Bubbles, Leaves and Worry Trains

Over the last two years many of the schools we work with have expressed an interest in mindfulness, so we decided to produce our own free resource consisting of a handbook for primary school staff providing an introduction to mindfulness, example meditations and listings of further resources available.

Introduction to Bubbles, Leaves and Worry Trains

Not long ago, a nine year old boy came running up to me in his school playground, really excited to see me. I knew him as I had previously been at the school teaching him and his classmates mindfulness, once a week for eight weeks. He wanted to tell me that he doesn’t get as angry any more. I asked him why that was. He replied, because I count three breaths whenever I begin to notice the back of my head starts to hurt.

Throughout the time I have been teaching mindfulness to children and adults, I have been constantly touched by how something as simple as learning how to focus on the breath can be so transformative. Through practicing mindfulness meditation, we develop our capacity to become less occupied by our often busy and challenging thoughts. Instead, we learn to pay attention to the present moment more fully, observing our thoughts, without becoming involved with them. Our thoughts are not facts and they do not define us. With mindful awareness, we open the door to a profoundly different experience of ourselves and the world around us.

I hope that through engaging with the practices offered in this programme, your own pupils’ lives can begin to transform, allowing them to experience greater moments of calm and ease in their lives. By introducing them to mindfulness now, you are planting a seed for life within them all. Each practice teaches them a little more about how to care for that seed and help it grow. I wish you well.

Rebecca Greenslade, HEP Adviser: Emotional Health and Wellbeing