in the path of mindfulness.
As Prasad Mahes said, “The mind is like water. When it’s turbulent, it’s difficult to see. When it’s calm, everything becomes clear.”