Turn off your phone and try some ‘me’ time with mindfulness
Mindfulness is a psychological technique based on Buddhist thinking which some schools are getting their pupils to try out in order to combat study stress.
Do you check your mobile phone as soon as you wake up in the morning? Is it the last things you do before you turn off the light and go to sleep?
Being in contact with your friends all the time via your phone and social media can be a great thing but do you ever just switch off and have some time away from all that to spend on yourself and to make room for your own thoughts? There are some people out there who say that we would all be better off by taking time out every day to practice something known as mindfulness.
Practising mindfulness is supposed to help reduce stress and even improve your mental clarity. It may sound a bit odd, but with supporters like Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, it seems that mindfulness is something that more people are becoming interested in.
Ms. Morgan was at the launch of Mindful Nation UK in October last year, where she said, “I want to make it very clear that of course academic achievement is important, but so too is turning out well-balanced young people who are able to fulfil all of their potential. I’m not just on this stage [saying this] as Secretary for Education, but also as a mother and also as somebody who has had family experience of mental ill health. It’s really a no-brainer for me.”
So can mindfulness really help you to feel less stressed and even improve your studies – and how does it work exactly?
Using simple meditative breathing techniques like counting your breaths up to ten and then back down to zero for five minutes, this kind of mindfulness brain training can help block out outside distractions, reduce stress, and improve your focus and concentration. This is according to the Mindfulness in Schools Project,whose director, Claire Kelly, said, “Passing these skills on to children helps them cope positively and calmly with what life throws at them.”
To see if it worked,a group of volunteers from the Connaught School for Girls in Leytonstone, London, put practising mindfulness to the test. Ten of the volunteers practiced mindfulness exercises every day for a fortnight, while another ten did not.
At the end of the study the students retook a small test involving remembering a sequence of flashing lights to see if their performance had improved as a result of the mindfulness training.
The results were positive with the mindful group completing the test, on average, 2.15 times more than before, as compared to just 0.69 for those who didn’t practice mindfulness.
While the results are not conclusive, they are enough to have convinced those involved at the Connaught School to consider starting a school meditation club, and even to make mindfulness a part of the school day.
Although mindfulness seems to be popular right now, perhaps it’s strength is simply offering the chance to switch off and zone out from a world that bombards us all with information all the time. Getting away from it all for a few minutes each day can be a great way to lower stress and, it seems, improve your wellbeing and even your concentration!
This is especially true of more introverted people, who may have a greater need to switch off and take a few moments peace and quiet to rebalance themselves. If you are feeling the pressure of school or life in general, perhaps you just need a little mindful downtime to reset yourself
Why not try switching off your phone, tuning out from the media noise and blanking your friends Facebook chatter and spend a few moments each day doing nothing. It’s harder than it sounds, but it might just prove to be the most important five minutes of your day!