Mindfulness, or the moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, emotions, and environment, has been associated with a host of benefits, including reduced stress, greater positive emotions, and a healthier body image. Recently, however, research has begun to explore how practicing mindfulness might improve the ways we treat other people. A recent study, published in the journal Mindfulness, zeroes in on the question of whether mindfulness can boost compassion or altruism, the intention to increase the welfare of another, even at a cost to oneself. In the experiment, researchers in Sweden randomly assigned 42 adults to one of two groups: One attended nine 75-minute mindfulness meditation training sessions over an eight-week period; the other group sat on a wait list for those eight weeks. Before and after the eight weeks, all participants completed surveys assessing their levels of empathy, stress, mindfulness, self-compassion, and, of primary interest to the authors, “altruistic orientation”—the ability to feel empathic concern rather than personal distress when faced with the suffering of others. The training involved weekly meditations on topics ranging from mindfulness of one’s breath to self-compassion to empathic joy and equanimity. The course also included lectures, mindful movement exercises, Q&A discussion sessions, and weekly homework—participants were asked to use guided meditation recordings and engage in approximately 30 minutes of daily meditation practice. When compared with the waitlist group, the meditation group showed improvements in their ability to take the perspective of other people, an aspect of empathy; they also showed gains in self-compassion and mindfulness, and a reduction in stress. After their eight-week training, the meditators’ altruistic orientation had also increased from its levels before the training; however, the waitlist group showed similar increases over the eight weeks, making it difficult to conclude that the training had a significant effect on altruistic orientation, though it did seem to be moving in the right direction. Importantly, among the meditators, the amount of time they spent meditating outside of class was significantly associated with improvements in altruistic orientation, mindfulness, and stress—in other words, the more they meditated, the more they seemed to reap these benefits. Although the conclusions that can be drawn from this study are limited, likely due to the small number of participants, the results add to a growing body of evidence suggesting a relationship between mindfulness meditation and altruism or compassion. For instance, studies published last year suggest that mindfulness training can motivate people to come to the aid of someone in need and may even cause changes to the brain associated with compassion. For more on the links between mindfulness and compassion, check out the videos from the GGSC’s 2013 conference on “Practicing Mindfulness and Compassion”: What’s more, this study adds to the mounting empirical evidence suggesting that the benefits of meditation programs are directly related to the amount of time participants spend practicing at home. When it comes to mindfulness and meditation, like in so many other areas, it seems that what you get depends on what you put in.

When people talk about the keys to success these days, they often end up talking about marshmallows. They’re referring to the “Marshmallow Test.” Researchers at Stanford presented preschoolers with one marshmallow, telling them that they could either eat it right away or wait for several minutes; if they waited, they’d receive a second marshmallow as a reward for their patience. The researcher then left the room and watched to see which kids could delay their sweet gratification and which could not.   When these children were followed into adolescence, it turned out that those who were able to wait had fewer behavior problems in school, engaged in less risky behaviors (such as drug use), and had better SAT scores. But what about the kids who couldn’t wait? Despite the wide reach of the Stanford study, it never answered the burning question that those of us who teach or parent young children have: What can we do to help the children who just can’t resist the marshmallows?   That’s the question tackled in a new paper published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies. Rachel Razza and her colleagues explored whether young children could build self-regulation skills by learning to practice mindfulness—the moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, and surroundings—as taught through a program called YogaKids, which uses a blend of yoga and mindfulness practices in kid-friendly ways. At the beginning of the school year, they tested children in two ethnically diverse preschool classrooms on their self-regulation skills and asked their parents about how well the children demonstrated these skills at home. The teacher in one of the classrooms was trained in the YogaKids curriculum, which she wove into activities throughout the school day. For instance, children did sun salutations during morning meetings and practiced regulated breathing—such as counting in and out for five seconds while breathing deeply—during tricky transitions. They did activities like these for an average of 10-30 minutes a day, over a period of about six months. Children in the second classroom experienced “business as usual,” participating in no YogaKids activities. Although the two groups started out with similar self-regulation skills, by the end of the school year the children who had been practicing mindfulness were less impulsive and better able to wait for a potential reward—in other words, they became more like the kids who could wait for that second treat in the Marshmallow Test. They were also better able to sustain attention on certain exercises the researchers did with them, such as drawing and tapping games. What’s more, the program had the strongest effect on the children whose self-regulation skills were the weakest at the beginning of the year: Children who needed these skills the most benefited the most from having the chance to learn and practice them. Although children in the YogaKids classroom improved on the researchers’ tasks, self-regulation at home did not differ between the two classrooms, according to reports from parents. It may be that children need to practice these routines at home, as well as in school, in order for them to have the broadest impact. So what do these findings mean for young children—and the adults in their lives? The results suggest that it’s possible to enhance children’s self-regulation through our daily interactions with them, even if we can only commit to a few minutes each day. Children who struggle to wait their turn, calm themselves down, or follow rules are not destined for a life of difficulties; instead, research is identifying positive tools they can use to build their behavioral and emotional control—which, evidence suggests, will set them on a better life trajectory. Of course, more studies will shed light on the what, how, and when of developing self-regulation. But for those of us who lie awake at night worrying about the kids who can’t resist the marshmallows, it’s comforting to know that getting children ready for school—and life—may be just a few deep breathes away.

Let’s say you want to be more mindful—that is, cultivate intentional, non-judgmental attention to each moment. Meditation is the core of mindfulness, but there are many different forms of meditation. Which one is best for you? That’s the question tackled in a new study published in the journal Mindfulness. Over the span of three weeks, the researchers broke 141 undergraduates into three groups that each engaged in one of these forms of mindfulness meditation: The sitting meditation, which involves sitting in a relaxed but erect posture and cultivating awareness of each breath you take. The body scan, which entails methodically paying attention to each part of your body, from top to bottom. Mindful yoga, the practice of deliberate, intentional movement.  At the beginning and end of those three weeks, participants answered questions measuring depression, anxiety, stress, emotion regulation, rumination, mindfulness (observing, describing, non-judging, non-reactivity, and acting with awareness), well-being, and self-compassion. Researchers found some benefits across all three groups. In all three groups participants reported reduced rumination, as well as greater self-compassion and well-being. These results echo decades of research showing that mindfulness practices improve physical and mental health. Then the researchers looked at each group (sitting meditation, body scan, or yoga) individually and compared those results to the other two groups. Differences emerged: Yoga improved well-being more than sitting meditation and body scan, which the authors argue may be linked to “longstanding evidence that physical exercise promotes psychological health” and well-being, rather than specifically mindfulness. Yoga and sitting meditation improved emotion regulation more so than in the body scan group. Why this might be is still a mystery, but the authors note that sitting meditation involves explicit instructions to observe strong emotions without holding on or trying to get rid of them, simply allowing them to be as they are. Members of the sitting meditation group were significantly less judgmental towards their own feelings and experiences than those who practiced yoga and the body scan, which is likely due to the sitting meditation’s “more explicit instructions against judging one’s experiences.” So which practice is best for you? That depends on what challenges you’re facing in your life, suggests this study. If you find yourself overwhelmed by anger against yourself or others, sitting meditation sounds like the one for you. If you frequently feel tired or sick, yoga is worth a try. While the body scan did not seem to yield as many benefits as the other two practices, that’s an area that needs further investigation. For example, it’s possible that body scan paired with sitting meditation or yoga could be helpful. This preliminary study is an exciting beginning to examining how these specific meditation practices may affect different parts of our lives.

