This #Take5 is brought to you by Jack Rundell, Academic Skills Advisor at University Studies at Eastern Education Group. While you may be familiar with widely promoted benefits of mindfulness for developing calm and reducing stress, in this article Jack highlights some more specific applications for Learning Developers. Could mindfulness make us more aware of the emotional reactions we have to our students and allow us to respond better? Could mindfulness provide valuable insights in the writing process, particularly into flow and flux of emotions we experience while writing? Jack argues that it could, and more!

Thoughts on mindfulness and learning development

In recent years, mindfulness and meditation have become important parts of my life and informed my practice as a learning developer. I’m keen to share my experiences and ideas about this, and to hear from others who might also be interested in this area – perhaps to the extent of joining with me in a Community of Practice to explore the issue further. In this article I outline:

• How I became interested in mindfulness
• How mindfulness has influenced the way I work as a learning developer
• Some thoughts on the potential of mindfulness as a learning strategy
• Some thoughts on the potential of a Community of Practice for mindfulness and meditation in learning development.

Finding meditation and mindfulness

My first encounter with mindfulness was in 2016 at a large-scale student services staff away day, where a mindfulness teacher did a session for a large audience. The teacher introduced the concept of mindfulness and led the group through the exercise of eating a raisin very slowly and ‘mindfully’. Part of me found this quite interesting, but in this context I was not receptive. In fact, I was among many staff who felt outraged: ‘Student Services has some serious structural problems, and instead of addressing them management are giving us this?’ This experience tainted the idea of mindfulness for me and for a long time it was something I probably would roll my eyes at.

A few years ago, however, my circumstances brought me back to mindfulness from another angle. I began to experience on-going and unexplained back pain accompanied by feelings of anxiety and hopelessness. I saw various people for help – doctors, physiotherapists, CBT (cognitive behaviour therapists), counsellors – and so many of these people recommended mindfulness and meditation (and I was so desperate!) that I gave it a second chance.

I discovered that different people emphasised different aspects of mindfulness, all of which offered me something helpful in terms of helping me deal with my personal difficulties:

• Manipulating your attention, such as directing your attention from one part of your body to another, or from close to further aways sounds. 
• Calming the impulse to judgement or action, being able to observe or ‘sit with’ things without attempting to interfere with them (or rather to acknowledge the urge to judge or react and let it go).
• Appreciating the dynamic rather than static nature of things, such as by watching sensations, thoughts or feelings arise, linger and morph or pass like clouds.
• Cultivating beneficial attitudes, most commonly curiosity and compassion, through patient and non-judgmental observation of your sensations, thoughts and feelings.
• Examining and analysing your mental processes, such as by labelling sensations, thoughts or feelings and noticing how they are related (e.g. the way a sensation or emotion triggers a thought or the urge to do something).

Perhaps the concept I found most helpful, and that all the above points feed into, is the idea of ‘responding’ rather than ‘reacting’. The idea that rather than reacting automatically to things, you can slow things down, create space between sensations, emotions, thoughts and behaviours, and this allows you to see things differently and perhaps deal with things better (Feldmen and Kuyken, 2019, pp.130-131). I found this particularly useful in managing pain, which, as I now understand, is a multifaceted phenomenon: if you can tease apart the actual sensations of pain from the negative thoughts and emotions that it triggers, you can start to work with it; if you can do this in a spirit of curiosity and compassion, you can even start to feel good about it (though don’t tell me that on a bad day!).

Meditating on meditation

I also noticed that different approaches to mindfulness valued meditation differently. For some, meditation was of great importance and an end in itself (as in some Buddhist approaches). For others it was a kind of optimal training ground for mindfulness in daily life (as in Mindfulness-Based Stress-Reduction or Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy). For others it was a relevant but optional extra (as in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy – ACT). 

