By now there\u2019s a good chance you\u2019ve heard the term \u201cmindfulness.\u201d It seems to be everywhere \u2014 touted as the new yoga, the answer to stress, the alternative to Xanax. But beyond the buzz, what is it? Jon Kabat-Zinn, the scientist and widely recognized father of contemporary, medically based mindfulness \u2014 over 30 years ago he developed a therapeutic meditation practice known as Mindful Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) \u2014 defines mindfulness simply as \u201cpaying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the short version. To expand on that just a little, mindfulness is a meditation practice that begins with paying attention to breathing in order to focus on the here and now \u2014 not what might have been or what you\u2019re worried could be. The ultimate goal is to give you enough distance from disturbing thoughts and emotions to be able to observe them without immediately reacting to them.<\/p>\n
In the last few years,\u00a0mindfulness\u00a0has emerged as a way of treating children and adolescents with conditions ranging from\u00a0ADHD\u00a0to\u00a0anxiety,\u00a0autism spectrum disorders,\u00a0depression\u00a0and\u00a0stress. And the benefits are proving to be tremendous.<\/p>\n
But how do you explain mindfulness to a five-year-old? When she\u2019s teaching mindfulness to children, Amy Saltzman, MD, a holistic physician and mindfulness coach in Menlo Park, California, prefers\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>to define the word but rather to invite the child to feel the experience first \u2014 to find their \u201cstill, quiet place.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201dWe begin by paying attention to breath,\u201d she says. \u201cThe feeling of the expansion of the in-breath, the stillness between the in-breath and the out-breath. I invite them to rest in the space between the breaths. Then I explain that this still quiet place is always with us \u2014 when we\u2019re sad, when we\u2019re angry, excited, happy, frustrated. They can feel it in their bodies. And it becomes a felt experience of awareness. They can learn to observe their thoughts and feelings, and the biggest thing for me is they can begin to choose their behaviors.\u201d<\/p>\n In her private practice, Saltzman, and her\u00a0Still Quiet Place CDs for Young Children and Teens,<\/em>\u00a0teaches mindfulness to children and adolescents with a variety of challenges. \u201cI work with kids individually withADHD,\u00a0<\/dfn><\/span>with\u00a0anxiety, depression, autism,\u00a0anger management\u00a0issues. The lovely thing about working one-on-one is you get to tailor what you offer to them.\u201d<\/p>\n Saltzman also conducted a study in conjunction with researchers at Stanford University showing that after 8 weeks of mindfulness training, the fourth through sixth graders in the study had documented decreases in anxiety, and improvements in attention. They were less\u00a0emotionally reactive\u00a0and more able to handle daily challenges and choose their behavior.<\/p>\n As a teacher at The Nantucket New School where every student gets instruction in mindfulness, Allison Johnson has learned firsthand what a difference it can make for kids. So she tried it at home. \u201cI have a six-year-old son with\u00a0ADHD,<\/span>\u201d she says. \u201cI brought a chime home. We use it most nights before bed because he doesn\u2019t love going to sleep. We sit on the floor facing each other, we close our eyes, and we ring the chime. Sometimes we incorporate a visualization \u2014 like he\u2019s floating on a cloud. We go on this little journey. And we ring the chime again and we say \u2018when you can no longer hear the chime it\u2019s time to open your eyes and come back to focus.\u2019 And now if he gets in trouble and gets sent to his room, I can hear him upstairs doing it himself. Or when he\u2019s getting unusually rowdy he\u2019ll say \u2018OK, let\u2019s do our mindful breathing now.\u2019\u201d Johnson says since Curren started practicing mindfulness, she\u2019s seen subtle but noticeable differences in his behavior. \u201cHe\u2019s more able to bring his focus and attention back to where they were \u2014 remembering to raise his hand and not move around so much.\u201d<\/p>\n While the research on children and adolescents is really just beginning to gain real traction, there are several small studies showing that for kids who suffer from anxiety and\u00a0ADHD,<\/span>\u00a0mindfulness can be especially helpful. Diana Winston, author of\u00a0Wide Awake\u00a0<\/em>and the director of Mindfulness Education at UCLA\u2019s Mindful Awareness Research Center, started taking teens with\u00a0ADHD\u00a0<\/span>on retreats for what she calls \u201cmindfulness intensive camp\u201d back in 1993. Twenty years later the program is still going strong.<\/p>\n \u201cTeens\u00a0benefit tremendously,\u201d she says. \u201cKids talk about their lives being transformed. I remember one girl with\u00a0ADHD\u00a0<\/span>who\u2019d been very depressed, and I didn\u2019t think we were reaching her. On the last day of class she came in and said, \u2018everything is different. I was really depressed. My boyfriend broke up with me and it\u2019s been so hard, but I\u2019m finally understanding that I\u2019m not my thoughts.\u2019 That concept is huge \u2014 the non-identifying with the negative thoughts and having a little more space and freedom in the midst of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Stress reduction and self-acceptance are two of the major perks of mindfulness, benefits Winston says are particularly important during the drama and turmoil-filled teen years. \u201cEmotional regulation, learning how to quiet one\u2019s mind \u2014 those are invaluable skills.\u201d<\/p>\n Randye Semple, PhD, an assistant professor at the University of Southern California\u2019s Keck School of Medicine, has spent her career developing programs to teach anxious kids how to quiet their minds. \u201cWhen I look at childhood anxiety, I see an enormous problem and a precursor to other problems in adolescents and adults,\u201d she says. \u201cSo I figured if we could manage the anxiety we could head off a lot of the other problems.\u201d\u00a0Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Anxious Children<\/em>, the book she co-authored, is based on the program she developed. A study she and her co-author, clinical psychologist Jennifer Lee, conducted from 2000-2003 showed significant reductions in both anxiety and behavior problems in 8- to 12-year-olds in Harlem and Spanish Harlem who participated in the program.<\/p>\n Teaching mindfulness to children and adolescents is a growing trend \u2014 in private practices as part of therapy and increasingly as part of the curriculum in both Special Ed and General Ed classes throughout the country. \u201cWe\u2019re at the beginning of a movement,\u201d says Megan Cowan, co-founder and executive director of programs at Mindful Schools in Oakland, California. \u201cJon Kabat-Zinn\u2019s work really set the stage for mindfulness to be visible on a mainstream landscape. I think we all have the sense that society\u2019s a little out of control. Education is a little out of control. We\u2019re all looking for a way to change that. This is meaningful to almost everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By now there\u2019s a good chance you\u2019ve heard the term \u201cmindfulness.\u201d It seems to be everywhere \u2014 touted as the new yoga, the answer to stress, the alternative to Xanax. But beyond the buzz, what is it? Jon Kabat-Zinn, the scientist and widely recognized father of contemporary, medically based mindfulness \u2014 over 30 years ago<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6323,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[313],"tags":[598],"class_list":["post-6322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wellbeing-talks","tag-mindfulness","enable-dropcap","disable-2-columns"],"acf":{"wellbeing_talks_video_link":""},"yoast_head":"\nChoosing behaviors<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
Mindfulness and teenagers<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
Managing anxiety with mindfulness<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n