Prepping for Pesach, the mindful way

Three years ago, I trained to be a mindfulness teacher in schools. I had to take an eight-week mindfulness course every Thursday after school for 90 minutes. Two of the ten participating teachers left; the rest of us — to our surprise — didn’t resent it at the end of a tiring week; we started looking forward to it because we felt so calm and energised afterwards. I practised daily for six months and after that, attended a four-day course to become qualified.

Teaching it weekly, I discovered it was easier with younger pupils: aged 15 and up, they were disengaged and eye-rolly. Years seven and eight enjoyed the practices: even those giggly to begin with begged for “Beditation’”(their favourite), which involved lying on the floor, eyes closed, breathing deeply, doing a guided body scan. Stressed by tests and exams, they arrived at school panicky and jittery, but they relaxed so much, even after ten minutes, that they could barely drag themselves up to go to lessons. Worried initially that they’d forget what they’d revised, they soon realised that wasn’t the case and asked for it repeatedly. The sitting practices were less comfortable: being an art room, our form room had only stools — perhaps that’s why they liked Beditation so much. Or perhaps because they could completely relax, and being so tired and wound up, they needed that.

We stopped teaching mindfulness for various reasons — time, predominantly. Also, I think it’s more effective if you choose to do it, not have it thrust upon you, and it’s hard for self-conscious teens to relax in classrooms rife with friendship issues. But mindfulness has merit: studies show that, like learning any new skill, it reprogrammes the brain. It can also help reduce anxiety and restlessness, which kids need with their addiction to tech and their increasing inability to focus.

Or so we’re told. Decreasing attention spans have been widely researched but some results are surprising. Dr Gemma Briggs, a psychologist at the Open University, studies the effect of dual-tasking on our attention and perception, specifically what we recall and why when witnessing a crime, and actions like driving while talking on the phone. She believes there is no “typical” concentration span, so saying attention levels have decreased recently is inaccurate; instead, she has found our ability to focus is scenario- and task-dependent, relying partly on what’s happening in that moment and situation, and partly what we’re doing in that moment and situation.