Did you know how important it is to take the time to do things for yourself? Taking a moment to simply reflect on your mood or, perhaps the environment can help ground yourself, improve your mental state, as well as your overall physical health. Mental health practices has been a popular topic in recent years, and many educators/professionals are finding ways to incorporate mindfulness techniques and strategies into their daily lives.
Mindfulness has many benefits such as reduced anxiety, depression, and stress, better memory, awareness, improved self esteem, and a greater enthusiasm for life. Some activities you can do to build mindfulness include focusing on breathing, reading a book, coloring, repeating affirmations, listening to music, journaling and connecting with nature.
Students should be encouraged to practice mindfulness especially in a time they are stressed and overwhelmed. In many cases, students may feel disregulated, therefore they will benefit from having a designated time to simply focus on their mental state and prioritize self care.
Treating mental health can absolutely have long term effects in many areas of your life. For instance, a major impact is an increase in lower blood pressure, reduced heart risk, and longer duration of life. These are just a few of the benefits of treating mental health, yet some would say treating your mental health “builds a foundation for many areas of your life you wish to improve upon, which in essence helps with your overall mood regulation”, Luis Figueroa, stated.
Many teachers in the profession can reflect on moments in a lesson where students may take a brief pause, to solely regain attention or reset for an upcoming task or responsibility. This way, students may even feel supported during transition times, when students lose focus, and even when they are encountering totally new things.
Mindfulness has a multitude of positive impacts on students and should be practiced everyday. It can truly benefit a student’s performance in school as well as their mental health. It’s important for teachers to provide a given time where everyone in the class can focus on being aware and calm. Everyone deals with issues outside of school, it should be a priority to make sure that students can recollect themselves and move past it with the help of the staff. If you’re interested in learning more about mindfulness, be sure to check out the webpage below, which will have a collection of resources to aid in you in your mindfulness.
https://www.beanstack.com/blog/the-benefits-of-implementing-mindfulness-practices-in-education
