Mindfulness is a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations.
This gives us the opportunity to create space in our own minds to respond in new ways to situations and to make wise decisions. When we embrace mindfulness and make it a part of our daily lives we learn to work with our minds and bodies, which in turn can lead to less anxiety and decreased stress levels.
Mindfulness practices are not new – they have Buddhist origins and have been around for thousands of years. It is recognised that it can improve students’ wellbeing and help them to deal with situations such as exam stress, bullying or just for those seeking to enhance their own study skills by helping them to learn and to improve their concentration.
Further reading on mindfulness can be found on BeMindful.co.uk or there are plenty of books that have been written on the subject that would be available from libraries.