I found this range of views quite interesting and liked the fact there seemed to be plenty of room to find what worked for me. I learned a lot about mindfulness in everyday life from ACT. I also benefited from longer, communal meditation sessions through a local Buddhist community (or ‘Sangha’). Currently, I maintain a regular meditation practice of 5-10 minutes a day alongside other mindfulness practices integrated into the day and have found all this enormously helpful in managing ongoing physical and emotional challenges.

Another factor in my embracing of mindfulness was overcoming my initial impression that it was a very superficial and corporate thing. For me, learning a bit about its historic and spiritual context in Buddhism (mainly from the podcast series Tricycle Talks) changed my impression of it. The fact that there is a rich and interesting history there, in which mindfulness and meditation are part of a system of beliefs, ethics and practices, made it somehow more palatable to me.

Though my initial interest in mindfulness was spurred by a personal crisis, I gradually appreciated other applications, especially in my one-to-one work with students as an Academic Skills Advisor – not least in learning to sit with discomfort. 

Applications at work

I’ve come to value much more the idea of being ‘present’ in the one-to-one session. I try to slow down and monitor my sensations, thoughts and feelings and in particular to acknowledge my own discomfort. I can then deliberate a little on how I respond, rather than reacting automatically. 

For example, a student might be upset or frustrated about something. This would make me feel uncomfortable and with that I feel the urge to get rid of this feeling. Reacting automatically, I might start saying reassuring things or trying to provide a ‘solution’ to the student’s issue. I might even try to take the student’s problem off their hands in some way, perhaps saying I will look into a course-related issue for them. However, this might not actually be the best thing for the student. 

Acknowledging my discomfort and resolving to sit with it a little, I might decide that it might be better to endure some angry words, tears or some uncomfortable silence and see what else the student has to say, or prompt them to explore the issue further without solving it for them. Perhaps the student needs to have the problem on their hands a little longer in order to move forward.

Sometimes students trigger negative emotions in me: they annoy, disappoint or baffle me. In the past, I would generally ignore such feelings, considering myself ‘above’ feeling this way. Now, however, I try to acknowledge and reflect on those feelings, asking myself why does the student make me feel that way? What does it say about me or my expectations? Perhaps a new approach is required? 

Mindful Writing

Another area in which I have found mindfulness useful is when writing. When writing a sentence, feelings of uncertainty or dissatisfaction often arise. From these feelings arise thoughts such as ‘this sentence isn’t right’, ‘this sentence isn’t academic enough’, ‘I don’t know what I’m talking about’. These thoughts then motivate reactions such as deleting the sentence and starting again, or changing the direction of the sentence, or giving up completely. This sequence can unfold automatically, without me even realising it’s taking place. However, through mindful awareness I can break this chain, for example by recognising and accepting a feeling of dissatisfaction and continuing with the sentence, reserving judgement for a later stage.

In connection with above, it has been interesting to discover the work of Peter Elbow (thanks to multiple recommendations via the Learning Development Project podcast), which predates much of the popular ‘study skills’ literature that I’m familiar with. I was struck by Elbow’s (1973) account of the writing process: ‘Your editorial instinct is often much better developed than your producing instinct, so that as each phrase starts to roll off your pencil, you hear seventeen reasons why it is unsatisfactory. The paper remains blank. Or else there are a series of crossed out half-sentences and half-paragraphs’ (p. 25). 

This strikes me as very true: and highlights the irony of how many HE teaching practices serve to make this already overactive ‘editorial instinct’ even worse, while doing very little to cultivate the ‘producing instinct’. 

To address this problem, Elbow (1981) advocates freewriting, writing whatever comes into your head without stopping, for a set period of time. He frames this in a way that sounds very similar to how mindfulness meditation is often described: ‘Free writing exercises are push-ups in withholding judgement as you produce so that afterwards you can judge better’ (p. 14).

