I was inspired to work with Chantelle Aquino to present the “Mindfulness: Its not what you think!” workshop at our Physical Education Conference mainly for two reasons. First, I have experienced the benefits of incorporating a mindful presence in my own life and take any opportunity to share those benefits with others. Second, I wanted to support Chantelle in her discovery of this way of being by co-facilitating a meditation practice that is effective in creating a more mindful presence. We operated from the definition that mindfulness is the intentional, accepting and non-judgmental focus of one’s attention on the emotions, thoughts and sensations occurring in the present moment. We introduced our concept—that mindfulness is not what you think—with an excerpt from Jon Kabat-Zinn’s “Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness” that concisely explains that meditation is a way of being in relationship to the present moment and to one’s own mind and experience. Our poster-board included a summary of the benefits including the role of mindfulness to build our capacity to recognize scripts and disengage from our scripted emotional tendencies. By developing mindsight we are able to observe thought processes and the role they play in reinforcing reactivity and associated scripts that distort reality. With this kind of awareness about ourselves, we become better able to observe our students’ feelings and behaviours more objectively and thus to respond with respect and acceptance. We conducted a 20 minute guided meditation that focused on the breath as an anchor to the present moment. It was a challenging session because of the noise next door in the weight room, nevertheless a fantastic practice and opportunity to watch the mind attempt to reject the loud sounds. After the meditation we asked participants to share their experiences. Based on what was shared Chantelle and I felt we had succeeded in dispelling the myth that mediation practice required having a quiet mind, and in instilling the concept that meditation is a practice that asks one to continue to return to an anchor point (the breath in this case) over and over again as soon as one found the mind wandering. It was a wonderful session. I recently read a book entitled, "Mindfulness for Teachers" by Patricia A. Jennings. Mindfulness isn’t a new concept to me, and yet it was still valuable to encounter it in this framework for teachers. I am so happy that the practice is being noticed for how useful it is and that the mystery surrounding its “esoteric” Eastern beginnings is being secularized. Everyone can benefit from this worthy pursuit, especially teachers for whom reflection should be an integral aspect of their practice. There are many free podcasts that offer guided meditations. One of my personal favourites is a podcast found through itunes by Tara Brach. She also has a website on which her podcast can be found. Follow the link below to visit her site.
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AuthorNatalie Nickerson; that's me. Archives
March 2016
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