Why We Need Mindfulness In Schools

Neuroscience has theorized - even as a useful conceptual model - that the brain is "triune", which means it is composed of 3 different layers of processing systems. First, there's the "reptilian brain" which deals with automatic processes, like breathing, heart rate and body sensations. Around this area of the brain lies the paleomammalian brain - the "limbic system" - which handles emotions, drives, action tendencies; it a more complex brain layer that enables social communications to occur; on top of this brain layer is the most recently evolved layer  which we call the neomammalian brain - or the neocortex - where human cognitions i.e. self awareness, thought, memory, imagination, etc occur.

I have a very vivid memory from my highschool days of bullying. There was this kid in my class, Kyle, who was being bullied day in and day out by this fat obnoxious kid in the back. It was complete and total emotional abuse - and it amazes me till this day how flippant the teacher was about it. Kyle however spoke up - as I imagine his therapist would have told him to do. So when they threw something at the back of his head, he'd yell out at them "stop that! leave me alone". That's good, right? In a superficial sense, yes, you could day it is. But when thought of more deeply, it is absolutely tragic.

I knew back then, at 16, that something was incredibly wrong in Kyles personality. It wasn't his fault - I  now know. He was suffering from whats called developmental trauma. I recognized then that there was a danger  - when your body is nervous and stressed - in letting yourself "go" the way Kyle did. I intuitively recognized that Kyle was actually hurting himself further by interacting with his body when it felt as stressed as it did - as you could hear it in his voice when he spoke.

Of course, now I realize he must have been seeing a psychologist. No doubt. A kid that abused, day in and day out at school was surely seeing a therapist. But clearly, the therapist he worked with was utilizing a top-down approach. "How do you think of yourself, Kyle?" "Speak out Kyle, don't let those bullies push you around". These are whats called "cognitive approaches" to bringing healing to the mind. Oftentimes it works, fine and dandy, and within any therapy its an important thing to talk about. But it is down right reckless - now that we have a more complex understanding - to do this when his physical body is still holding in so much tension, containing so much undischarged stress in it's muscles and viscera.

Kyle had probably experienced some sort of attachment trauma in the first 2 years of his life. The personality that I seen at 16 was fully "developed" - he "embraced" himself "as he was". He really did. But he did it at the expense of actually connecting with his body - and thus - with other people.

Kyle could not connect because he simply wasn't relaxed as he spoke. He was tense; his ermotions, likewise, were being subtly restricted, and so the personality and self image that formed around it was one which actually couldn't help but think bad about itself. How couldn't he? He could never really connect with people. Everytime someone insulted him, turned away from connecting with him - these were facts he had to integrate. And they were integrated with an emotional and visceral "tag" of "badness"

That image, back then in grade 11 - when I was experiencing my own trauma - really disturbed me. The main reason why I never went out into society - why I stayed in for 12 years - is literally, and causally, connected to that one event. That one memory. It was a strictly "cognitive trauma" in that it effected how I thought about things.

Unfortunately for people like Kyle and others like them - and it really bothers me to think about these poor, tattered souls - they weren't fortunate enough to come to the awareness and knowledge that I have. If Kyles therapist had supplemented her top-down approach with a bottom-up approach which addressed Kyles underlying bodily tension, my image of Kyle would be entirely different. In fact, I would see the true Kyle; not the one who was traumatized, and acting in a dissociated state in front of others, but one who was vibrant, flexible, and affable.

A somatosensory approach to therapy is one where the client is made to become aware of the sensations which occur within their physical bodies. For example, with Kyle, his shoulders were always"brought upwards", like in a crunch. This posture, in fact, MAINTAINED the emotional and cognitive states that Kyle experienced when he spoke. His therapist never got Kyle to mindfully address this posture. And the painful result is a personality that gone "quite far down" the road in integrating a stressed body with emotions and cognitions.

There is such wisdom and healing in the body. For good reason do traumatologists source the body as the place where healing begins. When muscle tone and sensations in viscera are corrected, all of a sudden, you begin to experience more expansive and vivacious emotions. More energy passes through you - you voice contains greater prosody - bass, spontaneity. With this more expansive emotional experience, you can begin to "integrate" your perception. In dissociation, your body is chronically tightened, which limits the degree of connection that can occur between body and mind. Cognitons, Emotions, and Body sensations are not experienced "as one", as they should be, but as disconnected fragments that can be seen separately in consciousness i.e. the mind would be highly "highly aware" of itself, as it spoke; emotions are only dimly felt, and the body more or less feels numb.

Anyways, this post has helped clarify a lot for me. I now feel like I can let go of that image, and that worry, of Kyle. I am not Kyle. I do not need to suffer for him. I am sorry that he and others in this world have to go through that - to have to suffer early traumas, to grow up struggling to connect with other kids - and to have their potential healing stifled by ignorant and imbecilic people who lack the awareness to recognize what they're doing.

The only thing I can do, the only thing that really inspires me - that gives me the energy, peace and a sense of well being - is to dedicate my life to making sure this doesn't happen to another human being. This can only happen if we introduce mindfulness into our schools. When kids are made mindful of the reasons for why they feel a certain way, and when they are more in touch with their own body sensations, the naturally result is a sense of sympathy for the states of others.

Kids like this - I have been watching videos of them, reading testimonials - are happy, well adapted kids who have fun, but wont do it at the expense of hurting someone else. They are so mature. So enlightened. You know they will grow up to become happy and self sufficient adults.

I hope, with all my heart, that we as a society can come together and make this beautiful dream a reality.

This is why I have volunteered myself for DiscoverMindfulness - an organization thats seeking to introduce mindfulness into Ontario school systems.

What better thing could I want out of life? I think to myself, as I see myself growing, and the person that is emerging from this "caccoon" of dissociation, how truly fortunate I am.

Every child becomes an adult. And in every adult, there lies a child.