Benefits of Mindfulness in Education - Part 2:

The Power of Breath

Modern Mindfulness movement is in a continuous process of evolution especially due to its scientific background. It continues to willingly absorb and learn from various proven ancient practices. One such important practice is Yoga. Modern Mindfulness has adopted certain important breath techniques from advanced forms of Yoga after testing their effectiveness through research.

Today, we will investigate as to how some of the Mindfulness teachers use breathing techniques to develop the capabilities of their students.

Two of the key areas of applications are;

1. To rapidly increase the physical and mental levels of energy of their students: Increasing the physical and mental levels of energy is important to school children as it facilitates focused, continuous learning. While children are usually bouncy and physically active, a fair percentage of them are low in sustained levels of balanced mental and physical energy.

2. To quickly bring down high levels of tension and anxiety: Most students feel nervous, apprehensive and anxious when facing exams, competitions, interviews and other such important events in their lives. Such emotions could lead to lesser than expected results in spite of their prior preparations and subject learning at school.

During the eight weeks of training in Mindfulness, they learn and practice a breath technique to calm themselves down with just 2-3 breaths.

Such training to understand and use the power of breath becomes possible as the students start to develop an intimate relationship with their own breath due to Mindfulness of breathing meditation. They learn to grasp the subtle variations and nuances of breathing as they continue with Mindfulness of breathing. The breathing techniques adopted from Yoga are imparted to the students based on that foundation of Mindfulness.

Balancing the Energy

Modern Mindfulness teachers develop and direct their students' levels of mental and physical energy through these special breathing techniques to also balance the energy levels of their students. Some of the teachers of Mindfulness experienced in certain forms of Yoga could literally see a person's internal level of emotional, mental and physical energy.

Most of the time, these energies are not balanced in people. Sometimes there's too much physical energy and they cannot sit still or be calm. Again there could be low levels of physical and emotional energy and they could feel sleepy and lethargic. These Mindful teachers help and guide the students to balance their levels of energy through the power of breath.

We will take some examples to understand this better.

The O/L students come into the hall at 6.40 a.m. for the Mindfulness class.

The Mindfulness teacher notes that the internal energy levels of some of the students are low. It may happen due to their bio rhythms, poor sleep patterns, inadequate and hurried breakfast or even due to their dislike for having to come to school early. They need to get energised prior to practicing Mindfulness of breath.

So the students are guided through a rapidly energising breathing technique called 'Clearing the Way'. The students rhythmically expand their chests starting to fill the lungs fully using diaphragmatic breathing. The expansion is done rapidly employing power.

The group of children hold their breath for some seconds before exhaling forcefully through their mouths. After some cycles of such breathing, they move on to a similar energising technique called 'Reaching for the Sky'. The students feel fully energised at the end of the exercises.

The 'Reaching for the Sky' technique also helps to correct the posture and strengthen the back of the students as an additional benefit.

The students practice the 'Calming Down Breath' during the mid-time of their morning Mindfulness schedule. The teacher explains as to how the breath becomes short, rapid and agitated when students face situations such at sitting for exams, competitions, interviews or simply even when one has to answer a question in the class. The students need to face those situations calmly to bring the best out of them. So the students are trained to calm their breath and through that their mental and emotional level using 'Calming Down Breath'.

The students are trained to breath naturally from the diaphragm slowly and gently and hold it and pass it out smoothly according to a counting system.

The students start to discover their new abilities gradually as their practice deepens during the eight weeks of Mindfulness training. These will help them for the rest of their lives.

(Aruna Manathunge can be contacted at [email protected])