Even in healthy relationships, conflict is inevitable—it’s how you cope with conflict that matters. Coping badly increases stress, and research has shown that too much stress in romantic relationships can put people at risk for mental and physical health problems. According to two new studies, cultivating non-judgmental, moment-to-moment awareness—or mindfulness—might help people feel less stress when conflict arises with their significant other. However, mindfulness and stress do not affect all people in the same way. With these studies, researchers are beginning to refine how mindfulness tools can best help our relationships—and they’re finding it’s based on our style of relating to others and our habitual ways of responding to stressful events. How does mindfulness relate to attachment? Robin Hertz and her colleagues investigated how attachment style affects stress levels after a romantic conflict—and how mindfulness might influence these interactions. It’s thought different attachment styles form in childhood, based on how effectively parents responded to our emotions and needs. People who are secure in their romantic attachments feel confident that they are loved, and are comfortable sharing thoughts and emotions with others. Psychologists call people who avoid intimacy “avoidantly attached”; they often feel uncomfortable sharing emotions with significant others. Still others are deemed “anxiously attached”—they tend worry about rejection. Fights with a loved one excessively stress them out because they may fear that any conflict will drive their mate to abandon them. Prior research has suggested that mindfulness would lead people to feel more secure in their romantic relationship, and as a result, they would feel less stress during conflict. In this study, however, Hertz and her colleagues sought to uncover how mindfulness and attachment might work together to affect stress and emotional regulation after a spat. To measure post-conflict stress, the researchers used two methods. First, they simply asked. Second, they measured the amount of the stress hormone cortisol in their saliva. The researchers used both of these measures—the subjective self-report and the objective saliva sample—to find out how stressed the 114 couples were after they discussed an unresolved issue in their relationship for 15 minutes. The results, published in the journal Mindfulness, showed that people higher in mindfulness were more likely to be securely attached to their romantic partner—and secure attachment, in turn, was associated with lower cortisol-levels after the conflict. What about everyone else? Here’s where the results get tricky. People high in attachment avoidance, even if they tested high in mindfulness, tended to be both subjectively and objectively stressed after discussing a difficult issue with their partners, likely because the demands of the situation directly challenged their tendency to avoid emotional intimacy. On the other hand, mindful traits seemed to help anxiously attached people, who self-reported less stress—but their cortisol levels still remained high. Why the discrepancy? The researchers speculate that mindful traits can reduce the hyper-vigilance associated with attachment anxiety, helping people get a handle on negative thoughts, even if their bodies still show signs of stress. In other words, attention to present-moment experience helps control anxiety, but it isn’t as effective in helping those who try to avoid experiencing bad feelings and thoughts with another person in the first place. Mindfulness doesn’t hurt, but it helps some more than others. Mindfulness and gender Of course, attachment style is not the only factor that determines how mindfulness affects your stress reaction to relationship conflict. What about gender? In a similar study, Heidemarie Laurent and her colleagues at the University of Oregon focused on how men and women respond differently to relationship conflict, and which specific mindfulness tools might be better suited for each gender. As in the first study, they asked couples discussed a difficult issue for 15 minutes, and the researchers collected saliva samples to measure the amount of cortisol in their saliva before and after the discussion took place. They also gave participants questionnaires to measure their level of mindfulness and overall well-being. The results, published in Psychoneuroendocrinology, showed that women and men responded to different aspects of mindfulness differently. Women who were able to let thoughts and emotions enter and leave consciousness without getting caught up in them—who were, in other words, more mindful—had a lower, healthy cortisol response after the conflict. In contrast, men that were able to label thoughts and emotions with words had a healthier cortisol response after the conflict. The study also found that women with higher cortisol reactivity had fewer depression symptoms, while the opposite was true for men: men with less post-conflict cortisol had higher well-being. These results may reflect the need for women to have higher amounts of cortisol than men to feel fully engaged in a conflict. In contrast, men may need less reactive changes in cortisol in order to have the opportunity to slow down to respond to the conflict.   Which tools do you need? These results suggest that “mindfulness” is an umbrella that covers a number of specific tools. The tools that are most beneficial to you depend on which specific skills you need help with. People who often ruminate (which research shows tend to be women) may benefit most from practicing nonreactivity—letting thoughts and emotions enter and leave consciousness without getting caught up in them. People who have trouble describing emotion (which research shows tends to be men) may benefit most from practicing doing just that—labeling thoughts and emotions with words. Both studies also show that what constitutes a healthy stress reaction is not universal: For some people, higher levels of cortisol help them engage in conflict, and need to rapidly return to a baseline cortisol level in order to disengage from the conflict and move on. For others, less cortisol activity is healthy—they may need time rather than a higher quantity of stress hormone in order to appropriately address the conflict. So how much stress is a “good” amount of stress? And which mindfulness skills should we practice to foster a healthy relationship with our significant other when conflict arises? The best we can say right now is, it depends. Fortunately, psychologists are working to narrow down which mindfulness skills are suited for which people, and how they might be incorporated in a therapeutic setting for couples having relationship difficulty. As Heidemarie and her colleagues write, “By seeing stressors and one’s own part in them more clearly, mindfulness allows us to respond more skillfully with what is needed—higher or lower, faster or slower stress activation—and move forward with greater equanimity.”

Attachment theory predicts that children who had warm, close relationships with caregivers will grow into adults who are equipped to have open and trusting relationships of their own. On the flipside, research finds that mistreated children are more likely to have insecure adult relationships. Can mindfulness act as an antidote to the deleterious effects of childhood abuse and neglect? In other words, can mindfulness help people who were maltreated as children to restore their security in relationships as an adult? Those are the questions tackled by University of California, Davis, researchers in a new study published in the journal Mindfulness. During a three-day retreat, the researchers taught mindfulness and loving-kindness practices to women who had experienced childhood maltreatment. For instance, they were guided through a body scan (systematically bringing attention to each part of the body), mediations in which they regarded thoughts with non-judgment and acceptance, and a practice in which they paired with another participant to silently offer and receive compassion to each other. The researchers administered questionnaires to participants before the retreat, and at two points in the month afterward—and compared their answers to women who were on a wait-list for the intervention, in an effort to understand how the retreat affected participants. The results suggested that the retreat led to reduced emotional suppression and rumination, more emotional clarity, and better emotion regulation. The women also wrote a narrative about their childhood trauma before and after the retreat took place. When the researchers compared the language structures that the women used at different time points, they found that following the retreat, the women used significantly more mindfulness-based words. The researchers concluded that these women were now approaching thoughts and emotions about experiences in relationships with less judgment and more self-awareness. Why might mindfulness help victims of childhood maltreatment? The authors write that past research has shown that mindfulness and a secure attachment style are often related to each other. Mindfulness might act as an “antidote” for people who are insecure in their relationships as a result of childhood abuse because mindfulness allows them to become aware of thoughts and emotions, without judging or overreacting to them. This non-judgmental, non-reactive approach can help people identify thoughts and emotions with more clarity and objectivity, rather than automatically suppressing or becoming caught up in them. In this way, mindfulness likely enables people to more deeply understand their own and others’ behavior, and respond more wisely to distressing thoughts, emotions, and behaviors related to relationships. The finding that a mindfulness intervention can help repair attachment wounds also has significant clinical implications. “Without appropriate clinical interventions,” write the researchers, “individuals exposed to relational trauma in childhood are at greater risk for difficulties in adult relationships and parenting.” At present, there is not much in the way of treatment for individual adults who have experienced childhood maltreatment: this study shows that mindfulness could help change that.

