MINDFULNESS Knowing ourselves from the inside out

How do you make mental health a normalised conversation that anyone of any age can have at any time? For us in our class it was about repetition and about the language. As a class, our morning goals very quickly became our norm and pupils were forthcoming in what they wanted to share. We then turned to the language. Certain language unintentionally can contribute toward reinforcing negative connotations, behaviour and stigma. We began to look out sharing our goals while only using positive language. For example a pupil may have originally said:

"I won't distract the people around me."

As a class we decided that was focusing on the negative and came up with a few other ways of saying something of similar meaning:

"I will focus on my own work"

"I will respect my classmates by working to the best of my ability"

"I will sit beside people who I work well with."

These small changes to language within our goal setting  had a profound impact on how the pupils carried themselves throughout the day. The outwardly positive language reshaped dynamics within the classroom for the better. Pupils were beginning to pay attention to the words used throughout the day and were even noticing the words I used in certain situations. It created many class discussions where we spent time to reflect on the words we were using and what  impact that had on our inner dialogue'. 

 

Pupils started to understand the power of pausing for a couple of seconds. Evaluating their thoughts, and thinking,

'Is that hurtful or helpful?'