Attitudes
Mindful Attitudes
Your daily mindset is born out of habit. When you make mindfulness part of your daily life, it’s likely that you’ll experience a positive shift in perspective.
Non-judgemental (includes self-compassion)
By adopting a non-judgemental attitude, you are able to free yourself from the trap of “good” or “bad”. As a teacher, it is in your nature to assess how something is going: your performance, your lessons, the school dynamics, your students’ learning, and your behavior. By noticing and being able to adjust for these things without judging yourself or your students or even the situation, you take the emotional baggage out of the equation.
Patience
How do we grow more patient? By letting go of our attachment to impatience. Imagine a time when you are impatient, perhaps a student is taking too long or a colleague hasn’t picked up their students from specials. What comes to mind? If we can just give a few more breaths of time, how does our impatience transform into patience? How does patience change our experience?
Acceptance and Letting Go
Can you put down some of what you are carrying? There are things we cannot change. There are structures and issues at play within the classroom that are beyond our control. Every day there will be a new challenge. Mindfulness gives us the power to see what is present, be focused on our goals, and make clear choices about what we can do and how we want to show up.
Beginner's Mind
Think of something you do so much that you don’t even have to think about it. By having the attitude of a beginner, for example in introducing a new lesson you have taught for 10 years, you go back to the basics of that experience. Often this attitude brings a fuller sense of purpose, insight into nuance, discernment, and develops empathy for others.
Gratitude
By way of attention and focus, often gratitude is a byproduct of deeply connecting to ourselves, others, and situations. Reactive situations can be so overwhelming that it is hard to see beyond the hard stuff. For example, if a student throws a chair across the room in a disruptive outburst. Mindfulness can help you focus your awareness on the way classmates handled it or the fact that no one was hurt. Being grateful helps tell a fuller story of what happened.
Curiosity
By focusing our attention on the present moment, we often cultivate an attitude of curiosity. Being interested in looking more closely and learning more gives you the ability to discover new things and often leads to more pleasure and joy too.
Kindness
Noticing what happens in your own experience and how challenging it can be to be mindful opens our minds to other people’s suffering. We can grow in empathy and kindness towards others and ourselves by being in the moment and responding mindfully.
