What is Mindfulness?
Jon Kabat-Zinn, a pioneer in the use of mindfulness for stress reduction and pain management, defines mindfulness as “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally”. The medical community has been using and researching mindfulness for over 30 years and has seen a lot of success in stress reduction, pain management, and in a variety of therapies including the treatment of depression and anxiety. More recently, school systems across the country have started incorporating mindfulness practices in K-12 school curriculum to help teach basic skills for learning such as attention and focus as well as core social and emotional skills including self-calming, emotion management, and cooperation.
Mindfulness techniques, such as the basic mindful breathing practice, are informed by findings from neuroscience, modern psychological research and practice as well as by a variety of traditional meditative and contemplative practices. The mindfulness techniques themselves are strictly secular and can be thought of as a basic life skill – ways to better pay attention, focus and self-calm – that everybody can learn and benefit from.
Mindfulness involves focusing on something
When I give instruction in mindfulness to the children in my program I tell them that mindfulness is paying attention to what’s going on right now, without deciding whether it’s good or bad, right or wrong, just observing, like a scientist collecting data. Being curious and engaged helps sharpen the focus. I ring a chime or bell at the beginning of every class and I often challenge kids to see if they notice something different in the sound. I can’t ring the bell the same way every time so it won’t sound the same way every time. How mindful, how present we can be to those small variations can bring us more fully into what’s happening right now, at this very moment.
Mindfulness usually involves focusing on something. It can be a physical or body sensation, and generally involves one of the five senses: seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling. For example, we might be mindful of the sounds in the room, the way our feet feel in our shoes, how a pine cone looks or the taste of a piece of chocolate. Breathing involves many senses – the feel of our chest expanding and contracting, the smell of the air, the sound of a sniff – and is an activity we do all the time, every minute of our lives. Yet no breath is ever exactly like the last one. This is one reason why mindful breathing is something we practice at each session.
Mindfulness can also be about things going on in our minds. I’ve called this web site Mind Explore for Kids because mindfulness is in many ways an exploration of the undiscovered country inside our minds – the thoughts, emotions, and feelings that make up our mental lives. Is there a way to notice an emotion – like anger or sadness – and just observe? Notice it, maybe get to know it a little better and then let it go? How do emotions and thoughts affect our body? And how do physical sensations, like pain or hunger, affect our thoughts and emotions? These are some of the things that we explore while doing mindfulness.
We have all experienced moments of mindfulness
Many people can recall experiencing a feeling of calm and focus, excitement and purpose when engaged in sports, art, or an intense moment of discovery. In these moments, we are sometimes not even aware of the time or of anything else going on. These are moments of mindfulness. Mindfulness practice allows us to harness this natural ability we all have and call it up when we choose. To focus better on an exam, calm down during a difficult moment or to help us relax before going to bed. The more we practice, the better we get.
Distractions
Everyone gets distracted when starting mindfulness practice, the trick is to know what to do when it happens. We want to be able to observe the distraction, but not get caught up in it. Much of what I teach is about how to deal with distraction. For example, if it’s a sound, we could imagine the sound being enclosed in a bubble and letting it float away. A thought could be floating by in a stream while we sit in a boat. The image of our breath as an anchor, bringing us back to our focus as the waves of distraction pull us away is one that kids can relate to well. Mindfulness means recognizing a distraction when it occurs and knowing what to do, not never being distracted.