Physician Health and Well-Being: Mindfulness, Kindfulness and Kids By John A. Patterson MD, MSPH, FAAFP, ABIHM
Founding co-chair LMS Physician Wellness Program
“Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.” J.M Barrie, author of Peter Pan.
Children and teens are struggling more than ever – experiencing increasing levels of stress – internal, interpersonal, societal and academic. Parents, teachers and health professionals are struggling to understand the known and unknown sources of this stress and find ways to help manage it. Those same parents, teachers and health professionals have their own increasing levels of worry, fear, anxiety, depression and chronic stress-related physical symptoms. These symptoms can worsen chronic conditions affecting every organ system. While stress may not be the cause of chronic disease, it is a significant contributor to headaches, back and neck pain, sleep loss, digestive disorders, high blood pressure, palpitations, fatigue, infections, memory loss, poor concentration, pessimism, anxiety, depression and relationship problems.
Social-Emotional Learning– A promising remedy for the epidemic of classroom stress is the growing acceptance of social-emotional learning (SEL). The Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) helps “children and adults learn to understand and manage emotions, set goals, show empathy for others, establish positive relationships, and make responsible decisions… educating hearts, inspiring minds, and helping students navigate the world more effectively.” CASEL focuses on 5 core competencies for achieving success in the classroom and subsequent success in life.
Self-awareness- Knowing one’s own strengths and limitations and nurturing optimism and realistic confidence- seeing one’s cup as ‘half full’ rather than ‘half empty.’
Self-management- Managing stress, impulse control, motivation and realistic goal-setting.
Social awareness- Understanding other peoples’ point of view, respecting and empathizing even with those we disagree with or can’t relate to due to barriers of culture and language.
Relationship skills- Communicating clearly, listening actively, cooperating and sharing, resisting inappropriate social pressure, negotiating conflict, being willing to ask for help and to help others.
Responsible decision-making- Making constructive decisions regarding personal behavior, social interactions, choosing friends based on ethical standards, safety, and legal and social norms.
Research shows that integrating SEL into the classroom improves academic performance and decreases rates of dropout, substance abuse, misconduct, teen pregnancy, mental health conditions and criminal behavior.
Kindness Curriculum– Transformation of the emotional environment of our public and private school classrooms is beginning at the pre-school level, based on the latest educational and neuroscience research. The Kindness Curriculum, created by the Center for Healthy Minds, teaches kindness and compassion alongside traditional pre-school subjects. Students (and teachers) are taught how to pay attention to their lessons and to their emotions. The Kindness Curriculum emphasizes the development of the following skills-
Attention- Students learn they can choose where to focus their attention. They train in focusing attention on both external experience (a book, the colors on the wall, the sounds in the room) and internal experience (physical sensations, thoughts and emotions). Over time, they learn to intentionally choose to maintain their attention where they want or need to. Parents and teachers also learn to truly pay attention, modeling this skill for kids while protecting themselves from harmful effects of stress.
Breath and Body- Students learn to cultivate their personal inner resource of calmness and peacefulness as their natural birthright. Paying attention to the physical sensations of the breath and the body helps students (and their adults) be present here and now- an antidote to the tendency of the mind to wander to some other place and some other time. An example includes counting 5 full in-breaths and out-breaths in response to the bell beginning a class.
Caring- Kids learn to transfer their awareness of their own physical, mental and emotional experience to thinking about how others are feeling- cultivating empathy and kindness.
Depending on other people- Kids learn that we all need each other- that life is a 2-way street, seeing themselves as helpers and cultivating gratitude for the kind deeds of others.
Emotions- Kids learn that emotions are normal. They learn to notice them without being controlled by them. This is often easier after a powerful emotion has subsided- reflecting with an adult on how and where the emotion was felt in the body- normalizing the human experience of emotion and practicing kindness for themselves rather than judgment.
Forgiveness- Kids are reminded that they are only human. They will make mistakes- like other kids and adults. Instead of judging themselves and others, they cultivate kindness, empathy and forgiveness.
Gratitude- Kids learn gratitude for what others do for them by role-playing as doctors, nurses, police, bus drivers, teachers, parents, siblings and classmates. This can transform their daily experience with everyone.
In research on the Kindness Curriculum, teachers report increased student empathy and kindness and an ability to self-calm after an emotional upset. Children scored higher academically and on measures of social and emotional learning.
A simple mindfulness/kindfulness practice for kids and their adults is the silent, internal repetition of the phrases “May I be safe, may I be happy, may I be healthy, may I be peaceful.”
May you and the kids in your life be kinder than necessary.
Resources-
Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) https://casel.org/
Kindness Curriculum, Center for Healthy Minds- University of Wisconsin, Madison
https://centerhealthyminds.org/join-the-movement/sign-up-to-receive-the-kindness-curriculum
About the Author–
Dr Patterson is past president of the Kentucky Academy of Family Physicians (KAFP) and is a Longstanding Diplomat with the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM). He is certified by the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine (ABIHM), Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Physician Coaching Institute. He is on faculty with Saybrook College of Integrative Medicine and Health Sciences (Pasadena CA), Mindful Practice in Medicine (U of Rochester School of Medicine) and the Center for Mind Body Medicine (Washington, DC). He operates the Mind Body Studio in Lexington, where he offers mindfulness classes, coaching and integrative, mind-body consultations, focusing on burnout prevention and stress-related chronic disease. He can be reached through his website at www.mindbodystudio.org