Although research on mindfulness, especially with children and adolescents, is still in relatively early stages, an increasing number of studies have shown the potential benefits of mindfulness practices for students in terms of their physical health, psychological well-being, social skills, academic performance, and more. Other studies have indicated that mindfulness may be effective for reducing stress and burnout in teachers and administrators as well. The following list of selected articles, with brief descriptions of each study and its results, provides an overview of the current research evidence on mindfulness in education. Click here for a downloadable PDF of this list. Mindfulness and Students Barnes, V. A., Bauza, L. B., & Treiber, F. A. (2003). Impact of stress reduction on negative school behavior in adolescents. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 1(10). Forty-five African American adolescents (ages 15–18 years) were randomly assigned to either a Transcendental Meditation (TM) group (n = 25) or a health education control group (n = 20). The TM group engaged in 15-min meditation sessions at home and at school each day for 4 months. The control group was presented 15-min sessions of health education at school each day for 4 months. Findings demonstrated that the students who received the TM program showed reduced rates of absenteeism, rule infractions, and suspensions compared to the control group. Barnes, V. A., Treiber, F. A., & Davis, H. (2001). Impact of transcendental meditation on cardiovascular function at rest and during acute stress in adolescents with high normal blood pressure. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 51, 597–605. This study examined the impact of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) program on cardiovascular reactivity in adolescents with high normal blood pressure. Thirty-five adolescents (34 African Americans)  were randomly assigned to either TM (n = 17) or health education control (CTL, n = 18) groups. The TM group engaged in 15-min meditation twice each day for 2 months. The TM program appeared to have a beneficial impact upon cardiovascular functioning at rest and during acute laboratory stress in adolescents at-risk for hypertension, as the TM group exhibited greater decreases in resting blood pressure as well as other improvements compared to the control group. Beauchemin, J., Hutchins, T. L., & Patterson, F. (2008). Mindfulness meditation may lessen anxiety, promote social skills, and improve academic performance among adolescents with learning disabilities. Complementary Health Practice Review, 13, 34–45. Students with learning disabilities (LD; defined by compromised academic performance) often have higher levels of anxiety, school-related stress, and less optimal social skills compared with their typically developing peers. Previous health research indicates that meditation and relaxation training may be effective in reducing anxiety and promoting social skills. This pilot study used a pre–post no-control design to examine feasibility of, attitudes toward, and outcomes of a 5-week mindfulness meditation intervention administered to 34 adolescents diagnosed with LD. Post-intervention survey responses overwhelmingly expressed positive attitudes toward the program. All outcome measures showed significant improvement, with participants who completed the program demonstrating decreased state and trait anxiety, enhanced social skills, and improved academic performance. Birdee, G. S., Yeh, G. Y., Wayne, P. M., Phillips, R. S., Davis, R. B., & Gardiner, P. (2009). Clinical applications of yoga for the pediatric population: A systematic review. Academic Pediatrics, 9, 212–220. This review was conducted to evaluate the evidence for clinical applications of yoga among the pediatric population (0-21 years of age). Thirty-four controlled studies were identified published from 1979 to 2008, Clinical areas for which yoga has been studied include physical fitness, cardio-respiratory effects, motor skills/strength, mental health and psychological disorders, behavior and development, irritable bowel syndrome, and birth outcomes following prenatal yoga. No adverse events were reported in trials reviewed. While a large majority of studies were positive, results are preliminary based on low quantity and quality of trials. Further research of yoga for children utilizing a higher standard of methodology and reporting is warranted. Biegel, G. M., Brown, K. W., Shapiro, S. L., & Schubert, C. M. (2009). Mindfulness-based stress reduction for the treatment of adolescent psychiatric outpatients: A randomized clinical trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 77, 855–866. The present randomized clinical trial was designed to assess the effect of the mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program for 102 adolescents age 14 to 18 years with different diagnoses in an outpatient psychiatric facility. Relative to treatment-as-usual control participants, those receiving MBSR self-reported reduced symptoms of anxiety, depression, and somatic distress, and increased self-esteem and sleep quality. Also, the MBSR group showed a higher percentage of diagnostic improvement over the 5-month study period and significant increases in global assessment of functioning scores relative to controls. Broderick, P. C., & Metz, S. (2009). Learning to BREATHE: A pilot trial of a mindfulness curriculum for adolescents. Advances in School Mental Health Promotion, 2(1), 35-46. This study reports the results of a pilot trial of Learning to BREATHE, a mindfulness curriculum for adolescents created for a classroom setting. The primary goal of the program is to support the development of emotion regulation skills through the practice of mindfulness. The total class of 120 seniors from a private girls’ school participated as part of their health curriculum. Relative to controls, participants reported decreased negative affect and increased feelings of calmness, relaxation, and self-acceptance. Improvements in emotion regulation and decreases in tiredness and aches and pains were significant in the treatment group at the conclusion of the program. Carei, T. R., Fyfe-Johnson, A. L., Breuner, C. C., & Brown, M. A. (2010). Randomized controlled clinical trial of yoga in the treatment of eating disorders. Journal of Adolescent Health, 46, 346–351. This was a pilot project designed to assess the effect of individualized yoga treatment on eating disorder outcomes among adolescents receiving outpatient care for diagnosed eating disorders. 50 girls and 4 boys, aged 11–21 years, were randomized to an 8 week trial of standard care versus individualized yoga plus standard care. The yoga group demonstrated greater decreases in eating disordered symptoms. Both groups maintained current BMI levels and decreased in anxiety and depression over time. Davidson, R. J., Dunne, J., Eccles, J. S., Engle, A., Greenberg, M., Jennings, P., . . . Vago, D. (2012). Contemplative practices and mental training: Prospects for American education. Child Development Perspectives, 6(2), 146-153. This article draws on research in neuroscience, cognitive science, developmental psychology, and education, as well as scholarship from contemplative traditions concerning the cultivation of positive development, to highlight a set of mental skills and socioemotional dispositions that are central to the aims of education in the 21st century. These include self-regulatory skills associated with emotion and attention, self-representations, and prosocial dispositions such as empathy and compassion. It should be possible to strengthen these positive qualities and dispositions through systematic contemplative practices, which induce plastic changes in brain function and structure, supporting prosocial behavior and academic success in young people. Flook, L., Smalley, S. L., Kitil, M. J., Galla, B. M., Kaiser-Greenland, S., Locke, J., . . . Kasari, C. (2010). Effects of mindful awareness practices on executive functions in elementary school children. Journal of Applied School Psychology, 26(1), 70-95. A school-based program of mindful awareness practices (MAPs) was evaluated in a randomized control study of 64 second- and third-grade children ages 7–9 years. The program was delivered for 30 minutes, twice per week, for 8 weeks. Children in the MAPs group who were less well regulated showed greater improvement in executive function (EF) compared with controls. Specifically, those children starting out with poor EF who went through the MAPs training showed gains in behavioral regulation, metacognition, and overall global executive control. Galantino, M. L., Galbavy, R., & Quinn, L. (2008). Therapeutic effects of yoga for children: A systematic review of the literature. Pediatric Physical Therapy, 20, 66–80. This study is a systematic review of the literature on the effect of yoga (as an exercise intervention for children) on quality of life and physical outcome measures in the pediatric population. The evidence shows physiological benefits of yoga for the pediatric population that may benefit children through the rehabilitation process, but larger clinical trials, including specific measures of quality of life, are necessary to provide definitive evidence. Greenberg, M. T., & Harris, A. R. (2012). Nurturing mindfulness in children and youth: Current state of research. Child Development Perspectives, 6(2), 161-166. This article reviews the current state of research on contemplative practices with children and youth. It reviews contemplative practices used both in treatment settings and in prevention or health promotion contexts, including school-based programs. Interventions that