From Western News: 21/12/23
Be still, calm and feel the world turn for inner peace
Teacher-turned-mindfulness coach and writer
Kamalagita Hughes explains how school staff can wind down after the end of
another busy term and start the new year feeling refreshed.
Phew! You made it through what can seem, like the
longest half-term of the year.
You've staggered through the fetes, the shows
and pantos, the Christmas dos and drinks.
All the biscuits in the staffroom are gone, the
finish line is in sight, and probably the one word in your mind is
"stop".
Once you've had your fill of mince pies,
Baileys and Christmas TV, your thoughts will probably stray ahead to the new
year and how it can be different. It's a chance to reflect, reset, and take
back control. It's time to set your New Year's resolutions.
New Year's resolutions can help you set out
your goals for the year ahead. 2024 may really be the year when you get fitter,
lose weight, or discover a better work/life balance.
But in my experience by the end of January
motivation is usually flagging.It's the nature of goals to be external,
something to reach and run towards.
But what happens if you are working in a busy,
frantic environment like a school?
You're already stretched with marking and
moderation, children coming in to get patched up when they've fallen over and
parents on the phone waiting to speak to you on the phone.
Juggling these ever-competing demands is
probably going to make you reach for those staffroom biscuits again.
As a mindfulness trainer in schools and a
former teacher, I understand the pressures. I've taught mindfulness to hundreds
of teachers and teaching assistants across the Sector.
Mindfulness has become a highly popularised
term, but practising it means developing the core skills of being able to find
calm in the moment, and stand back to regain perspective.
When it comes to making changes, what I find
works is an internal shift of attitude, rather than an externally imposed goal.
Based on my conversations with many teachers over the years, I'm suggesting a
different approach in 2024: cultivating stillness, simplicity and contentment.
Why stillness?
Let's face it - the school environment is more
challenging than ever. With high levels of staff sickness, student absenteeism
and increasingly complex parent/teacher relationships, there's always something
to do, and you probably feel guilty for sitting down and taking some time for
yourself.
However, the busier you get, the less
productive you can become, often making mistakes that take time to unravel
later.
So, stillness - giving your mind a chance to
rest and reset - is crucial to developing clarity and purpose.
Claire, a teaching assistant I worked on
mindfulness with, said to me that "practising mindfulness made me more aware
of my own feelings, and how I can go into autopilot from one activity to
another. I am more mindful now about taking time for myself and having a break
when needed."
Practising mindfulness doesn't mean changing
your lifestyle to try to fit in 40 minutes of meditation and yoga every day. It
starts by taking a pause - allowing yourself to stop and look out of the window
when you drink your cup of tea in the morning, instead of checking your phone.
Or coming into the world of the senses as you shower, allowing yourself to feel
the temperature of the water on your skin and smell the scent of the soap,
rather than planning your lessons,
These are simple but powerful techniques.
The cost of just taking a few minutes to calm
and centre yourself is repaid many times over. Try it and see.
One of my favourite definitions of mindfulness
is "doing one thing at a time".
In the current climate where our senses are
bombarded, we feel the need to multi-task and be in a hundred different places
at once. The result is that we can easily become distracted, feel that we
aren't doing anything very well and berate ourselves for it.
The chance to give our full focus and attention
to something is pleasurable, and the more pleasurable a task, the more we want
to do it.
Gill, a primary school teacher who learned
mindfulness with me said: "It made me realise that I needed to be more
present and in the moment, rather than focusing on what's next."
A research summary on mindfulness in schools
showed that teachers who practised mindfulness this way created calmer and more
focused learning environments.
So, here's my suggestion: resist multi-tasking,
give yourself permission to do one thing at a time and do it well.
Contentment is the positive attitude that
things are good enough. It's acknowledging that we can't do it all and that we
are still doing our best, rather than being self-critical.
Contentment naturally flows from stillness,
where we create a space for ourselves, and simplicity, where we free up the
energies in our mind to focus and direct themselves.
It's a mature quality that doesn't ignore
difficulty but doesn't focus too much on it either.
Contentment chooses to focus on what is going
well and what we can be grateful for.
I encourage you to actively think of three
things you feel grateful for every day.
Choose a time when you are going to do this,
perhaps just before going to bed, and commit to doing it each night. If you
can, jot them down, so you can remind yourself during challenging times.
By practising stillness, simplicity and
contentment in the new year, you might just start to find the calm, peace and
happiness that you seek.
MINDFULNESS WHEREVER YOU ARE
A quick and easy way for teachers to practise
mindfulness in any setting:
Finger breathing - a tool to calm yourself
◦
With one finger,
trace up one side and down the other of your fingers on the opposite hand;
◦
When you've
finished, loop back around to start again, or swap hands;
◦
Notice the touch
between the contact of your fingers;
◦
If you like, you
can synchronise the breathing; breathing in as you trace up, and out as you
trace down. But if this feels too artificial, feel free to let the breath come
and go;
Once you've
mastered this, you can do it anywhere, like under the
desk during a challenging class or meeting.
Nobody needs to know you are doing it.
• Why this matters:
When your head is racing, trying to stop and
breathe isn't always effective.
The visceral nature of finger breathing gives
the mind
something to do. By engaging the senses of
sight and touch, your mind is less focused on difficult thoughts and feelings.
This gives the mind a breathing space, allowing it to rest.
As a result of this short and simple practice,
the mind feels refreshed.