This is an ABC podcast. Hi, welcome to Mindfully. If you want your kids to have less stress, not let playground drama worry them so much, and do better at school, you're in the right place. Mindfully is really going to help your kids out.
I'm Brett Kirk. And I'm Sadie Kirk. And I'm the former captain of the Sydney Swans, and now I work there as an assistant coach. And he's my dad, and I'm nine, and I go to school.
And in this series of Mindfully, we're talking Mindfulness for school kids. I've been an ambassador for Mindfulness for years now, and one of the things that's really important to me is that my kids have the tools they need to cope with stress and the craziness of life, and help them navigate their way through it. Whether that's being able to handle school work, exams, or things in the school playground. Did you know that an estimated one in seven Australian school kids has a mental health problem?
And yet, we hardly talk about mental health with our kids. I want my kids to know that worrying about things isn't always helpful. And I've wanted to equip them with other ways of thinking about things that can help them better deal with tough situations. So that's why I've teamed up with Smiley Mine, the experts in Mindfulness, to create this series.
We're going to take you through how to talk to your kids about mindfulness and giving these exercises a go. And then your kids will be able to listen to the four meditations. So school doesn't get so stressful. How does that sound Sadie?
That sounds great, Dad. Mindfully, creating a calmer and happier you. Smiley Mine have been speaking to school kids for quite some time now. And they've been documenting the benefits of mindfulness in this area.
They've got a mindfulness curriculum for school kids. Dr. Addie Woodin is their CEO. Dr.
Woodin, what do we know about the effect of mindfulness exercises on school kids? What we know from the research is that there's a whole range of different benefits when you introduce mindfulness to kids at any age throughout their school life. So if you look at mental health, we know that mindfulness can help decrease anxiety and increase positive affect. So I suppose that's the opposite of depression.
So it can help kids feel quite positive. It can actually help manage behavior as well. So when we start to look at disruptions in the classroom or misbehavior at school, mindfulness has been found to actually help kids regulate their behavior and know how to settle and calm down. And then when you look at learning, which is the main reason why kids go to school, what we can actually see from the research is that when kids practice mindfulness over an extended period of time, they actually learn how to focus and prepare themselves for learning.
So if you talk to teachers, you often hear them say things like kids are all over the place, they're jumping off the walls and they can't sit still long enough to pay attention to what we're teaching them. And so with mindfulness practice, a lot of teachers are actually bringing the practice of mindfulness into the start of their class as a way to help prepare kids and help them be ready for learning. More broadly though, when you take mindfulness into the lab, basically, and you look at how mindfulness impacts on the brain of young people and of adults, what we actually see is that children's executive functioning, so their ability to plan and problem solve and their ability to make decisions and to switch between tasks actually improves with mindfulness practice. Yeah, so anecdotally, you're hearing from both teachers and the children involved that are gaining benefit from it?
Absolutely. Yeah, so it's interesting to talk to teachers because they can actually tell you how the whole classroom environment changes when they start to bring mindfulness into the class. They see a much calmer class, a much more settled and focused class, but also a much more respectful class so that kids are actually learning how to understand the impact of their behaviour on others and also understand that everyone is quite different and to respect those differences. And then when you talk to kids, they also talk about similar things.
So they talk about feeling calmer and more relaxed, but also more able to have friendships and to build relationships and have less fights out in the yard at lunchtime. And what about can be a tough concept, even for adults to wrap their head around? How do we speak to kids about it? The way we try and introduce mindfulness to kids is to explain that mindfulness is kind of like Jim for the mind.
So if you think about any physical activity that you might do to be physically fit, there's not many things that we do to keep mentally fit. And so we try and explain to kids that mindfulness is a practice of paying attention. And when you practice paying attention over a period of time like you do with a meditation, you're actually strengthening parts of the brain that are really important to help you feel good. I was so true.
Like I work in an elite environment and we're talking about that all the time at the moment that we spend so much time in the gym, so much time out in the field, but actually how much time are we spending inside our head to prepare ourselves mentally for the game? And again, not only just for the game, but the stuff you were talking about was around relationships and being able to work together, which is so, so important. Absolutely. And every child should learn those skills from a young age, I think, to make sure that they've got those skills as they grow up and face whatever comes their way throughout their life.
So what age is appropriate for children to start meditating or to be mindful? The research literature goes down to early learning centres. So for kids down to two or three years old, it's a little bit different with really young kids, though. Obviously with a two or a three year old, it'd be very hard to get them to sit still for five or ten minutes and to focus on a guided meditation.
But what you can do with really young kids is actually participate or get them involved in mindful activities. So, for example, paying attention to what they're drawing and getting them to talk about how they're feeling. At the moment, we're writing some new meditations for the early learning space for three to six year olds. And we've actually integrated meditation with movement activities and mindful activities.
So it's a little bit different when you're working with young kids. But then in primary school and in secondary school, the research says that it's really beneficial. So I think you can start from three or four if you're up for it. That is so cool.