nurture mindfulness in children and youth may be a feasible and effective method of building resilience in universal populations and in the treatment of disorders in clinical populations. This review suggests that meditation and yoga may be associated with beneficial outcomes for children and youth, but the generally limited quality of research tempers the allowable conclusions. Gregoski, M. J., Barnes, V. A., Tingen, M. S., Harshfield, G. A., & Treiber, F. A. (2010). Breathing awareness meditation and LifeSkills Training Programs influence upon ambulatory blood pressure and sodium excretion among African American adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 48, 59–64. To evaluate the effects of breathing awareness meditation (BAM), Botvin LifeSkills Training (LST), and health education control (HEC), 166 African American adolescent participants with moderately high blood pressure (and thus an increased risk for development of cardiovascular disease) were randomized by school to either BAM (n = 53), LST (n = 69), or HEC (n = 44). In-school intervention sessions were administered for 3 months by health education teachers. The BAM treatment exhibited the greatest overall decreases in blood pressure and heart rate. Harrison, L. J., Manocha, R., & Rubia, K. (2004). Sahaja yoga meditation as a family treatment programme for children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 9, 479–497. This study investigated meditation as a family treatment method for children with ADHD, using the techniques of Sahaja Yoga Meditation (SYM). Parents and children participated in a 6-week program of twice-weekly clinic sessions and regular meditation at home. Results showed improvements in children’s ADHD behavior, self-esteem, and relationship quality. Children described benefits at home (better sleep patterns, less anxiety) and at school (more able to concentrate, less conflict). Parents reported feeling happier, less stressed and more able to manage their child’s behavior. Jensen, P., & Kenny, D. (2004). The effects of yoga on the attention and behavior of boys with Attention-Deficit ⁄ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Journal of Attention Disorders, 7, 205–216. Boys diagnosed with ADHD by specialist pediatricians and stabilized on medication were randomly assigned to a 20-session yoga group (n = 11) or a control group (cooperative activities; n = 8). Significant improvements from pre-test to post-test were found for the yoga, but not for the control group on five subscales of a parent rating scale, along with some other positive effects. Although these data do not provide strong support for the use of yoga for ADHD, partly because the study was under-powered, they do suggest that yoga may have merit as a complementary treatment for boys with ADHD already stabilized on medication, particularly for its evening effect when medication effects are absent. Lawlor, M. S., Schonert-Reichl, K. A., Gadermann, A. M., & Zumbo, B. D. (2012). A Validation Study of the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale Adapted for Children. Mindfulness, 1-12. A total of 286 fourth to seventh grade children completed the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale—Children (MAAS-C), a modified version of a measure designed to assess mindfulness in adults. Results indicated that mindfulness, as assessed via the MAAS-C, was related in expected directions to indicators of well-being across the domains of traits and attributes, emotional disturbance, emotional wellbeing, and eudaimonic well-being. These findings were in accord with those of previous research with the MAAS in adult populations. Mendelson, T., Greenberg, M. T., Dariotis, J. K., Gould, L. F., Rhoades, B. L., & Leaf, P. J. (2010). Feasibility and preliminary outcomes of a school-based mindfulness intervention for urban youth. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 38(7), 985-994. Mindfulness-based approaches may improve adjustment among chronically stressed and disadvantaged youth by enhancing self-regulatory capacities. This paper reports findings from a pilot randomized controlled trial assessing the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary outcomes of a school-based mindfulness and yoga intervention. Four urban public schools were randomized to an intervention or wait-list control condition (n = 97 fourth and fifth graders, 60.8% female). Findings suggest the intervention was attractive to students, teachers, and school administrators and that it had a positive impact on problematic responses to stress including rumination, intrusive thoughts, and emotional arousal. Napoli, M., Krech, P. R., & Holley, L. C. (2005). Mindfulness training for elementary school students: The attention academy. Journal of Applied School Psychology, 21(1), 99-125. This article presents results of a formative evaluation of whether participation in a mindfulness training program affected first, second, and third grade students’ outcomes on measures of attention. The training was designed and intended to help students learn to focus and pay attention. The 24-week training employed a series of exercises including breathwork, bodyscan, movement, and sensorimotor awareness activities. Results from three attentional measures administered to the students show significant differences between those who did and did not participate in mindfulness practice training. Oberle, E., Schonert-Reichl, K. A., Lawlor, M. S., & Thomson, K. C. (2012). Mindfulness and inhibitory control in early adolescence. Journal of Early Adolescence, 32(4), 565-588. 99 fourth- and fifth-grade students completed a measure of mindful attention awareness (self-reported dispositional mindfulness) and a computerized executive function (EF) task assessing inhibitory control. Controlling for gender, grade, and cortisol levels, higher scores on the mindfulness attention awareness measure significantly predicted greater accuracy (% correct responses) on the inhibitory control task. This research identifies mindfulness—a skill that can be fostered and trained in intervention programs to promote health and well-being—as significantly related to inhibitory processes in early adolescence. Razza, R. A., Bergen-Cico, D., & Raymond, K. (2013). Enhancing preschoolers’ self-regulation via mindful yoga. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 1062-1024. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a mindfulness-based yoga intervention in promoting self-regulation among preschool children (3–5 years old). Twenty-nine children (16 intervention and 13 control) participated in the yearlong study. The mindful yoga intervention was implemented regularly by the classroom teacher for the treatment group. Results from direct assessments indicated significant effects of the intervention across three indices of self-regulation. There was also some evidence that the children who were most at risk of self-regulation dysfunction benefited the most from the intervention. Schonert-Reichl, K. A., & Lawlor, M. S. (2010). The effects of a mindfulness-based education program on pre- and early adolescents’ well-being and social and emotional competence. Mindfulness, 1(3), 137-151. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the Mindfulness Education (ME) program, which focuses on facilitating the development of social and emotional competence and positive emotions and has as its cornerstone daily lessons in which students engage in mindful attention training. Participants were 246 students in the 4th to 7th grades. Results revealed that students who participated in the ME program, compared to those who did not, showed significant increases in optimism from pretest to posttest. Similarly, improvements on dimensions of teacher-rated classroom social competent behaviors were found favoring ME program students. Program effects also were found for self-concept, although the ME program demonstrated more positive benefits for preadolescents than for early adolescents. Semple, R. J., Lee, J., Rosa, D., & Miller, L. F. (2010). A randomized trial of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for children: Promoting mindful attention to enhance social-emotional resiliency in children. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 19(2), 218-229. Program development of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for children (MBCT-C) is described along with results of the initial randomized controlled trial. Participants were boys and girls aged 9–13 (N = 25), mostly ethnic minorities from low-income, inner-city households. Participants who completed the program showed fewer attention problems than wait-listed controls and those improvements were maintained at three months following the intervention. A strong relationship was found between attention problems and behavior problems. Significant reductions in anxiety symptoms and behavior problems were found for those children who reported clinically elevated levels of anxiety at pretest. Semple, R. J., Reid, E. F. G., & Miller, L. (2005). Treating anxiety with mindfulness: An open trial of mindfulness training for anxious children. