Keith Horan
is a school teacher and qualified meditation teacher with an MSc in
Mindfulness-Based Approaches from the Centre for Mindfulness Research and
Practice at Bangor University, Wales. He offers day-long workshops and 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress
Reduction (MBSR) courses in
Kinvara, County Galway, Ireland, and online guided meditations at
www.beingmindful.ie
One of the key themes here at
MindfulTeachers.org is self-care for educators and other helping professionals.
In your opinion, what’s the connection between mindfulness and self-care, and
why are they so important for teachers?
It is great to see the idea of self-care coming into the
teaching profession. Teachers are
beginning to understand that caring for themselves is necessary if they are to
care for their students.
So, the importance of self-care is becoming an accepted
idea. The challenge for teachers though
is to turn this idea into a practice.
Can teachers remember to practice self-care when they need it most? Or, as I often see, does self-care fall down
the list of priorities once the pressure comes on?
When student’s final exams are coming up, or
there is a whole school inspection, what could help teachers remember to look
after themselves also?
This is where Mindfulness can be useful. One aspect of Mindfulness literally means “to
remember” or “to recollect” from the Pali term Sati. A regular mindfulness
practice can give us the capacity to stay aware of the events around us and of
our own inner experience, even when things are busy or overwhelming.
Simply becoming aware that we are feeling stressed or
overwhelmed, and really acknowledging that, can open up the possibility for us
to choose self-care. Without this
awareness of how we are really feeling, there is the tendency for teachers to
try to overcome stress and overwhelm by simply working harder and faster. And teachers typically work hard and fast
already!
I find it interesting that you’re a meditation teacher
and your wife is a yoga teacher. What
parallels have you found between your work?
The two practices of Yoga and Mindfulness have so much in
common in that they both seem to have the development of awareness at their
core.
I began my practice by learning to meditate within the Tibetan
Buddhist tradition back in 1999. Amanda
began this practice shortly after and continued with it for a few years. During a meditation retreat she happened to
take a morning Yoga class and found that this suited her even better, and this led
towards her training to become a Yoga teacher.
Today we practice both Meditation and Yoga. I find that I
spend more time in sitting meditation than in asana practice, while it’s the
other way around for Amanda. On a
personal level, I’m very lucky to have a partner who is interested in these
types of practices. There’s times when I struggle to practice consistently and
seeing Amanda getting up early to do some Yoga practice is a great reminder.
Recently we have started to co-teach for retreat days at our
Studio in Galway, and people seem to find that the two practices naturally
complement each other. The attitude that
we bring towards the people we work with is also similar. We're trying to meet people
where they are, supporting them as they develop a regular practice and building
a community around what we do so that it can be more sustainable and enjoyable.
Why did you decide to pursue advanced study in
mindfulness, and how did you benefit from the MSc program?
I had been teaching mindfulness to adults in the evenings
for a number of years. However, in my
main role as a Secondary School teacher, I found that I was limited in the
opportunities that I was getting to teach meditation to students. I knew that it could be so helpful to them,
once it was approached in the right way.
My school has a Catholic ethos and I’m not sure that Tibetan Buddhist
training was the most skillful qualification to have!
The influence of Secular Mindfulness was beginning to grow
at that time. With its Secular approach, research base, and
more formal training pathway, it looked like this was something that could be
integrated into the school curriculum more easily.
While the motivation to take my first Mindfulness-Based
Stress Reduction (MBSR) class was to be able to teach students in school
better, it ended up having a profound impact on me personally. I found that the approach used was more
immediately applicable to the everyday challenges in my life.
This led to my undertaking a three-year MSc program in
Mindfulness-Based Approaches in Bangor in North Wales. Having the support and encouragement of my
school, and my Principal in particular, was critical in making this happen.
The MSc program allowed me to connect with fantastic teachers
and mentors, as well as inspiring peers.
A good number of my colleagues on the course were also working in
education, so over the three years we got to share the successes and challenges
of trying to bring Mindfulness practice to young people and to school
teachers.
The MSc was primarily a training in how to deliver the MBSR
program. We explored the research around
mindfulness and explored how the practice can help people from a psychological
perspective. A lot of the time went into
videoing our mindfulness teaching, as well as teaching in front of the group
and getting feedback. A favorite topic
of mine was on understanding group dynamics, and I find that it’s a subject that
I keep coming back to with each new group that I facilitate.
Having the MSc does help in conveying that a certain level
of training has been completed. More
importantly it gave me the confidence to step further into the role of being a
mindfulness teacher.
Your thesis is focused on "The
Implementation of Mindfulness-based Approaches in Irish Secondary
Schools." Based on your research, do you have any advice for teachers and
principals in other parts of the world about the most effective ways to
implement mindfulness programs?
For the research, ten participants who deliver
Mindfulness-based Approaches (MBA’s) in Secondary schools (students aged approximately
12 to 18 years) were interviewed. Their main recommendations included:
Locate
MBA’s within Curriculum. MBAs work best when they are located within
the school curriculum, instead of being an extra “one-off” topic. The most suitable subject was considered to
be the Social and Emotional Learning subject area (SEL in the US, PSHE in most
of the UK, SPHE in Ireland). Repeated
practice is needed for mindfulness to have an impact on student wellbeing, so
it is important that time is made for full MBA’s to be delivered.
Whole
Staff Education is important. Mindfulness was often found
to be poorly understood by staff. It is
therefore important to educate staff on the benefits of MBAs for their students,
which can also potentially benefit the staff themselves.
In-School
Facilitators are Ideal. In-school facilitators are more effective
than external facilitators. Having a
member or members of staff involved in delivering the program makes it easier
to have continuity for students and also helps generate whole school support
for MBA’s.
Personal
Practice and Training Needed. A number of participants
in the study encountered teachers who did not have a personal mindfulness
practice being asked to deliver MBA’s by their school Principals. It is critical that MBA’s are taught by
facilitators with a personal practice.
Otherwise it can come across as disingenuous to students. In addition, substantial training should be
provided for these facilitators, with an MBSR program being a good starting
point.
What does ‘mindful teaching’ mean to you?
Teachers can have a huge impact on so many young
people. I always knew that on some level
as a teacher. But now, my eldest son has
started Secondary school and hearing how he and his friends speak about their
teachers really brings it home!
To me a mindful teacher is present with the topic being
taught and with the students. Even
though the teacher may be examining a topic that he or she has taught countless
times, it’s the first time for the student.
Connecting with the student’s experience can bring that sense of
“beginners mind” to the teacher also.
Mindful teaching involves simple things. A sense of
curiosity and playfulness. An interest
in the students as they are in each class, as opposed to how they usually are,
or how you expect them to be.
Mindfulness practice brings awareness of our own inner
experience. It allows us to know when we
are stressed or tired or grumpy, so we don’t take that out on the
students. And for the times when we do,
the humility to apologize and stay connected with them.
What do you do in your own personal mindfulness practice,
and how does it help you with your work?
When I am in the middle of teaching MBSR, I tend to sync my
practice to the sequence of practices in the course. I find this helps me to connect more easily
with the experience of the course participants.
I am teaching MBSR at the moment, so this week my practice mainly
involves doing a Body Scan Meditation, while next week I will move more towards
a Mindful Movement practice.
Otherwise I tend to move between Sitting Meditation, Mindful
Walking and Yoga, some mornings combining a few practices. The combination that I am usually drawn to begins with some gentle yoga, and then once I feel that the body is more awake
and open, I settle into a Sitting Meditation.
Morning is the best time for me to practice, so getting to
bed early the night before is really important.
Then I can get up early and have a nice practice before I wake the kids
and move into the day.
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