{"id":1161,"date":"2020-11-23T04:48:30","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T04:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.educationperfect.com\/?post_type=article&p=1161"},"modified":"2023-04-24T14:03:57","modified_gmt":"2023-04-24T03:03:57","slug":"filling-your-cup-mindfulness-for-teachers","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.educationperfect.com\/article\/filling-your-cup-mindfulness-for-teachers\/","title":{"rendered":"Filling Your Cup: Mindfulness for Teachers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teaching is a profession where you give, give, give. And as the saying goes, it\u2019s impossible to fill from an empty cup, so let\u2019s have a look at the latest buzz around mindfulness, and see if all the hype is really justified.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cKeeping your own wellbeing in mind is essential to create the experiential conditions to inspire students to learn\u201d (Siegel, 2013<\/a>).<\/p>\n

What is mindfulness?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mindfulness is about being present and fully engaged with whatever task you are doing. It\u2019s not about eliminating thoughts or floating in a zen-like state all day long, but being aware of your thoughts and feelings without getting caught up in them (Headspace, 2019<\/a>;\u00a0Kabat-Zinn, 1994<\/a>).<\/p>\n

How can mindfulness help in teaching?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Teaching can be stressful. Teacher burnout is real, and schools and government are increasingly (if somewhat slowly) acknowledging the importance of teacher wellbeing (Ministry of Education, 2019<\/a>). Teacher wellbeing is multi-faceted and holistic. It is a construct involving \u201cteachers’ models of the quality of their personal, professional and relational selves\u201d (Spilt, Koomen, & Thijs, 2011<\/a>). While systemic changes are required to decrease workload, reduce class sizes, and increase overall support, these factors are often outside of the control of the average classroom teacher so this article focuses on how mindfulness might be one way to provide a more immediate and tangible relief to overwhelm and stress.<\/p>\n

Patricia Jennings (2015<\/a>) discusses how mindfulness can help teachers understand their own emotions better, help communicate more effectively with students, set up a positive learning environment, and help them slow down when needed. Hwang et al. (2017<\/a>) conducted a systematic review of mindfulness interventions and highlighted positive effects such as coping better with stress, difficult emotions and conflict, and increased self-compassion, clarity of mind and self-awareness.<\/p>\n

How do I practise mindfulness?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBeing mindful<\/em>\u00a0arises out of our own personal mindfulness practice – both\u00a0formal\u00a0<\/strong>(sitting meditation, body scans etc.) and\u00a0informal\u00a0<\/strong>(bringing mindful awareness into our daily activities and into our relationships)\u201d (Hawkins, 2017<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Meditation has been shown to reduce stress levels (Jayawardene et al., 2017<\/a>). I\u2019ve experimented with a range of mediation apps such as\u00a0Headspace<\/a>,\u00a0Insight Timer<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Calm<\/a>. I use Headspace a few times a week and particularly like their mini one, two or three minute\u00a0refresh\u00a0<\/a>or\u00a0unwind\u00a0<\/a>sessions. This is something you could feasibly do just before the start of another lesson, during lunch or before a departmental meeting.<\/p>\n

Mindfulness can also be cultivated through movement of the body. It is through focusing on the movement of the body that the mind can quieten. This might be running, walking, dancing, playing a team sport, or yoga. On particularly long days when I\u2019m too whacked to get to the gym, I quite like online yoga with\u00a0Yogaholics<\/a>. They are an Australian online yoga platform with 5 to 90 minute yoga sessions as well as guided meditation classes with categories such as \u2018breathe\u2019, \u2018get present\u2019 and \u2018get charged\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe relationship to the body was crucial for teachers in practising mindfulness. They often became aware of stress held in their bodies (e.g., shoulders) and of how to release it (e.g., rolling shoulders)\u201d (Hwang et al., 2017)<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When you\u2019re in the class or zooming to your next meeting, what can you practically do to alleviate the feelings of stress and overwhelm?<\/p>\n