The psychology students in 3E had the opportunity to test mindfulness on Monday 7.10.
Dr. Belkez Dedolli-Ferri, also called Kizi, introduced mindfulness to the students. She has been educated in the field of mindfulness meditation (MBSR & MBCT) through the Center for Mindfulness Studies in Toronto (Canada) and the Center for Mindfulness in Boston, USA.
The introduction to mindfulness consisted of three different meditation types:
- The Body Scan Meditation where you can develop awareness of bodily sensations.
- The Walking Meditation makes you aware of our body and physical sensations while walking.
- The Breathing Meditation where you focus your attention on your own breathing.
Mindfulness can effectively help you to manage stress, anxiety and depression. You can also find inner peace trough mindfulness. The IB-students read about mindfulness in psychology in the units of the cognitive approach to behavior and abnormal psychology.
Several studies point out the positive effects of mindfulness. Eberth & Sedlmeier’s (2012) meta-analysis found that practicing mindfulness enhanced school performance and concentration. It also increased positive feelings and decreased negative feelings and stress. It also improved sleep in healthy test subjects.
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) has also been found effective for treatment of depression in real-world health care services, Tickell, A., Ball, S., Bernard, P. et al. (2019).
We are very thankful for the introduction to mindfulness that Kizi gave us and hope for more mindfulness sessions at Vasa övningsskola!