Applications for students

At present, whilst mindfulness is not something I discuss with or explicitly recommend to students, there are elements of it that relate to the content of my work with students. A lot of my one-to-one work involves helping students reflect on and develop their writing process, often because they are having problems producing assignments. In these discussions, feelings and thoughts about writing inevitably come up, and I try to help the students acknowledge these and to make sense of them. This process is perhaps similar to what I’m trying to do for myself with my personal mindfulness practices, to tune into sensations, thoughts and feelings that I might otherwise ignore or repress and respond more constructively to them.

Reservations and solutions

While I feel excited about the potential of mindfulness and meditation to enhance my work, I have some reservations about the explicit promotion of mindfulness meditation as a means to improve learning. The first is regarding claims that mindfulness meditation can improve cognitive function, such as focus, attention, concentration and memory. I wonder if this might be overpromising: how significant are these improvements and how much investment in meditation is required to achieve them? Are there alternative ways of improving cognitive functions that are more efficient or effective? But also, and perhaps more importantly, is concentration too quickly and easily blamed for issues that are more complex? 

A student may struggle with focus, concentration or memory not due to cognitive deficits, but because the material is not sufficiently meaningful to them. Perhaps, they do not yet have the conceptual frameworks or ‘schema’ required to ‘assimilate’ (in Piagetian terms) the new information they are encountering. Or perhaps it simply doesn’t resonate emotionally with their interests. 

I prefer a view of mindfulness that would encourage the student to notice how and when their mind drifts and to reflect with curiosity on the reasons. Rather than trying to ‘train’ the brain to ‘overcome’ this tendency to wander, they pay attention to it and use it as a guide: Could I change my approach to this topic somehow? Do I need to go back to some more introductory material so I can absorb what I’m reading? Could I change direction to work on something that interests me more? 

My other reservation is that views of mindfulness that make meditation central may only ever appeal to a minority. For one thing, meditation has connotations for many people that they would find off putting (e.g. that is hippyish or spiritual or faddish or pertains to a religious belief they do not share). For another, sticking to a regular meditation practice is perhaps not realistic for many people. 

Personally, I am deeply attached to my regular meditation practice; however, I would not have been interested in my twenties, or even now was it not for the need to manage a chronic pain condition. I wonder if more people could access some of the benefits of mindfulness if it is shared in ways that don’t insist on regular meditation practice as the central practice.  

Connecting with others – a mindfulness/meditation CoP?

Given the great benefits that I have experienced from mindfulness and meditation I am curious to see if there are others out there who have had comparable experiences and to compare notes. An initial search through Take5 blogs and the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education suggests to me there is interest out there, and some who have done significant work in this area:

• #Take5 #23: The best way to start the new academic year? It’s meditation, Jim… – ALDinHE
• #Take5 #86 Taking Positive Steps for Learning and Teaching: Movement for Learner Developers. – ALDinHE
• Inwards, together: an inner-resourcing U-turn | Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education

My initial impulse is just to make contact with people with similar interests, share enthusiasm and discuss questions like:

• How did you come to mindfulness/meditation?
• How do you use it yourself? 
• How has it changed you / your work?

Beyond this, there are some questions that particularly puzzle me that I’d be very keen to discuss with others:

• Might mindfulness and/or meditation be an answer to the call from Shaffer and Brecher (2022) in The Journal for Learning Development in Higher Education “to broaden what has traditionally been thought of as a metacognitive or learning strategy”? Might they have a place among other learning strategies that learning developers teach?
• Are particular aspects of mindfulness especially relevant to learning development work? And can they be ‘extracted’ from their traditions and reapplied?
• Can mindfulness or aspects of mindfulness be found in other guises, such as reflection? 
• Is mindfulness a helpful term or can it be confusing or off-putting?
• What do you make of criticisms of mindfulness that place it among “therapeutic interventions which individualise social concerns, and thus unwittingly serve to maintain the status quo” (Dhillon, 2018, p.11; see also Purser, 2019; Forbes, 2019).
• Is mindfulness a secular and scientific practice or a spiritual practice? Can the two be separated?

My thinking is that the practical aims for the CoP could grow out of discussion and that it will be possible to identify themes emerging from the interests of the participants.

