meditation in the classroom: helping your students find
TRANSCRIPT
Thomas M Ferrari, PhD408 O’Dowd Hall
"Meditation in the Classroom: Helping Your Students Find
Peace in Anxious Times"
Definitions
• Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally.
• Anything can be done with mindfulness
• Meditation is a practice to develop relaxation, open awareness, and focused attention.
• These are practices and require discipline
Meditation
Goals?
Meditation
Objections?
Ours
Students
Meditation
Classroom Methods
What are the constraints?
What are the possibilities?
Meditation
Minute methods
BreathCleansing (in = positive, out = negative)Sounds (e.g. singing bowl)Phrase (mantra, or meaningful phrase re topic)Music (classical)Story (i.e. guided)Mandala (coloring)Tapping/Acupressure
Benefits
Why meditate?
Physical – relaxation response, cardioprotective, longevity, immune benefits
Mental –greater awareness, focused attention, strengthened will power, pain reduction
Emotional – reduced reactivity, increased resilience, courage
Relational – relaxation, empathy, acceptance, compassion, peace with others
Methods
How to meditate?
Two components: Motivational and Practical
1st Pick a reason why to meditate.
Commit 100% (100% is easy; 99% is hard).
Do it in a SMART way.
Seek support.
Methods
Practicalities:
Posture - dignified
Space – quiet, undisturbed, dedicated
Time – repeated and realistic, ideally early a.m.
Anchor – breath, mantra, mudra, posture, object, question - almost anything as long as it is simple
Patience! “Oh, well”
Observe results….realistically
Sense of Humor!!
Practice
Singing bowl exercise
What did you notice right when the sound faded away? What did you notice in the intervals between ringing of the bowl?
Self-Reflection:
What did you learn about yourself?
Why would you want to practice?
Challenges
What are the barriers to regular practice?
Conviction
Time
Turmoil
Ego – wants instant gratification and to be the expert
Frustration at seeing negative patterns = Discomferies….fear, anger, shame, grief, etc.
Challenges
Promise
“Freedom from thoughts that create suffering”
Autonomic Nervous SystemFeign and Freeze
Fight or Flight
Rest and Digest
Tend and Befriend
Sickness behavior
Sexual Behavior
Nummenmaa et al., 2013. PNAS.
Bodily Maps of Emotions
In five experiments, participants (n = 701) were shown two silhouettes of bodies alongside emotional words, stories, movies, or facial expressions.
Universal emotion somatotopic maps
Ainsworth B, Eddershaw R, Meron D, Baldwin DS, Garner M. The effect of focused attention and open monitoring meditation on attention network function in healthy volunteers. Psychiatry Res. 2013, 210(3):1226-31.
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Hutchinson JB, Turk-Browne. Memory-guided attention: Control from multiple memory systems. Trends Cogn Sci. 2012, 16(12):576-579.
Jevning R, Wallace RK, Beidebach M. The physiology of meditation: a review. A wakeful hypometabolic integrated response. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 1992, 16(3):415-24.
Mehrmann C, Karmacharya R. Principles and neurobiological correlates of concentrative, diffuse, and insight meditation. Harv Rev Psychiatry. 2013, 21(4):205-18.
Nummenmaa L, Glerean E, Hari R, Hietanen JK. Bodily maps of emotions. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014, 111(2):646-51.
Nijjar PS, Puppala VK, Dickinson O, Duval S, Duprez D, Kreitzer MJ, Benditt DG. Modulation of the autonomic nervous system assessed through heart rate variability by a mindfulness based stress reduction program. Int J Cardiol. 2014, 177(2):557-9.
Papies EK, Pronk TM, Keesman M, Barsalou LW. The benefits of simply observing: mindful attention modulates the link between motivation and behavior. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2015, 108(1):148-70.
Regehr C, Glancy D, Pitts A. Interventions to reduce stress in university students: a review and meta-analysis. J Affect Disord. 2013, 148(1):1-11.
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Selected References