Living Mindfully

Benefits of Mindfulness in Education - Part 8:

Mindful Kindness

Continuing from where we left off last week, we delve deeper into the importance of developing Kindness on a foundation of Mindfulness.

Recently a group of scientists, using statistical technique called Meta-analysis, combined the findings from a large number of independent clinical trials on Mindfulness conducted on school children, arrived at a general consensus that the strongest effects of school based Mindfulness were on cognitive performance (the mental ability to acquire knowledge, perception, intuition and reasoning).

Only moderate improvements were noted in emotion and resilience.

The finding in children was different to the results found among the adult populations, where Mindfulness training produces a marked improvement in overall well-being due to improvements in emotion and resilience, in addition to cognitive enhancements.

These results in school children might have happened due to the nature of introductory Mindfulness programs in schools. In those programs, the overt emphasis is on attention and awareness training through focused meditation. There is less emotional and experiential group reflection and enquiry than in adult courses.

Another reason could be the developing nature of the child and even adolescent brains. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) that are centrally involved in error processing, attention monitoring and control are still developing in adolescents. Adolescents' impulsivity directly relates to the underdeveloped nature of these frontal brain regions.

Research has also found links between impulsivity and adolescent risk-taking behaviours.

Developing Kindness

The latest trend of incorporating the practice of Kindness into school Mindfulness programs may help to improve the emotional development of children better. However, this practice needs to be introduced on a strong foundation of Mindfulness to obtain optimum results.

In the 12-week kindness curriculum developed by the Center for Healthy Minds, the children learn to develop Empathy and Compassion in addition to Mindfulness. Their curriculum is mainly developed on the following;

Attention: Students learn what they focus on is a choice. By focusing attention on a variety of external sensations (sound of a bell, look of a stone or a raisin) and internal sensations (feeling happy or sad), children learn that they can direct their attention and maintain focus.

Breath and the Body: A creative activity was developed to teach the pre-kindergarten children about breath and the body. The children rested on their backs with a baby doll on their belly. They were asked to 'rock the baby' to sleep with natural in- and out- breathing noting "breathing in" and "Breathing out".

Adolescents are taught to develop awareness through the sensation of touch - both through the direct touch of the body on the seat or floor and through the subtle sensation of the movement of air in breathing.

Caring: The students are guided to think about how others feel and to cultivate kindness.

Dependence on other people: They learn that everyone supports and is supported by others from kindergarten level. The small children learn books such as Somewhere Today, which describe acts of kindness that are going on in the world right now.

The older adolescents could be encouraged to present such real life cases. Students learn to see themselves as helpers and begin to develop gratitude for the kindness of others.

Emotions: They learn to express and talk about emotions. What do emotions feel like and look like? How could you tell what you are feeling (anger, sadness, happiness or surprise)? They specifically learn how each emotion feel in the body.

Forgiveness: Children (and even adults) can be particularly hard on themselves and others. The children are taught to accept that everyone makes mistakes and they learn to forgive - first themselves and then the others.

The practice of 'Developing Kindness' meditation is specifically helpful in older adolescents.

Gratitude: The pre-kindergarten students of the 12-week study were taught and guided to note and recognize the kindly acts other people do for them.

The students who went through the curriculum showed more empathy and kindness and a greater ability to calm themselves down when they felt upset.

(Aruna Manathunge has practiced Mindfulness for over 43 years. He conducts Coaching in Mindfulness for Schools and Companies and can be contacted at [email protected])