Benefits of the Mindful Monkey Program™

The Benefits of Doing Mindfulness Training with Children

Neuroscientists, cognitive psychologists, and educators have researched mindfulness training extensively, and have found it to have the following benefits for children:  

• It increases self-awareness and self-esteem
• It boosts optimism and resiliency
• It decreases bullying, aggression, and acting-out behaviours
• It increases compassion and empathy
• It promotes conflict-resolution skills
• It facilitates emotional awareness and emotion management
• It improves both physical and mental health
• It reduces stress and anxiety
• It enhances attention, executive functioning, and learning
• It increases school performance
• It promotes pro-social behaviour

Perhaps one of the most important benefits of mindfulness training is that it develops children’s self-regulation skills. Self-regulation refers to the ability to monitor and control one’s behavior, emotions, and thoughts; and to alter them in accordance with the demands of the situation. Studies show that self-regulation is an essential building block for nearly every aspect of a child’s development, and it is a key predicator of academic success.

Teaching mindfulness practices to children has also proven to help immunize them against the stresses and complexities of modern life as they grow into adulthood. It equips them with concrete tools and skills they can use to maintain their happiness, well-being, and health; and it allows them to experience the world in a more peaceful, calm way.  

The Benefits of Promoting Mindfulness in the Classroom

Mindfulness in the classroom is needed now more than ever since more and more students are walking through the classroom door with stress, anxiety, depression or trauma from their lives outside of school. These things make it difficult for students to be in a cognitively healthy space to learn. Their abilities to focus, problem solve, reflect, and regulate their emotions are compromised, as is their working memory and executive functioning. 

Mindfulness practices, however, counteract these things. It provides children with a way to settle their feelings, and quiet the noise in their minds so they are ready to learn. It also teaches them how to direct and sustain their focus and attention in order to enhance their academic learning. 

Mindfulness training also helps to deal with the cruelty, bullying, and aggression that are on the rise in many schools. It has proven to decrease hostility in students, and increase their empathy and compassion. All of these things help to promote a calm, peaceful classroom that children need in order to learn, and teachers need in order to teach.