A Plea to Alter Our Mindfulness Approach with Youth & Teens

I was excited to learn about a new Mindfulness study that will be taking place in 370 schools in England through 2021. It will give us an idea of the impact various Mindfulness techniques have on the mental health and well being of our children. For more details on the study check out this New York Times article: Schools in England Introduce a New Subject: Mindfulness.

I particularly agree with one of the quotes in the article - “The role of prevention appears to be a missing link in building better support for children and young people.”

As a society we seem to focus on providing Mindfulness, and similar techniques, as treatment options to children who already have mental health issues. My goal is to teach kids and teens that consistently practicing these techniques will help them perform better at whatever it is they love to do – music, sports, etc. This will make strides in changing the stigma and belief of many people that these techniques are only used when there is something “wrong” with you. It transforms them from a treatment tool to one of prevention.

To facilitate this mission we have created courses such as Stress Less for the Test and the Mind of a Champion. In these courses we teach techniques and build habits that focus on mental training strategies, like Mindfulness, to help children/teens perform better at the sport they play or get a better score on the SAT/ACT. As the courses progress we show how these benefits carry over to other aspects of their lives, both now and in the future. Our hope with these courses is that the habits get built early in life and therefore have the potential to prevent a serious mental health issue from ever occurring in the first place.

If you know of any teachers or coaches (or you are one yourself) who might be interested in one of the programs, I would be happy to discuss how we can bring it to your students or athletes. Feel free to contact me at tomklisiewicz@smarthwp.com.