Achieving Mindfulness: Overcoming Distractions and Taking Charge of Thoughts - Essay Sample

Introduction

Mindfulness can be said to be an occasion when the human brain is wholly giving attention to whatever that is happening at a particular moment, to the environment that a person is in at a specific time or to what a person is doing (Barry 1). Mindfulness is achieved when a person takes charge of their thoughts such that they only allow ideas that are related to the event at hand to roam in their mind. Many times, people find it challenging to achieve mindfulness because of all the distractions that may surround us in our daily lives. Mindfulness is of vital importance to the understanding and well being of a person. In colleges today, students are mostly affected by instances where their minds drift away. This drifting ultimately leads to little or no understanding at all. It is crucial, therefore, to enhance and bring into effect activities that will ensure mindfulness in colleges; such programs should be able to ensure that college students get the most out of their classes and teaching sessions.

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Colleges would, without a doubt, realize positive results after the enaction of activities that ensure the mindfulness of students in the class. "While mindfulness is innate, it can be cultivated through proven techniques" (Barry 1). "Activities that enhance mindfulness include mindful breathing" (Barry 2), where a person can train themselves to focus on their breathing patterns. Another practice that enhances mindfulness is "the body scan meditation whereby a person practices how to give attention to various parts of his body more so the muscles" (Barry 3).

Ideally, it is imperative to incorporate mindfulness activities in colleges because many, at times, academic sessions may induce stress in students and, on some occasion's teachers. Colleges today have numerous educational courses that the students are expected to attend and learn from different teachers. These educational sessions may at times, become too much for the students especially on instances where one academic session immediately follows another. Students find it stressful to attend to all these programs, and thus, they do so just for the sake of attendance. Due to this stress, students often drift away into oblivion as the teachers do their part. The students do not pay attention to what is happening in their academic halls. It is, therefore, essential to bring in mindfulness activities probably in between some of these educational sessions so that students can relax and prepare well for the other upcoming courses. A brief breathing exercise before the start of a class would increase the mindfulness of students.

From this point, many of the teachers and students in colleges often suffer from anxiety. A teacher may not be well prepared for a class or may have had so many other courses to teach. Such instances may cause the teacher to think that they may not be able to deliver in their next level fully. This uncertainty is a significant cause of anxiety among teachers. Also, courses could be taken on the outside to relieve stress. Similalrly, Jacobs argues that "exposure to nature has immediate beneficial after-effects on both attention and stress" (par.11). Students are, in many instances, attacked by fear whenever they are asked to present something before all the other students. Mindfulness practices are thus vital if at all issues such as anxiety are to be effectively dealt with in class. Since stress often causes the loss of control in various body parts causing shaking, body scan meditation would be an effective mindfulness practice.

Additionally, college students may have difficulty in making genuine social relationships that will propel them to achieve their goals and desires in life. Social growth is essential in ensuring that students keep the best company and do not involve in undesirable habits that may lead to their downfall. Mindfulness activities, such as breathing, can foster good relationships. These activities make the students relax, and thus they can interact well with each other. Since mindfulness activities teach students to focus on a particular thing at a time to have a desirable outcome, they can focus on fostering good relationships by listening to each other's experiences and problems. Some techniques which may help include present moment attention, the ability to focus on what is happening in the present (Barry 2).

Students and teachers in colleges today often suffer from various emotional problems. These problems often arise because of many reasons such as relationship break ups, abusive parents, bullying, lack of resources to foster active learning, and so forth. Mindfulness activities will enable students and teachers to learn how to control their emotions and keep them in check. These problems often affect the concentration of students in class by being a reason why most of them drift away. Focusing on how to control emotions as a mindfulness program would prove to be useful and practical.

Conclusion

In conclusion, mindfulness programs and activities are vital if at all colleges are to effectively deal with various issues and problems that the students and teachers face in their everyday life. These activities, which include mindfulness breathing and body scan practices, are essential sources of relaxation and attention in class. The various issues that students and teachers face include emotional problems, social relationships problems, inability to concentrate in class, and problem-solving. The incorporation of mindfulness programs will ensure that these issues are dealt with effectively.

Works Cited

Barry, Boyce. "Mindfulness Readings: What is Mindfullness?" Pdf

Tom, Jacobs. "Spending Time In Nature Produces Better Behaved Students." Pacific Standard, Jan 16, 2018, https://psmag.com/education/spending-time-in-nature-produces-better-behaved-students. Accessed 12 Feb 2020.