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 19, 379–392. This study is an open clinical trial that examined the feasibility and acceptability of a mindfulness training program for anxious children. Since impaired attention is a core symptom of anxiety, enhancing self-management of attention should effect reductions in anxiety. A 6-week trial was conducted with five anxious children aged 7 to 8 years old. The results of this study suggest that mindfulness can be taught to children and holds promise as an intervention for anxiety symptoms. Tang, Y., Yang, L., Leve, L. D., & Harold, G. T. (2012). Improving executive function and its neurobiological mechanisms through a mindfulness-based intervention: Advances within the field of developmental neuroscience. Child Development Perspectives, 6(4), 361-366. Mindfulness-based interventions that focus on increasing awareness of one’s thoughts, emotions, and actions have been shown to improve specific aspects of executive function (EF), including attention, cognitive control, and emotion regulation. This article reviews research relevant to one specific mindfulness-based intervention, integrative body-mind training (IBMT). Randomized controlled trials of IBMT indicate improvements in specific EF components, and uniquely highlight the role two brain-based mechanisms that underlie IBMT-related improvements. Short-term IBMT may improve specific dimensions of EF and thus prevent a cascade of risk behaviors for children and adolescents. Thompson M., Gauntlett-Gilbert J. (2008). Mindfulness with children and adolescents: Effective clinical application. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 13, 395-407. This article aims to provide an overview of mindfulness to professionals who are working in child or adolescent settings. Initially, it provides some orientation to and definitions from the field, before summarizing the current evidence for the utility of the approach. The article recommends specific clinical modifications for mindfulness with children and adolescents, as well as reviewing how to monitor and enhance the development of this skill. Finally, it highlights important differences among mindfulness, relaxation and other meditative techniques. Van der Oord, S., Bogels, S. M., & Peijnenburg, D. (2012). The effectiveness of mindfulness training for children with ADHD and mindful parenting for their parents. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 21(1), 139-147. This study evaluated the effectiveness of an 8-week mindfulness training for children aged 8–12 with ADHD and parallel mindful parenting training for their parents. There was a significant reduction of parent-rated ADHD behavior of themselves and their child from pre-to posttest and from pre- to follow-up test. Further, there was a significant increase of mindful awareness from pre-to posttest and a significant reduction of parental stress and overreactivity from pre-to follow-up test. Teacher-ratings showed non-significant effects, however. Zelazo, P. D., & Lyons, K. E. (2012). The potential benefits of mindfulness training in early childhood: A developmental social cognitive neuroscience perspective. Child Development Perspectives, 6(2), 154-160. Early childhood is marked by substantial development in the self-regulatory skills supporting school readiness and socioemotional competence. Mindfulness training—using age-appropriate activities to exercise children’s reflection on their moment- to-moment experiences—may support the development of self-regulation by targeting top-down processes while lessening bottom-up influences (such as anxiety, stress, curiosity) to create conditions conducive to reflection, both during problem solving and in more playful, exploratory ways. Zenner, C., Herrnleben-Kurz, S., & Walach, H. (2014). Mindfulness-based interventions in schools – A systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 603. This article systematically reviews the evidence regarding the effects of school-based mindfulness interventions on psychological outcomes. Twenty-four studies were identified, of which 13 were published. In total, 1348 students were instructed in mindfulness, with 876 serving as controls, ranging from grade 1 to 12. All in all, mindfulness-based interventions in children and youths hold promise, particularly in relation to improving cognitive performance and resilience to stress. However, the field is nascent; there is great heterogeneity, many studies are underpowered, and measuring effects of mindfulness in this setting is challenging. Mindfulness and Teachers Flook, L., Goldberg, S. B., Pinger, L., Bonus, K., & Davidson, R. J. (2013). Mindfulness for teachers: A pilot study to assess effects on stress, burnout, and teaching efficacy. Mind, Brian, and Education, 7(3), 182-195. This study reports results from a randomized controlled pilot trial of a modified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course (mMBSR) adapted specifically for teachers. Results suggest that the course may be a promising intervention, with participants showing significant reductions in psychological symptoms and burnout, improvements in observer-rated classroom organization and performance on a computer task of affective attentional bias, and increases in self-compassion. In contrast, control group participants showed declines in cortisol functioning over time and increases in burnout. Changes in mindfulness were correlated in the expected direction with changes across several outcomes (psychological symptoms, burnout, and sustained attention) in the intervention group. Jennings, P. A., Frank, J. L., Snowberg, K. E., Coccia, M. A., & Greenberg, M. T. (2013). Improving classroom learning environments by cultivating awareness and resilience in education (CARE): Results of a randomized controlled trial. School Psychology Quarterly. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/spq0000035 Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE for Teachers) is a mindfulness-based professional development program designed to reduce stress and improve teachers’ performance and classroom learning environments. A randomized controlled trial examined program efficacy and acceptability among a sample of 50 teachers randomly assigned to CARE or waitlist control condition. Participation in the CARE program resulted in significant improvements in teacher well- being, efficacy, burnout/time-related stress, and mindfulness compared with controls. Evaluation data showed that teachers viewed CARE as a feasible, acceptable, and effective method for reducing stress and improving performance. Roeser, R. W., Schonert-Reichl, K. A., Jha, A., Cullen, M., Wallace, L., Wilensky, R., Oberle, E., Thomson, K., Taylor, C., & Harrison, J. (2013, April 29). Mindfulness Training and Reductions in Teacher Stress and Burnout: Results From Two Randomized, Waitlist-Control Field Trials. Journal of Educational Psychology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0032093 The effects of randomization to mindfulness training (MT) or to a waitlist-control condition on psychological and physiological indicators of teachers’ occupational stress and burnout were examined in 2 field trials. The sample included 113 elementary and secondary school teachers (89% female) from Canada and the United States. Teachers randomized to MT showed greater mindfulness, focused attention and working memory capacity, and occupational self-compassion, as well as lower levels of occupational stress and burnout at post-program and follow-up, than did those in the control condition. Group differences in mindfulness and self- compassion at post-program mediated reductions in stress and burnout as well as symptoms of anxiety and depression at follow-up. Roeser, R.W., Skinner, E., Beers, J., & Jennings, P.A. (2012). Mindfulness training and teachers’ professional development: An emerging area of research and practice. Child Development Perspectives, 6, 167-173. This article focuses on how mindfulness training (MT) programs for teachers, by cultivating mindfulness and its application to stress management and the social-emotional demands of teaching, represent emerging forms of teacher professional development (PD) aimed at improving teaching in public schools. MT is hypothesized to promote teachers’ “habits of mind,” and thereby their occupational health, well-being, and capacities to create and sustain both supportive relationships with students and classroom climates conducive to student engagement and learning. This article discusses emerging MT programs for teachers and a logic model outlining potential MT program effects in educational settings. Singh, N. N., Lancioni, G. E., Winton, A. S., Karazsia, B. T., & Singh, J. (2013). Mindfulness training for teachers changes the behavior of their preschool students. Research in Human Development, 10(3), 211-233. This study measured the effects of preschool teachers attending an 8-week mindfulness course on the behavior of the students in their classroom. Results showed that decreases in the students’ challenging behaviors and increases in their compliance with teacher requests began during mindfulness training for the teachers and continued to change following the training. While the students did not show a change in positive social interactions with peers, they did show a decrease in negative social interactions and an increase in isolate play. Results indicated that mindfulness training for teachers was effective in changing teacher-student interactions in desirable ways. Mindfulness and Administrators Wells, C. M. (2013). Principals Responding to Constant Pressure: Finding a Source of Stress Management. NASSP Bulletin, 0192636513504453. This conceptual article presents a review of the research concerning the stress level of principals over the past three decades, with emphasis on the occupational stress that principals encounter because of heightened accountability and expectations for student achievement. Mindfulness meditation, as a stress management intervention, provides the theoretical background for this article; the scientific evidence concerning benefits of mindfulness meditations are reviewed. Finally, the author presents suggestions for the prevention and reduction of stress for principals.

