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The Benefits of Mindfulness
Mindfulness has been a term that has gained popularity in recent years. Part of this attention is well earned due to the new and exciting research that shows positive effects on both emotional control and executive functioning skills for both children and adults. At camp we have been implementing many of these concepts and interventions for several years. We have been practicing several aspects of mindfulness to help our campers develop in new and exciting ways.
Mindfulness has been defined as "paying attention to the present moment with acceptance and non-judgment (kindness and curiosity)." [1] It often involves focused energy related to a sensory experience. Paying attention to subjective experiences as well as our own emotional and physical state, can lead to calm effective problem solving. This leads to a state of "mindfulness" that allows for more effective thinking. Specifically, mindfulness targets an approach that starts with physical aspects such as calm body and calm breathing. The focus then switches to a calm mind where thoughts and experiences are calm and focused on the present moment. Lastly the focus shifts to emotional control and emotional regulation by practicing calm emotions in combination with a calm body and calm mind. This leads to a state of thinking termed "Mindfulness".
There is new and exciting research by Carol Dweck about the importance of mindset. She found that by teaching people about our thought process there can be improvements that have an important impact on growth and development. Specifically by changing our thinking patters we can create dramatic and long lasting improvements.[2] Research shows that Mindfulness practices have been found to create positive brain development in the prefrontal cortex (related to attention, planning, problem solving, mood) the insular cortex (understanding other people's perspectives, mirror neurons), and the temporal/parietal junction (learning and memory). This suggests that Mindfulness is an important part of learning and especially helpful for people with executive functioning problems.[3]
At camp we use a variety of activities to facilitate Mindfulness.
We consistently facilitated a relaxation group to teach deep breathing, imagery, and progressive relaxation for and utilize bonus points when children use these skills in times of stress. While these components will remain cornerstones of our program we plan to expand our mindfulness activities to include new programming. Specifically we will incorporate mindfulness into
yoga, art, music, and time in nature.
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