Mindfulness
The feeling that any task is a nuisance will soon disappear if it is done in mindfulness.
– Thích Nhat Hanh
Despite living in the present, our minds wander and we spend a lot of time fixated about the past or the future. Oftentimes we may be caught in regrets about past failures, worries about possible future failures, or even alternative presents when we think about things that we would rather be doing. However, what we do in the present is how we shape our lives. In order to be a good self-regulated learner, you need to be aware of your present thoughts, feelings, and behavioural tendencies towards your learning. This will help you loosen the control that your unregulated thoughts and feelings have over your behaviour and get out of those automatic ways of responding that lead you away from your learning goals.
Source: Image by upklyak
Mindfulness is a practice that allows you to develop present-time awareness of your thoughts, and feelings. Moreover, it helps you accept your thoughts and feelings as natural products of your mind that you can observe and let pass without becoming entangled and/or distracted by them. In this section, you will work on activities that will help you to develop your mindfulness skills.
Be where you are, otherwise you will miss your life
– Buddha
How present are you?
Distraction is an inherent part of student life. Apart from thoughts and worries about student life (e.g., test or assignment due dates, paying the rent etc.), being constantly plugged in, social media, and multi-tasking interfere with our ability to alert ourselves to important information and direct and maintain our attention on that information.
Where does your mind take you?
Mindful qualities extend beyond being aware of present-time experience to how you are experiencing your thoughts, feelings and actions. In the next activity, we ask you to consider scenarios relating to social and learning situations and how you would respond in your thoughts, feelings and actions.
Learning activity: Where does your mind take you?
Consider the following two scenarios. After reading the situation, indicate what thoughts and feelings the situation would prompt in you. Then consider how you would react to the situation.
What would you do? Write your responses in your Workbook.
You are sitting in class waiting for it to start. You see your friend, who is also a classmate come into the room. They are walking toward you. You try to get their attention, but with a stern look on their face, they pass by without saying a word and sit two rows behind you. In this scenario, what are you thinking; what are you feeling; what are you doing?
Wanting to do well, you studied hard for the midterm in this course. You wrote the test confidently. When you received your mark back, it was quite a bit lower than you expected. You talk to your friend who says they did well. In this scenario, what are you thinking; what are you feeling; what are you doing?
Qualities of the mindful learner
The mindful learner has three qualities essential to self-regulated learning. The mindful learner is able to:
Maintain awareness in the present moment.
Know their thoughts and feelings relating to learning.
Not be overpowered by emotions or thoughts in directing their actions.
Having mindful skills allows you to “unhook” from unpleasant thoughts (e.g., “I can’t do this”) and feelings (e.g., fear, anxiety, boredom) that would otherwise cause to avoid and/or distract yourself from certain activities, (e.g., writing a paper). While mindfulness activities are not designed to reduce stress, students participating in such programs have reported reductions in distress during exam periods.
Developing mindful qualities
Mindful qualities are skills built through practice. You will start by doing simple activities to develop mindful awareness and practice these skills in different situations. Research shows that these activities can improve attention and energy, even after being practiced for a short time (e.g., 5 days).
Source: Images by prostooleh & cookie_studio
The following activities are taken from the Frantic World website. Frantic World has information and resources to help build mindful awareness that can be found here.
Learning activity: Mindfulness of the body and breath
The first mindfulness practice will get you to practice drawing your attention to your own breath and holding your attention while you allow thoughts and feelings to enter and leave your mind.
Mindfulness of body And breath
This exercise is a great place to start with mindfulness and takes about 8 minutes to complete.
Transcript (.pdf, 115KB)
Practice this exercise for the next 5 days. Consider setting a reminder, alarm, or scheduling the activity in your calendar. Also, take time to notice how present you are in your daily activities (see Mindfulness in Everyday Life below). After some practice with this exercise, you may wish to explore more mindfulness exercises. Links to progressions on this exercise from Frantic World are provided below.
The body scan
This is often the foundation of meditation. Here, we develop the essential skill of opening up to our experience as it is unfolding, right now.
Transcript (.pdf, 96KB)
Practice this exercise, especially when you don’t need it (i.e., when you aren’t stressed) to develop your present time awareness. Consider setting a reminder, alarm, or scheduling the activity in your calendar.
The three minute breathing space
This is a short exercise that you can use at any time during the day.
Transcript (.pdf, 84KB)
Practice this exercise to develop awareness around how you receive internal thoughts and external sounds. Consider setting a reminder, alarm, or scheduling the activity in your calendar.
Sounds and thoughts
This is a short exercise that you can use at any time during the day.
Transcript (.pdf, 87KB)
With all of the ups and downs of school and relationships, this is particularly relevant to student life
The befriending meditation
This meditation introduces and develops the important quality of self-compassion or caring for yourself.
Transcript (.pdf, 87KB)
Mindfulness in everyday life
Being mindful is not just about sitting on a cushion and breathing. You can incorporate mindfulness into many of your daily life activities. Over the week try the following, once per day. Consider setting a reminder, alarm, or scheduling the activity in your calendar.
Instruction: Click on the arrows at the bottom right of the graphic below to explore everyday mindful activities.
Other activities can also be done mindfully. For example, putting on and tying your shoes, waiting in line at the grocery store or simply waking up and taking a mindful breath before preparing yourself for the day can help build your awareness.
Want to read more? Here are a few suggested readings:
- Penman, D. Mindfulness: finding peace in a frantic world
- Barker, E. Mindfulness: 5 Secrets To Making Your Mind Happy,in Barking up the wrong tree.
- Barker, E. Does your mind wander? Here’s why that can be your greatest asset, in Barking up the wrong tree.
- Barker, E. How to make your mind happy, according to neuroscience, in Time.
Now that you have an idea of what mindfulness can bring to your learning experience, let’s move on to talk about another quality of the mind – the growth mindset.