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Use this technique to reduce student anxiety and help students succeed.
Standardized tests, course exams, homework, after-school sports, part-time jobs-many students live busy, pressurepacked lives. As educators, we teach them how to better organize all the "stuff" in their lives, but we rarely teach students how to organize their thoughts and soothe their anxieties. Often, the stress of their daily lives accumulates until a "worry ball" forms. Soon students show signs of fear, anxiety, and attention disorders. Soon after that, parents, teachers, and administrators attempt to fix these issues.
Many of these problems can be prevented if we instruct students to use a tool called mindfulness. It's not a new idea, but its use in education is a recent development. Founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Jon Kabat-Zinn, says mindfulness means "paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally."
Early research on the strategy shows promise. According to Mindfulschools.org, "Studies have shown that mindfulness is a powerful tool for combating multiple mental and physical problems and disorders, for...