“It’s a human tendency to want to have pleasure and want to avoid pain or discomfort,” says Sarah Bowen. But the University of Washington researcher adds that we’re often unaware of this tendency. We might reach for our cell phone to escape boredom or for food to escape stress, without knowing that these are coping strategies. According to Bowen, substance abuse is another example of that too-human automatic drive to move toward pleasure and away from pain—one that affects an estimated 24 million Americans, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Traditional treatment for substance abuse often focuses on avoiding or controlling triggers that result in negative emotion or craving. While research has shown that this approach can help, substance abuse relapse remains a problem: about half of those who seek treatment are using again within a year. Bowen has spent much of her career studying another approach: mindfulness, which involves cultivating moment-to-moment, nonjudgmental awareness of thoughts, feelings, and surroundings. She and her colleagues have developed a program called Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP), which combines practices like sitting meditation with standard relapse prevention skills, such as identifying events that trigger relapse. Rather than fighting or avoiding the difficult states of mind that arise when withdrawing from a substance, this combination tries to help participants to name and tolerate craving and negative emotion. But how do mindfulness-based approaches compare to traditional substance abuse treatments? And do mindfulness-based treatments work for everyone? Researchers like Bowen are beginning to answer these questions. Tools for telling a new story Bowen tells the story of a woman she calls Sophia, a MBRP participant who had a chronic issue with alcohol. When Sophia got an invitation to help her co-workers set up for a party at work, she knew there would be alcohol everywhere—which, in Sophia’s mind, could only mean one thing: she’d start drinking and she wouldn’t stop. She’d drink during the party’s setup, and then she’d drink all night long, and then she wouldn’t go to work the next day, or attend her MBRP meeting the next week. But thanks to MBRP, when Sophia’s mind started telling this story, she recognized that that’s what it was: a story. When Sophia recognized her thought patterns for what they were, she decided to try an exercise from her MBRP group (even though she thought it wouldn’t work). She stopped to observe her present experience. In this pause, Sophia realized that she had a choice: She didn’t have to believe her mind’s story about what was going to happen; she had the choice to not drink. From then on, when cravings or urges arose, Sophia could recognize them—and be aware of her freedom to act differently, and observe thoughts and feelings until they passed. This, says Bowen, is the key to the success of the program: MBRP helps people to relate differently to their thoughts, and use tools to disengage from automatic, addictive behaviors. The success of MBRP is not just anecdotal. Bowen and her colleagues recently published a study in JAMA Psychiatry investigating how effective the Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention program is in comparison to a standard relapse-prevention program as well as a conventional 12-step program. Six months following the intervention, the mindfulness-based program and the standard relapse-prevention program were both more successful at reducing relapse than the 12-step program. One year later, the mindfulness-based program proved better than the other two in reducing drinking and drug use. Bowen says that when people cultivate mindfulness, they’re developing a tool to become aware of that inclination to want only pleasurable things and escape uncomfortable things. Mindfulness also helps people learn to relate to discomfort differently. When an uncomfortable feeling like a craving or anxiety arises, people like Sophia are able to recognize their discomfort, and observe it with presence and compassion, instead of automatically reaching for a drug to make it go away. Bowen says that awareness of our experience and the ability to relate to our experience with compassion gives us more freedom to choose how we respond to discomfort, rather than defaulting to automatic behaviors. Mindful for the long run More research is needed to determine why MBRP might be more successful than other programs in reducing substance abuse relapse, but Bowen speculates that MBRP holds an advantage because mindfulness is a tool that can be applied to all aspects of one’s life. Standard relapse-prevention programs teach tools specific to struggles with substance abuse—for instance, how to deal with cravings or how to say no when someone offers you drugs. A year after completing the program, a person may have a very different set of challenges that the relapse-prevention program did not equip them to deal with. But because mindfulness is a tool that can be used in every part of a person’s life, practicing moment-to-moment awareness could continue to be an effective coping tool. Bowen and her colleagues are not the only researchers who are studying mindfulness as a tool to cope with addiction. James Davis and his colleagues at Duke University are investigating mindfulness training as a way to help people quit smoking. Similar to Bowen, Davis speculates that mindfulness is likely an effective tool in helping people with addiction because it’s a single, simple skill that a person can practice multiple times throughout their day, every day, regardless of the life challenges that arise. With so much opportunity for practice—rather than, say, only practicing when someone offers them a cigarette—people can learn that skill deeply. Their intervention targeted low-income smokers, because, says Davis, the the lower your socioeconomic status, the more likely you are to smoke. The results, recently published in Substance Use and Misuse showed a significant difference in smoking cessation for people who completed the intervention, as compared to people who were given nicotine patches and counseling from the Tobacco Quit Line. “Some people might have a bias to say that mindfulness is kind of a ‘new age-y’ thing, or something that falls primarily in the upper-middle class, intellectual population in the US,” Davis says. “The reality is, mindfulness as a practice itself is very simple. You don’t need to be an intellectual to do it, and you don’t need much of an education.” Not everyone benefits Both Bowen and Davis emphasize that mindfulness is not a panacea; it doesn’t always work for everyone. How can we tell if mindfulness will be an effective tool for a given person? Researcher Zev Schuman-Olivier and his colleagues at the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Addiction Medicine recently published a paper in Substance Use and Misuse suggesting that the type of therapy a person responds to may have something to do with their disposition—specifically, people who had the tendency to treat thoughts and behaviors with non-judgment and acceptance before the intervention began were more likely to be successful in reducing smoking following the mindfulness training. They write that if a person already has the skill to treat the self with non-judgment and acceptance, learning mindfulness practices likely comes easier to them than someone who has not previously practiced this skill. Ultimately, the type of therapy that works best for a given person will likely capitalize on their pre-disposed strengths. Of course, as Bowen and Davis both note, the skills of mindfulness can be taught to everyone. But Schuman-Olivier’s finding suggests that people who are not pre-disposed for mindfulness may need a more vigorous or lengthy intervention, in order to more thoroughly learn mindfulness skills. Or perhaps, people with less disposition toward mindfulness would fare better with a different therapy. Another predictor of success in mindfulness-based treatment could be a person’s motivation to engage in the therapy. In Davis’ study, the people that started the intervention with the highest level of nicotine addiction were the most successful in reducing smoking by the end of the treatment. Davis said that this seemingly counterintuitive result likely reflects their motivation to quit; the people that were the most addicted had, at that point, tried everything, and were willing to try their hardest to make this therapy work. Meanwhile, people that were less addicted saw their addiction as less of a problem. They reasoned, “If this doesn’t work, I’ll be ok—something else will work, eventually.” As a result, they were likely less motivated to quit, and less engaged in the therapy. So where do the researchers go from here? Bowen says she’d like to investigate how well MBRP does in different kinds of settings, as well as zero in on the mechanisms of mindfulness practices—for instance, what’s going on psychologically, and what’s going on in terms of neurochemistry when someone relates mindfully to a craving. Davis says that he also has plans to expand on his research, and that many are already applying mindfulness training for smoking cessation in new settings. Duke University wants to provide the training to cancer patients, and one company is even developing a mindfulness app to help people quit smoking. Bowen says that it’s tempting to conclude that mindfulness is the “best new thing” for addiction treatment, but that in reality, further study is needed. “It absolutely has promise, we have a lot more to learn,” she says. “This is the beginning.”

