Mindset Matters
How many times have we heard someone (maybe even ourselves) say “I just can’t seem to focus today”. Now take that for a minute into the classroom and imagine, if you will, what it’s like when some of the kids in the class are in that place. The teacher is going along with the lessons and all the students seem to be paying attention and learning appears to be happening. Then he turns back from writing something on the whiteboard and out of the corner of his eye he notices Billy staring out the window at the kindergartners on the playground. Or he reaches for a book on his desk and when he looks up Nancy is making a face at Anne. What happened? Lost focus.
All in a nanosecond. Surely the lesson wasn’t that boring. No, it was, in fact, full of activities; it even had a video clip pulled up on the smart board. So, is the message that our kids have a hard time just sitting for a second? Do they have a hard time just “being”? Yes, actually, that is today’s message.
It seems we’ve become so used to being entertained and stimulated each second of every day that we can’t just sit still anymore. And it isn’t just the kids. It’s many of us. When’s the last time you just sat still? You didn’t think of all the things you should be doing, you didn’t go over the agenda for tomorrow’s meeting, you didn’t make the grocery list in your mind? Can’t remember, can you? Neither can many of our children.
“So what?” you may ask. Isn’t it more important to get stuff done and move on than just sit and do nothing? Well, as it turns out, researchers have been writing about something called Mindfulness and how important it is for all of us, and especially for kids. Simply put, Mindfulness is the ability to be completely (as much as we can be) in the moment. It means being able to focus on the task at hand without thinking about all the other stuff we need to get done. It also means being able to notice what’s around us and what’s going on inside us.
When’s the last time you drove down the road and noticed all the different colors of green? When’s the last time you drove down the road and your kids were looking out the window instead of interacting with their technology? When’s the last time you navigated your way by road signs and landmarks instead of your GPS? The point is not to do away with our technology. That will never happen – nor do we want it to. The point is if we’re a little short on the Mindfulness scale, our interactions with the world may get out of balance. Then we, and our kids, will be in danger of missing out on the who, what, and where all around us.
What do you think?
