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Solutions to a Global Mental Health Crisis The importance of taking mindfulness into schools By Ansley Weller If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that everything can be turned upside-down in a moment. Total transformation in a matter of hours, or even minutes, is globally possible and the only thing that distinguishes cultures, nation-states and people groups is how they respond. Mindful response, instead of fearful reaction, is the ideal — but what is it that properly prepares us for the impossible? Spiritual practices and mindfulness exercises have existed for centuries across religious and non-religious identities. Entirely new paradigms and categories have sprung up suddenly including collaborative religion, an upgrade from “interfaith” into where works and activities are elevated above words and pageantries. Pronoia, for instance, is another word that had to define itself as the opposite of paranoia by weathering the many anxieties of 2020 because, in a year of such tremendous difficulty, for so many, in short, it means when you believe that everything in the universe is working to help you succeed. The infinite learning loop, an awareness that we are always learning and always will be learners also takes on a new tangibility with millions of teachers, parents, and children forced to adopt distance-learning methods that turned every aspect of the home experience into a living education center. The Psychiatric Times published research that showed in 2020 22.3% of youth ages 7 to 18 in China showed signs of clinical depression — almost double the number that had been measured before the outbreak of Covid-19 while research in Bangladesh, Italy and Spain manifested similar trends. In fact, research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States showed mental health-related trips to the emergency room rose in 2020 compared to the same period of time in 2019 with an average increase of 27% for children ages 5 to 17. In this way, mindfulness is rapidly becoming not only a luxury for tech CEOs and movie stars with extra spare time, it is now
becoming a necessary skill for survival. To that end, those who are skilled and practiced in teaching and developing mindfulness in others — and especially with children — are becoming more and more valuable to society. Education, in whatever form it takes, should incorporate more and more of the measurable benefits of mindfulness into its classes, curriculum and conventional learning. Happiness, health and social progress are all intended goals for school systems around the world — so what is preventing the embracing of mindfulness techniques within humanity’s institutions of learning? Ignorance is a big problem — many people don’t know the scientific and medical research that now gives evidence for the major benefits that come with mindfulness training. Mindfulness is no longer on the fringe of quasi-science. Furthermore, individuals within the profession of education don’t feel like they have the expertise or training needed to properly educate their peers and col-
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leagues. This is why it is imperative for courageous mindfulness teachers and leaders to rise up and engage with institutions of learning on behalf of the field of mindfulness practice. The first part of the 21st century ushered a passing of the torch when mindfulness pioneers including Dr. Wayne Dyer, Louise Hay and Ram Dass passed on. They actively brought the empowering discoveries they made in the 1960s and 1970s to a more global audience than ever thanks to social media and the internet. They also established large enough followings to ensure that what they learned would continue to be shared through their students and others including mental health thought leaders such as Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson and Michael Bernard Beckwith who have found vast appreciation and acceptance of their teachings in the spheres of medicine, politics and religion. In turn, these influential voices have trained and strengthened younger leaders to further spread the knowledge and wisdom of
mindfulness into new spheres. One of these young leaders is Benjamin W. Decker, who has taught mindfulness and meditation all around the world, including to the School of Tomorrow network in Pakistan. Using his book, “Daily Mindfulness: 365 Exercises to Deepen Your Practice and Find Peace,” Ben gives a practical framework for daily living and learning within schools that also brings these teachings into the home. Unlike the flaws of traditional learning systems, it’s not just about intellectually knowing facts that can be tested and assessed, it’s about becoming mindful and embodying that mindfulness throughout the whole being. Research now shows that the cost of holding onto outdated learning paradigms is now impacting the health and well-being of our children. The arrows of science and behavioral cognition are pointing to a future where mindfulness is seamlessly woven into every aspect of our K-12 education systems worldwide. Ben emphasized this in his “Taking Mindfulness Into
Schools” workshop with Beaconhouse’s School of Tomorrow. “We want to prepare our children to face the world’s challenges with strength, confidence, and courtesy. Mindfulness is not just meditation. Mindfulness, when it is introduced as a (practical) concept, permeates all areas of our lives. Mindfulness as a skillset, as an ability, cultivated, introduced and developed from a young age, can help expand and create new possibilities that we don’t even know about. So many of us are not exposed to mindfulness until our thirties or forties or never. If we can allow that introduction earlier, those children with bright minds and the pure innocence that comes from the young mind, if we allow that mindfulness to cultivate from that early place… we do know that organization, compassion, and better communication will all come through. It is in multiple generations of mindfulness that the rubber really meets the road.” Beaconhouse is one of the world’s largest independent
