Thousands of people worldwide have used Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction to enhance their quality of life. Now one facilitator hopes to introduce it into Irish classrooms. Hélène Hofmanreports
When the pressure of work and family commitments became too much for teacher Elaine Conroy Kelly last Christmas she decided to enrol in a one-day course on mindful living.
She left feeling relaxed and rejuvenated and convinced it was something from which her students at St David's Secondary School in Greystones, Co Wicklow could benefit .
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) was developed by Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn about 30 years ago at the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. MBSR uses a combination of meditation, breathing exercises, relaxation techniques and discussion to help develop an awareness of the sources of stress and learn how to manage them.
MBSR programmes have become available in Ireland only in the past few years and there are still only a handful of facilitators here.
Anne Twohig trained under Dr Kabat-Zinn in the US and has been facilitating MBSR programmes for about three years. She has since set up Ananda Programmes in Greystones with classes for adults and adolescents.
"Mindfulness is a very new thing in Ireland," explains Twohig. "It's a way of bringing us into the present moment. It shows us how to deal with life and it's a skill that can be applied to anything. It's not just about meditation but about bringing it into everyday life and showing us how we can enjoy life more."
In the US, mindfulness is already commonly used in prisons, businesses, as part of sports training and, more recently, in the classroom. Twohig believes that mindfulness is particularly useful for teenagers, giving them the skills they need to reduce stress early on.
Earlier this year, Twohig and her colleague, Audrey Kirwan, adapted their eight-week adult programme for transition-year students and introduced it to Kelly Conroy's class at St David's. "I was amazed by how quickly they took to it and when she [Kelly Conroy] spoke to them afterwards they told her how much they had loved it.
"I thought about it and because they were so good at it decided to develop a shorter four-week programme with 10-20 minute meditations," Twohig says.
"Teenagers are much better at getting to a place of relaxation quickly. It's our natural way of being but as we move through life it gets harder to get there. It's something they have now that they can carry through life," she explains. "Often teenagers are over-stimulated with ipods, mobiles, etc, and this lets them experience a place of relaxation. Later it will help them see when they are being over-stimulated and encourage them to look for that place of relaxation when they need it."
The four-week programme includes an introductory session where students are shown a short meditation and discuss the seven founding principles of mindfulness. It is followed by three-hour weekly sessions and a daily meditation which are incorporated into the transition-year's timetable.
Students are also given a mediation CD as part of the programme which has a selection of short meditations that they can do at home.
"At the end of the year we did a review and asked students what their favourite activity had been. The mindfulness came a clear first," says Kelly Conroy, who co-ordinates the Social Personal and Health Education (SPHE) course at St David's.
"By the time you are an adult you have accumulated many bad habits. Our lives are so full of go, go, go and this really teaches you to sit back. With a transition-year class, time is more flexible and you have the time to do the programme with them and they get more out of it," she says.
According to Conroy, the programme shows students how to identify the causes of stress and helps them control them which will be of benefit when they are studying for exams and also later in life. It also aims to develop their self-esteem and emotional wellbeing.
As part of the end-of-year review, students described the programme as "beneficial", "enjoyable" and "relaxing" while some said it helped them relax and sleep better.
Twohig is now considering teaching a one-day course for Leaving- and Junior-Certificate students to introduce them to the basic skills that they can employ to manage exam stress.
"Now they know how to relax and live in the present moment. It's something that their parents have picked up on too. Two students who did the programme said their parents had been listening to the CDs and one had recommended it to his dad who had a headache," she says.
Twohig is now planning on distributing an information leaflet to schools outlining the benefits of the programme and encouraging them to incorporate it into their SPHE programme.
She is also hopeful that the Department of Education will recognise the course and support it.
"As with most things in life, the younger you do something the better," says Twohig.
"What I would like is for schools to open themselves up to this. The students need it. They may be feeling stressed and it can be hard to get the right support from parents and teachers. This is something good they can do themselves.
"It's empowering, it reduces stresses, it helps them concentrate in class, it's relaxing and it's good for the development of emotional wellbeing. It's a whole other world," she says.