Every day we hear stories in the news of how our schools are failing kids. The disparity between students who achieve high test scores and those who don’t mirrors the division in our society between the “haves” and “have nots.” Children who for one reason or another can’t sit still, focus, or get along with their peers continue to fall behind academically, while concerned parents and teachers feel overwhelmed, not knowing how to intervene effectively. In his new book, The Way of Mindful Education, Daniel Rechtschaffen argues that there is something simple that can be done to help change this: teaching mindfulness in schools. Rechtschaffen, a leading mindfulness educator and founder of the Mindful Education Institute, believes that mindfulness training can increase social-emotional skills—like attention, empathy, forgiveness, and impulse control—that help improve the classroom social climate and increase academic performance for kids. Research on mindfulness has proliferated in recent decades, and the results are promising, according to Rechtschaffen. Practicing mindfulness has been shown to decrease pain, stress, depression, and anxiety, while increasing happiness and improving interpersonal relationships…at least in adults. Research with children, though more preliminary, suggests that teaching kids mindfulness skills may help decrease symptoms of ADHD, depression, anxiety, and hostility, while increasing self-esteem and sleep quality, all of which has an impact on learning. Rechtschaffen’s book is primarily a ”how-to” for creating a mindful classroom. He suggests ways that teachers can become more mindful themselves so that they can role model the type of attention, self-control, and consideration they wish to see in their students. He also provides guidance for how mindfulness can be incorporated into classrooms of different age groups and needs, along with examples of mindfulness curricula that teachers can use in various settings. However, Rechtschaffen warns against teachers using mindfulness exercises in their classrooms without first developing their own practice. “We often leap forward, wanting to help our kids relax, forgetting to notice how anxious and in need of relaxation we are,” he writes. “A teacher would never try to lead a math lesson if she didn’t know the multiplication tables.” Similarly, teachers trying to teach mindfulness won’t get far with their students if they first don’t model good emotional regulation and sensitivity toward their students’ needs, he argues. In fact, Rechtschaffen claims that teachers may need mindfulness training more than their students. “Year after year I have watched schoolteachers entering the classroom on the first day as hopeful and inspired as a child taking its first steps” he writes—only to give up soon after. Mindfulness can help teachers feel reinvigorated and provide benefits to students indirectly, since teachers who are more mindful may be more attuned, compassionate, and flexible with their students. Still, a large part of his book is devoted to providing sample mindfulness lessons that can be used in classrooms or youth programs. The lessons progress though four areas of mindfulness: Embodiment: learning how to feel comfortable and relaxed in one’s body; Focused attention: attention to sensory phenomena, such as one’s breath or sounds in the environment; Heartfeltness: learning to feel one’s emotions and to regulate more difficult ones; Interconnection: bringing compassion, forgiveness, and gratitude into one’s life. For each area, there are suggested exercises for developing these skills in kids, along with reasons why it is important to learn. Though some educators may feel that it’s too much to add on to their already overcrowded lesson plans, Rechtschaffen suggests that teaching mindfulness saves time and aids students in the long run. “When students don’t know how to pay attention or regulate their emotions, they easily fall into distracting behavior, often out of sheer frustration,” he writes. “As teachers, if we can offer these students the inner resources that they are lacking rather than penalizing them over and over, they have a much greater chance of thriving.” And, ultimately, teachers save time, because they don’t have to continually work to bring distracted, disruptive kids back into the learning fold. Is there any reason not to integrate mindfulness into schools? Rechtshaffen doesn’t seem to think so, even though the research on mindfulness in children is still in its infancy, suggesting that its universal application in schools could be a bit premature. Even so, if current research trends continue, we may all be clamoring to get mindfulness into our schools.

When I walked in to teach my first mindfulness class at a charter high school in Oakland, no one seemed interested. One student was sleeping in his chair; a few kids were messing around in the classroom. Everyone looked at me like I was in the wrong place. I was nervous and not really sure what I would do. So I just started talking about stress. I asked students if they ever felt stressed, what they do when they are stressed, and asked each of them to share an experience about the last time they were stressed and how they dealt with it. That was the right move. After teaching more than 20 10-week introductory mindfulness courses at five different high schools over the past few years, I have learned one main lesson: You have to make mindfulness class relevant to the daily lives of students. Sports, relationships, parents, teachers, friends—if you can relate it to what the students are experiencing and they understand how it can actually be useful in their lives, you start to grab their attention. It took a few classes before we even started practicing mindfulness, because I had to first make a connection with the students—and then I had to explain why they might want to learn mindfulness. Here are eight more lessons I’ve learned. 1. Scale it down Classes that are smaller than 12 people are very different from class sizes of 12 or more, for the students in smaller groups are much more willing to share. Studies of the relationship between learning and classroom size show that students perceive smaller classes as being able to foster a greater sense of belonging and togetherness, tighter relations with teachers, and more classroom participation. Classes of 12 or more are much less intimate and a bit more like typical classroom teaching. But you can create more intimacy even with a bigger class. It helps to divide activities into small groups, or do more pair-sharing. Of all the factors listed here, I firmly believe that class size is the most important in terms of determining what you teach and how you teach it.  If you can, keep the class small. 2. Foster intrinsic motivation If students are voluntarily taking the course, it means they actually want to be there. And this means that you have to do less work to convince them of why it is important; they are already bought in to a certain extent.  However, most of the classes I taught were compulsory. The key for teaching compulsory classes is explaining to students why you are teaching them mindfulness. Take the time to explain how this is different from other classes—no grades, no homework, more interpersonal. Most of school and life for adolescents is extrinsically motivated. But one of the most significant differences between mindfulness classes and normal classes is that there is no external motivation to perform—the rewards are all intrinsic. Research shows that when teachers take the time to explain the meaningfulness of what they are teaching their students are often more intrinsically motivated. The result is happier, less anxious students who are more willing to learn. This is the environment you want to set for your mindfulness classes, even if they are compulsory. 3. Start with older students Freshman and first-semester sophomores have a lot of goofy energy and need more discipline. Doing shorter experiential exercises, like games and pair-sharing, with them is helpful. If younger students are in a larger group, then you have to move more quickly. But it is simply very difficult for the younger students to go as deep or to focus for as long. I prefer teaching mindfulness to students starting at the end of sophomore year—and then to juniors and seniors. There is not so much goofing around when you try to do the exercises, and the relational mindfulness practices go much deeper. 4. Meet at least once a week Meeting at least once a week is important. At some schools, we’ve needed to take two-week breaks, and I’ve found that it really disrupts the flow of the class. At one school, the schedule only permitted meeting once every ten school days. That was not working at all because there was no consistency, and it was more difficult to build up the necessary trust. The best format is to meet with the same students twice a week—that allows for you to build up a more steady relationship with the students. And it’s better to teach an introductory class over a condensed, shorter period of time. 5. Hold 9-12 classes I would say the absolute minimum classes would be nine (one intro, and eight full classes). However, I prefer 12 classes. The more I get to know the students, and the more conversation that we have, the deeper and more engaged the students get into the curriculum. 6. Teach in the middle of the morning The best time to teach mindfulness is mid-morning. Teaching first period can be tough because the students are not yet awake—and, in fact, studies show that teenagers at about age 14 learn less in the morning, thanks to shifts in their bodies. The afternoon can be tricky because students are exhausted, or they have a lot of pent up energy. If I teach right after lunch, I usually have the students lay down and rest for a few minutes before we start the class. If it is the last class of the day, I often spend more time doing exercises and almost always go outside. 7. Consider the advantages of outside and in-house teachers I have always taught as an outside teacher, someone who goes into a school specifically to teach mindfulness classes. This has a few advantages: It means I am new to the students and they do not have preconceived notions about who I am; I am just the mindfulness teacher; I do not have to transition from teaching chemistry to mindfulness; I have more energy to teach since I teach a limited number of classes. Being an in-house teacher also has advantages. You already know the students and hopefully have trust built up. The students will know your behavior—teenagers are very perceptive—so if you are teaching mindfulness to teens you have to embody this at school even when you are not teaching mindfulness classes. In fact, that is likely how they will learn the most and decide if they are even willing to take it seriously. 8. Remember that you are planting seeds Every time I finished a 10-week mindfulness class, I would wonder if it was helpful at all. Did the students get it? Are these 10 hours going to change their lives? Was I doing a good job? Sometimes there would be direct results, like when a student would tell me how practicing something from the class changed one of her relationships or made him less angry. But at the end of the day, I would remember: 10 hours is not much time. I am just planting seeds. If I taught students lacrosse or piano for 10 hours, I would not expect it to change their lives. But I would remember that some students can take away valuable life skills—and others, later in life, may remember something they used in class to pursue other contemplative practices or dive deeper into mindfulness. If you can open the eyes of a student to living a more whole, introspective life with an introductory mindfulness class, that is an incredibly powerful thing.