If you are interested in joining a Mindful CoP please visit the Mindfulness CoP page and complete the short registration form.

References

Dhillon, S. (2018) ‘Whose wellbeing is it anyway?’, Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. Available at: https://doi.org/10.47408/jldhe.v0i0.460.

Elbow, P. (1973) Writing without Teachers. 2^nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

Elbow, P. (1981) Writing with Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process. New York: Oxford University Press.

Feldman, C. and Kuyken, W. (2019) Mindfulness: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Psychology. New York: Guilford Press.

Forbes, D. (2019) Mindfulness and its Discontents: Education, Self, and Social Transformation. Fenwood Publishing.

Purser, R. (2019) McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality. New York: Repeater.

Shaffer, D. and Brecher, D. (2021) ‘Inwards, together: an inner-resourcing U-turn’, Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. Available at: https://doi.org/10.47408/jldhe.vi22.721.

Notable mindfulness books for university students

Cottrell, S. (2019) Mindfulness for Students. London: Palgrave Study Skills.

Mindfulness for Students is presented in the familiar style of the Study Skills Handbook offering an introduction to mindfulness and meditation and providing a range of practical ideas for students to apply these practices to their lives and studies. It consists of four parts: an introduction to mindfulness; an explanation of some different meditation techniques; application of mindfulness to different study activities (including taking part in class discussions, reading, writing and using feedback); and finally a much shorter section on recording and reflecting on mindfulness practice. 

Mair, D. (2019). The Student Guide to Mindfulness. London: Sage.

The work of an experienced psychotherapist, The Student Guide to Mindfulness, introduces mindfulness for students in a philosophical yet accessible way, emphasising flexibility, ‘starting small’ and the value of both formal and informal mindfulness practices. It has ten short chapters which introduce mindfulness and its key concepts and associated practices, then go on to explore the potential of mindfulness to help with specific problems wellbeing problems associated with being a university student (depression, perfectionism, anxiety and procrastination). Each chapter begins with a short narrative student-life case study, which the author refers back to throughout the chapter to illustrate the explanations provided.  Student learning is addressed, though indirectly and generally as secondary to wellbeing. 

Millard, L., Frith, L. and Patmarie, C. (2023) Mindfulness and Wellbeing for Student Learning: A Guided 5-week Course. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Mindfulness and Wellbeing for Student Learning grew out of the Mindfulness Project at the University of Kent, with its cross-departmental collaboration its Student Wellbeing and Learning and Development teams (reflected in the title). The book is structured as a five-week mindfulness course designed for university students, modelled on but condensing the established 8 week courses in which mindfulness is conventionally taught. Students can use the book independently, but the authors state that it is equally designed as ‘a teaching resource for anyone wishing to set up a mindfulness group in a university or college setting’ and they stress the value of practising mindfulness with others (p. 3).  Each chapter, or ‘week’, is based on a different mindfulness concept (e.g. ‘bringing awareness’ and ‘staying present’) and includes information and relatable case-studies alongside mediations, reflections and other exercises. In contrast to Cottrell’s book, applications of mindfulness to student learning are woven throughout the book, rather than presented in discrete sections. 

Other sources I found useful

Burch, V. and Penman, D. (2013) Mindfulness for Health: A Practical Guide to Relieving Pain, Reducing Stress and Restoring Well-being. London: Piatkus.

Hanson, R. and Mendius, R. (2009) Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.

Harris, R. (2008) The Happiness Trap: Stop Struggling, Start Living. London: Constable and Robinson.

Hayes, S.C. (2019) A Liberated Mind: How to Pivot Toward What Matters. New York: Avery.

Kabat-Zinn, J. (2013) Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness. London: Little Brown Book Group.

Snibbe, S. (2024) How to Train a Happy Mind: A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment. London: Watkins Media Limited.

Williams, M. and Penman, D. (2011) Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World. London: Piatkus.

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