Education: Mindfulness, Awareness, Presence, Consciousness, What’s it all about?

Mindfulness, Awareness, Presence, Consciousness, What’s it all about?

I have great compassion for educators. In all my experience in teaching, I felt like school administrators were consistently presenting us with new pedagogy year after year. So, first, I want to thank you for taking this life changing opportunity to help your students grow and learn more consciously my exploring mindfulness and how it could impact your children in the school and at home.

At some point, I’m sure you have heard mindfulness terminology popping up in the educational sector; but lets break down the concepts so that we can get you personally prepared to take your children on this journey with you. Let’s get started with the basics:

Mindfulness is about being fully present in the “here and now” and bringing your full attention to your internal and external environment. There are many activities, such as breathing techniques, body awareness scans, and meditation that facilitate your ability to let go of distractions and come back to the present moment in front of you. Mindfulness is a state of being, not doing. Yoga postures and movements, for example, are practices that bring you into a state of mindfulness .

Awareness in simple terms means having knowledge or perception of a situation or object. But in a deeper sense, practicing awareness means you can notice what is capturing your attention. Then you move that attention toward your thoughts, emotions, and your body, by observing them without choosing to react to them. You just sit with everything and just be still for a while.

When you are mindful, you are cultivating your awareness toward accepting “what is” without reactivity. According to Eckhart Tolle, best-selling author of A New Earth, ”the most important thing to develop in a child is awareness…so much more than anything like accumulating knowledge because that does not guarantee awareness whatsoever.”

Presence is the practice of noticing, observing and then bringing your awareness back to the present moment. This is what author and teacher, Ram Dass, refers to as “Be Here Now”.

Consciousness is your natural state of being. Even when you are sleeping, you are conscious. Your consciousness is the being inside of you who is the perceiver, and observer of your thoughts, emotions, likes, dislikes etc.. Your consciousness has nothing to do with your roles in life, your possessions, your history, your physical appearance, or even your personality. You get into trouble when you wrap up your entire identity around external and internal perceptions of yourself and others. Many spiritual teachers call this false identity as the “Ego Mind” or the “Masquerading Self”. Consciousness is the part of you that has always been there, regardless of how your personality or life situation changes. You are the one inside who is aware and noticing. Spiritual masters call it “The Deep I”, while religions may identify it as your Soul, or Spirit.

..the most important thing to develop in a child is awareness, so much more than anything like accumulating knowledge “

- Eckhart Tolle

In a modern secular practice, mindfulness considers exactly what the consciousness pays attention to. Many people are missing the experiences of their lives because they are so distracted by and involved in their thoughts and feelings that they are disengaged in the reality that is unfolding right in front of them. When you make a “conscious choice” or practice “witness consciousness”, you are full aware and present right now.

Your mind is simply a tool in your body. But at times, your thoughts may have a way of taking over your identity. They may start with a comment about something that bothers you and in a very short time, your mind will turn it into a story about all the things that disturb you or all the people who annoy you. Soon you may be feeling spent and defeated. For many people, including children, emotions begin to feel uncontrollable. Thoughts seem to take on a life of their own filling the mind with anxiety, worse case scenarios and sadness about past experiences. You may find

yourself starting to ruminate about what happened to you, what might happen to you, and a whole slew of speculations and judgements about other people. It gets a little crazy in there. In fact, author, Michael Singer, compares most thoughts to a car that is driving down the freeway with nobody at the wheel. In The Untethered Soul, selling over a million copies worldwide, Singer states, ”The mind can be a dangerous place, or a great gift.” I think if everyone gave this some consideration, it could really resonate with many people.

You take a huge step toward a more “conscious life” when you realize that you can absolutely gain some control over these thought streams. In fact, you actually affect change in your current life situations with better choices and decisions. You are in the driver seat of your own mind when you are aware of your thoughts, without the need to judge or add another “story” to them. Practicing mindfulness does not mean that you don’t reflect on the past to enjoy a memory or, perhaps, learn from a mistake; and it certainly does not mean that you don’t continue to make plans and set goals for yourself. Mindfulness centers around intention, the “why” behind choices: ”What is my intention here?” You may begin to notice that right action seems to flow naturally when you are operating from a place of mindful consciousness.

Your children’s young minds are developing at a rapid speed with some beautiful knowledge, experiences and memories. But I’m sure you also want them to embrace challenges with optimism and a growth mindset. This is what I refer to as “The Conscious Childhood”. So, teaching children how to become less distracted by external and internal stimuli allows them the opportunity to truly open up to their unfolding world. By bringing children back to their natural state of awareness, they can either choose to apply better problem -solving strategies or, in many cases, just let go of unimportant disturbances or distractions and allow thoughts to simply pass through them. Most importantly, children will cultivate self-awareness, enjoy their childhood and thrive in their families, schools and communities.

The mind can be a dangerous place, or a great gift.”

-Michael Singer