Let’s face it: seeing the words “lawyer” and “mindfulness” in the same sentence looks a little weird. This might be why lawyers suffer disproportionately high levels of depression, substance abuse, and suicide. Lawyers are almost four times more likely to be depressed than non-lawyers, and twice as likely to be alcoholics. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lawyers rank fourth in the professions with the most suicides. So maybe there is a role for mindfulness in the legal profession after all. According to Dr. Andy Benjamin of the University of Washington, the trouble starts in law school, where students encounter high workloads, stress, intense competition with their peers, and an emphasis on analysis and linear thinking that causes “loss of connection with feelings, personal morals, values, and sense of self.” In one study Benjamin conducted, 40 percent of law students were suffering from depression by the time they graduated. This is why I find the work of University of San Francisco School of Law Professor Rhonda Magee to be so inspiring and necessary. She is teaching the next generation of lawyers how to stay connected with who they are, how to forge relationships built on compassion and mutual respect, and how to skillfully and healthfully manage ever-present conflict situations—all before the students even graduate from law school. I talked with her over email about putting these ideas to work. Sara Tollefson: How did you first connect mindfulness and the law? Rhonda Magee: I was first inspired to connect mindfulness and the law about 20 years ago, when I was just starting out as a lawyer. I had some experience with contemplative practices from a variety of backgrounds, and it became obvious to me that relying on these practices seemed to make me more capable of handling the demands of my work as a litigator in a large law firm. Later, when I began teaching law, I realized that the practices and outlook that emerge from mindfulness might offer benefits not only to my students, but to those tasked with interpreting, applying and making law. So I started to look for others who were exploring the same ideas, and I began to work with lawyers and law professors (and even a judge or two) who had come to see the value of these practices as well. The coursework I’ve developed and the research and writing that I’ve done in the area have flowed from that. Having begun the work, the responses of my students, lawyers in practice, and others with whom I’ve worked keep me inspired to develop and deepen this work further. ST: And how do you define mindfulness? RM: In my work, I use the term “mindfulness” in two main ways. The first refers to a set of practices that focus one’s attention on the present moment with the intention of enhancing presence, and with attitudes that support kind-hearted openness to whatever arises. The second refers to the state of awareness, or more broadly, a way of being in the world that arises for many people and becomes more readily available over time as a result of engaging in such practices. ST: How does mindful lawyering benefit clients? How does it benefit lawyers? RM: Lawyers who practice mindfulness experience the same benefits that other practitioners report: everything from increased emotional self-awareness and self-regulation, to improved capacity to handle stress and increased concentration and psychological flexibility. Mindfulness practices increase lawyers’ capacity to be present and high-functioning, no matter how unpredictable or potentially distressing the situations in which they might find themselves. They are also better at assessing high-conflict or other challenging situations from multiple perspectives. Such outcomes make lawyers more skillful at handling stressful situations at work and in their personal lives, leading to increased well-being overall. In predictable ways, clients are also better served when their lawyers have a deeper set of resources for handling stress and dealing with conflict and uncertainty. Clients benefit from their lawyer’s greater sense of compassion and greater ability to communicate in ways that maintain a sense of concern and respect. ST: What about society at large? Do you think we’d see a social change as a result of mindful lawyering? RM: The benefits to society at large may be harder to measure but are every bit as real. Mindful lawyers are finding more creative ways to assist clients and to envision their law practice, often taking on the roles of peacemaker and/or healer in their communities. Mindful lawyers who serve as leaders, judges, or other lawmakers are interpreting and shaping law and public policy through the more expansive lenses shaped by their enhanced capacities for perspective-taking. In doing so, they are creating law and policy that looks and feels more like justice in the world. ST: What gives you hope that we might see more mindfulness in the law? RM: The fact that students are more and more exposed to mindfulness upon entry into law schools, and that the culture generally is becoming more accepting of these practices makes me quite hopeful that we will see more mindfulness in the law over time. More and more, law professors are interested in exploring these practices, and are working together to support one another in developing approaches to incorporating these practices into our methods for teaching and learning. I’m presently working with Charlie Halpern of Boalt Hall School of Law at UC Berkeley and several others to develop a National Collaborative for Mindfulness and Law. We’ll join with folks like Richard Reuben, who has engaged in an effort to study the effects of mindfulness on his students at the University of Missouri, and Scott Rogers, who has been examining how these practices affect law students at Miami University, to share what we’re learning and develop model curriculum. I’m also researching and writing about a systematic approach to incorporating these practices into legal education. At the same time, with the increasing support of leaders in local and regional legal communities, lawyers across the country, from Seattle to Minneapolis, from Phoenix to New York, are offering programs that support mindfulness as a component of ongoing professional development. As more law schools, practicing lawyers, and leaders within the various state bars get involved, there will be more programs for continuing legal education and continuing judicial education for lawyers and judges, and the movement along all fronts will continue to flourish. ST: What are three things that a lawyer (or other professional) could do right now to bring more mindfulness into their work? RM: Here are some practices to consider exploring. 1. Mindfulness reset: Select a set time for a five- to ten-minute “Mindfulness Reset” each day. It might be the first thing you do when you sit down at your desk as you transition from your commute. It might be the way you settle in back in after your lunch break. For those five minutes, allow your mind to settle on the sensations of breathing in and out, and to let whatever other thoughts, sensations or emotions arise, and without attaching to them, allowing them to float by as you would a row of clouds across a bright blue sky. You can always investigate or follow-up on what arises later, but for the period of your Mindfulness Reset, just let these objects of awareness simply arise and float away. 2. Mindful gratitude practice: Another suggestion is to incorporate a mindful gratitude practice into your daily routine, by ending each evening by reflecting on three things that you experienced that day for which you are grateful. Call each pleasant event or experience to mind and allow the associated thoughts, sensations, and emotions to expand into your awareness and fill you with the sensations of mindful gratitude for a minute (not long enough to start going into story!), before going on to the next thing. 3. Find a mindfulness buddy: Finally, it’s extremely helpful to experience the support of at least one other person who shares your interest in bringing mindfulness to work. You might be surprised to find a co-worker who is willing to support creating space for or sharing ideas for bringing mindfulness into your workspace, or even sitting quietly together for a few minutes a few times a week. If not available in your office or workplace, seek out social support using technology. Believe it or not, you may find that having a friend with whom to sit quietly on the phone or on Skype—perhaps as a prelude to a mindful exchange of reflections on what’s up for each of you (without trying to fix one another in those moments!)—is just the extra support you need to keep your mindfulness habit alive and thriving. To be successful in bringing more mindfulness into your work, I’d also suggest that you continually strengthen your intention and commitment to do so. Remind yourself why you believe this is important, and make a genuine commitment to cultivate your practice. You might find a single reminder of your intention to create space for mindfulness, something that might be discreetly brought into the office, such as a rock engraved with the word “Gratitude” or “Breathe,” a book about mindfulness that you might place on a shelf at eye-level, anything that works for you. Select a place for your reminder in your workspace, and allow it to serve as a visible and tangible reminder of your commitment to yourself to be mindful as you work. And of course, this is just scratching the surface! Those who are interested in finding out more should consider reading and studying about the mindfulness traditions that have given rise to our contemporary appreciation of these practices. There is much depth there. My suggestions are merely a door into a profound set of teachings and learning.