And then it prepares them and hopefully they can keep following that journey. Absolutely. And then if it's a normal part of a young child's life, it doesn't hold any of that stigma that sometimes we have as adults and we come to something new. It's like a habit like brushing your teeth.
Then if you don't brush your teeth, you go hang on. I haven't done something to that. Absolutely. We love mindfulness to be as normal as brushing your teeth.
Mindfully with Brett Kirk. Hey, Sadie. What year are you in school? I'm in year four.
Are there some parts of school that you find stressful? Oh, yes. Like what? Tell me some of the things.
Not plan. What is a net plan? That plan is like a test. Okay.
You do writing silly maths. So it's a big test you have to see. So what worries you or what stresses you about sitting a big test? Because you have an amount of time.
Oh, so you're on a time pressure? Yeah. So what happens to you when you're on a time pressure? I get very scared and worried that I'm not going to finish.
You feel anything that happens inside your body when you get worried? I feel shaky. I feel hot. Hot.
Yeah. What about your heart rate? Can you notice your heart rate when you? It beats really fast.
It beats really fast. Are there any other things that happen at school that make you feel like that? In the playground sometimes my friends exclude me. So how does that make you feel?
Sad. Sad. So how do you deal with that? Just sit down and say it's going to be okay.
Okay. Do you really start with any daddy? I take deep breaths. Deep breaths.
We'll talk about deep breaths before, haven't we? Can you remember when we'll talk about deep breaths? When I storm off and get angry? Yes.
Is that very often? Yes. It's not that often, Sadie. But you can get angry and frustrated.
You've got four brothers and sisters. So they can get a bit crazy at our house. So when we say Sadie, you need to go off into your room and I come with you. What do we talk about?
We say just remember to take deep breaths and it's going to be okay. Just stay calm. Stay calm. So what happens when you take deep breaths?
You feel relaxed and calm? Relaxed and calm. How long does it take? About 10 deep breaths.
10 deep breaths. And then you're all back to normal. Yeah. Are you sure you're all back to normal after 10 deep breaths?
Yeah. Or you have to stay in your room a little bit longer just to chill out a bit. Staying in your room. In your head.
What do you think about when you think about mindfulness? It's being aware and kind and being present. I really like that, Sadie. How else do we use mindfulness?
Being kind. Being kind. Being kind. Yeah.
Being aware. Like you're not only thinking about yourself but thinking about others too. Oh good. I've heard you talk about mindset before.
Growth mindset and fixed mindset. Well it's growth mindset. Growth mindset is when you're happy and you feel like you can do better. Okay.
So you're happy to put your hand up and ask questions and not worry about if people looking at you. And you get it wrong. Even if you get it wrong. So what's a fixed mindset?
Fixed mindset is when you say I'm the best at this and you always like putting others down. Really. So we prefer being the growth mindset space. Green brain.
Green brain. I like that. Now we do some meditation at home. Yes.
Guided meditation. Smiling mind. Oh yeah. What?
Have you got a favourite smiling mind? The bubble journey. Talk us through the bubble journey. Well the person says pretend you have a bubble and you're allowed to pick a colour.
And pretend that it's flowing through your body and it goes from your feet to your back to your head. And it's making you relaxed and warm. And is that how it makes you feel? Yes.
And when do we generally do it at home? At bedtime. Why do we do it at bedtime do you think? Because you've had a school day or something.
You've done something. You and my dad are always busy. Do you have a busy mind? Yes.
Like what goes on inside your mind? Well my parents call it monkey mind. Monkey mind. So tell us some of the things that might go on inside your head before you go to bed.
Maybe will I have a bad dream? Okay so you're worrying about having a bad dream before you've even had a bad dream. Okay. Is there anything else?
What will I do tomorrow? Ah. So you're thinking about all the other things that might happen rather than actually being present. Yeah.
Okay. So do you do the meditation just with headphones on by yourself? No. You don't leave the phone and put it next to me.
Okay. Is anyone else to it with your door by yourself? Normally we go into a room and you put the phone up and we line the floor or we line the bedtime. And we do it.
Okay. We put it on. And even scout your little brother who's six. So does he lay still?
Yeah. Sometimes. Sometimes gets a bit featured. He doesn't.
Alright. So it's almost time to give these meditations a go. What would you say to other school kids who are about to try this for the first time? I would say it's a great thing to try it for the first time because it will make you happy, calm, kind and present and always in the moment.
Wow. That's a really cool answer. Up next in your feed are four meditations specifically designed with school kids in mind that we think can really help curd those school stresses. If you know other parents who might find these useful with their kids, let them know about it.
And while the kids are listening to these, go back and listen to our other Mindfully series on work, sport and home. Alright. So take away. Mindfully is brought to you by the ABC Audio Studios.
The producer is Laura McCullough and the executive producer is Justin Kelly. And the meditation had been created for you by Smiling Mind. You can find Mindfully in the ABC Listener or subscribe to it in iTunes or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Brett Kirk.
I'm Sadie Kirk. And we hope you enjoy these meditations. Well done. Thank you.