Guest blog post by Jude Brown
Being busy is, at times,
unavoidable. Family, work, friends, eating, shopping, cleaning to name a few of
the daily tasks we need to squeeze into the hours before we can finally sleep
and hopefully ‘switch off.’
Two years ago I began to look for
space within this ‘busyness’ and this arrived in the form of mindfulness. A
modern day meditation practice which allows us to stop, be present and create
the emotional and mental space we all deserve.
Initially, I used mindfulness to
literally just stop and I found that by practising simple mindfulness
techniques for a few minutes, several times a day, I begun to relieve some of
the pressures of the never-ending to do list. But now mindfulness is becoming
much more than just a ‘pause’ button. Its simple strength comes through regular
practice and has changed the way I view life, its pressures, people; even the
way I eat and walk!
Following training, I used my personal
experience and teaching skill to introduce mindfulness into schools. I wanted
children to understand its benefits and to realise that once learnt, it was a
tool for life. It was during a search for resources I came across Smiling Mind
and once I started using it, realised its potential it not only teaching children
Mindfulness but also supporting and developing the knowledge and skills of
adults who work with children.
Smiling Mind is a web and App-based program
developed by a team of psychologists with expertise in youth and adolescent
therapy, mindfulness meditation and web-based wellness programs. Having
launched three years ago, the app has been downloaded over 1 million times and
is now used by over 9000 schools in Australia.
In recent years’ mindfulness
meditation has risen in popularity for use in the treatment of anxiety,
depression, stress and other physical and mental illnesses.
Well respected institutions such
as UCLA, Harvard, Oxford, Monash and Melbourne Universities have developed
clinical studies into the positive impacts of mindfulness meditation.
“The world needs mindfulness and
in this fast-paced, stressed and distracted world, the children of today
probably need it more than any previous generation," said Dr. Craig
Hassad, Smiling Mind ambassador.
"Smiling Mind is taking
Mindfulness Meditation to where it is needed most -- into the hearts and minds
of young people. It’s more than just a technique, and more than just a
life-skill. Mindfulness is a way of life." Co-founder Jane Martino agrees.
“Our vision is for mindfulness meditation to be on the curriculum by
2020."
Smiling Mind offers a
preventative tool to support mental health, increase the ability to focus, and
pay attention to the present. When you consider that the average office worker
check their email 30 times every hour, and that the typical mobile phone user
checks their phones more than 150 times per day, learning how to be in the
present is imperative.
“Smiling Mind took something
which was a bit fringe -- meditation -- and packaged it in a way that used
technology far more effectively," said James Tutton, Co-founder of Smiling
Mind. Smiling Mind is free to download
and is now pleased to announce that Professional Development Workshops are
available in the UK from 2016. The workshop will be supported by the “5-week
Smiling Mind Adult Meditation Challenge". Staff will be supported by a weekly
online training program. This involves interesting information sent out each
week, to support their knowledge of the subject. It includes reminders and
tips, links to articles and interesting research, visuals and quotes.
More information can be found by
contacting jude@smilingmind.com.au
