Ms Sarah Boyle, Head of O’Connor House
At the risk of sounding cliché-like, it is hard to believe that it is December and a year has again slipped by. The commencement of the year is still so vivid in many ways — the excited nervous energy of starting a fresh school year, the sun-kissed happy faces of new students in their crisp white blouses matched with a sea of perfectly composed blue ribbon bows adorning a plethora of perfectly cut pony tails.
The 140th year in the life of Brisbane Girls Grammar School was action-packed, designed to stretch the imaginations of all who entered its gates. It was marked with ceremony, great achievements, and memories that will be etched into the rich storyboard that belongs to Girls Grammar. It is now that time of year when we can sit in quiet reflection, contemplating what we have done and perhaps what we wish we had done. Was it a year of never-ending bustle, lurching from deadline to deadline, calendar booking to calendar booking and assessment piece to assessment piece? Or was it a year of treasuring the moments of madness, relishing the busyness while taking the time to stop and be?
Each of us has our own rhythm that drives us. It appears that this rhythm is all too often underscored by the intense blue light that is twenty-first century reality. We wake to an alarm, and the morning routine is a series of hurried events. Willing traffic to move faster, dodging the slow walker, and completing the question before the enquirer has finished all ensure that time is being used efficiently and productively so that we can cross that task off the list and move on to the next before the day draws to a close. This is not our rhythm, but one that we feel we have to match or conquer in the need for speed. Carl Honore, in his 2011 book In Praise of Slow, refers to Guy Claxton, a famous British educator, who identifies that the hurry of the modern day is ‘now second nature to us: “We have developed an inner psychology of speed, of saving time and maximising efficiency, which is getting stronger by the day”’ (p. 19). Consequently, if we cannot cross those tasks off the list, if our agenda for the day is not full or we have not checked our Facebook newsfeed before we have left our bed in the morning, somehow we are lacking. The current trend to towards mindfulness is a response to the manic control of the rush we all experience in so many aspects of our lives.
Mindfulness is a way of tuning in and paying attention. It is a way to centre on natural rhythms as a means to challenge all that is maniacal and oppositional to calm, centred peace. Jon Kabat-Zinn, Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, is identified as the ‘father’ of western mindfulness. It was his practice of yoga and studies alongside Buddhist teachers that saw him draw aspects of these traditions together with science to create the Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction programme in the late 1970s (The Center for Mindfulness, 2014). Mindfulness has gained momentum, particularly in recent times, through the popularity of colouring books that have become international best sellers, found at cash register checkouts across the globe. According to neuropsychologist and neuroscientist Dr Stan Rodski, their success is because of three elements — ‘repetition, pattern and detail — that prompt positive neurological responses in participants’ (Story Carter, 2015). Colouring takes us back to a time when we were not watching the clock and the simple concentration of staying inside the lines was all that mattered.
At Girls Grammar, some students have found benefit in a range of mindfulness strategies including the colouring phenomenon. It has allowed them to focus the mind away from the frantic pace of academia, to narrow and calm it momentarily as they colour. Colouring is only one means of practising mindfulness. Students have engaged in moments of guided meditation during House Group Assemblies and the Year 12 students readily participated as they tackled each hurdle in their final year of schooling. In 2016, the School is formalising its approach to teaching mindfulness and will implement the Mindfulness in Schools Project (MiSP) in Year 8. MiSP, widely acclaimed as the ‘gold standard’ in mindfulness education, was developed in the United Kingdom in collaboration with Exeter and Cambridge Universities. Taught in twelve countries around the world, MiSP will provide students with the appropriate skill set to complement their schooling and their journey through adolescence.
The opportunity to pause, and to rest in that pause, gives things beauty and allows us to see clearly. Travel writer, Pico Iyer in his TEDtalk, The Art of Stillness, highlights the importance of taking time out of our ‘on demand lives’ and notes that, despite the fact we have so many time-saving devices, we feel as if we have very little time. He refers to the religious tradition of observing the Sabbath as a day of rest, a moment to pause and to be one with ourselves and those who are most important to us (2014, August). This is almost a quaint idea today in the age where cities seem to never sleep and are always ‘on’. The ‘on’ switch needs to be paused so that we can slow down and connect with our inner rhythm, in order to allow a sense of space and calm to have an impact on our emotional and physical wellbeing.
The Slow Revolution is permeating all facets of life across the globe and attracting followers at a rapid rate. Each year in the small town of Wagrain in the Austrian Alps, the annual conference of the Society for Deceleration of Time is held to promote an alternative to the cult of doing things faster. The Society asserts that ‘in daily life, that means slowing down when it makes sense to do so’ (Honore, 2011). Further evidence of the Slow Revolution can be seen in the renewal of Slow Food. Savouring and appreciating the taste of real foods has been seen to increase the intake of healthy foods, leading to healthier lives. The book, In Praise of Slow, dedicates chapters to the philosophy of slow in medicine, leisure, cities and work. However, to apply the philosophy to education, author Honore refers to Harry Lewis, Dean of the undergraduate school at Harvard. Lewis asserts, ‘Get plenty of rest and relaxation, and be sure to cultivate the art of doing nothing. “Empty time is not a vacuum to be filled, it is the thing that enables the other things on your mind to be creatively rearranged …”. Doing nothing, being Slow, is an essential part of good thinking’ (2011, p. 300). This is an important reminder to disconnect and not be ruled by technology but to use it as a tool or instrument and to learn to sit comfortably without a device.
Therefore, as we approach the holiday season, let us slow down, become mindful and appreciate what we have. We can look forward to days ungoverned by the blaring of an alarm, school drop offs and pickups, and looming deadlines. So, let the weary faces be transformed by unstructured days. Let the blue ribbons hang untied as the hair it tamed becomes wild. Enjoy the quiet moments of togetherness at this time of year and celebrate the successes and joys of the past year, remembering with mindful tenderness those things that disappointed both within and without. This helps to create the beautiful calm of a natural rhythm — our rhythm of life.
References
The Center for Mindfulness, University of Massachusetts Medical School (2014). Jon Kabat-Zinn, founding Executive Director of the Center for Mindfulness: Biography. Retrieved from http://www.umassmed.edu/cfm/about-us/people/2-meet-our-faculty/kabat-zinn-profile/
Honore, C. (2004). In praise of slow: How a worldwide movement is challenging the cult of speed. London, UK: Orion Books.
Iyer, P. (2014, August). The art of stillness. TEDSalon NY2014. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/pico_iyer_the_art_of_stillness?language=en
Story Carter, J. (2015, September 4). The science behind adult colouring books. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/booksandarts/why-are-australian-adults-drawn-to-colouring-in-books/6750808