Anchors into mindfulness
Author: John Hibbs
Anchors into mindfulness
John Hibbs
16 October 2015
Executive Summary
In this report I provide a rationale for my research into mindfulness with children, factors that impacted on research design including ethical considerations, approaches to the content and process of running the program, learning relating to developing the program and resources involving conceptual awareness, mindfulness practices, integration skills and feelings, followed by a personal evaluation of the resources, personal learning and work place responses from the children, teacher, parents and the peer workshop. The final section summarises my learning including work place gains. We are in the early stages of exploring mindfulness with children in Aotearoa New Zealand; therefore it is helpful to run well researched programs and report on the findings to support the development of this strength based approach.
Many benefits have been reported through peer reviewed literature. A brief survey follows. According to Thompson & Guantlett-Gilbert, (2008) teaching mindfulness techniques to all students creates the potential for greater self awareness, improved impulse control and decreases emotional reactivity to challenging events. Napoli et al (2005) posit, “The consistent reinforcement of using the mindfulness activities in each class will have long lasting effects and can filter through the children’s school experience and personal lives.” Weare (2013) identifies that when mindfulness is well taught and practiced it has been shown to be capable of improving mental health and well being, mood, self esteem, self regulation, positive behaviour and academic learning.
Licence
This thesis is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International.
