How ‘mindful learning’ can help kids thrive

I’ve been a big fan of Melbourne clinical psychologist and mindfulness expert Dr Richard Chambers for a couple of years now. And not just because of his enviable bone structure…

I’ve featured Dr Chambers’ thinking on the merits of mindfulness on Understanding Boys before. In this UB post, Chambers talked about male mental health and made the case for mindfulness as a tool to help boys deal with difficult emotions.

I’ve also added some of Chambers’ mindfulness strategies to my parenting tool belt. We often listen to age-appropriate guided meditations with our sons and have introduced a daily gratitude practice where we all list our 3 ‘best bits’ for the day.

But it’s Dr Chambers’ thinking on mindful learning that’s got me really excited.

Because although many schools are bringing meditation practice into the classroom, mindfulness in education is often still thought of as an add-on – a ‘nice-to-have’ as opposed to a ‘must have’.

In this 12-minute TEDxUniMelb talk, Dr Chambers explains why embedding mindfulness in all aspects of education can help create a generation of kids who are less distracted, more engaged and effective, physically, emotionally and mentally healthier, and better equipped to solve the problems we are facing in the world today.

What parent or educator can argue with that?

Brought to you by Brighton Grammar School