Rita and Sandy: "Can you tell me about how you got into the mindfulness space?"
Radha: "My mother is a yoga teacher but I kind of rejected it until I got into yoga as a way to deal with stress as a new teacher; and then I got deeper into mindfulness and meditation when I became a Director.
"I found this to be great way to deal with and reduce my stress and later I discovered you could do yoga and mindfulness with children."
Benefits for everyone
Sandy: "How does mindfulness support you as a leader?"
Radha: "Mindfulness helps me to be less reactive. If I sit in the morning, even for just 10 minutes I notice I am more focused and grounded and can respond to staff with more space. I also need to make sure I have down time on my days off."
Mindfulness can be acknowledging the need to go for a walk, stepping away from my computer, talking to people, having time to myself at home.
Rita: "Why did you introduce mindfulness to your early learning service? With your educators?"
Radha: "After discovering the benefits of mindfulness for myself I began to share with the team. Initially we did a short mindfulness practice at the start of every staff meeting. This allowed the team to become familiar with mindfulness, build trust, and to experience some of the benefits."
"I can’t see how we can do our jobs without mindfulness. Our work is so emotional and relational and can take a lot out of us. We need to know what works for us to refill our cups.
"We were having some challenging behaviours.
Staff were feeling quite overwhelmed and stressed at times and mindfulness was very helpful. It offered the team a way to develop themselves personally and professionally. It was a great way to shine a light on the invisible part of what we do - the emotional work.
Sandy: "Since you’ve started embedding mindfulness, what does it look like in your early learning community?"
Radha: "Mindfulness has expanded into other parts of our day. Educators are able to be more present, more honest about their feelings and stress levels, to ask for help more, rather than feeling they have to just push through."
"The team are now teaching the children what they have learnt – yoga, self-regulation techniques, making calm spaces in each room, emotional literacy."
Rita: "What role did Be You play in your journey?"
Radha: "Participating in Be You grounded mindfulness in a broader mental health and wellbeing framework. It gave us additional evidence-based information and resources, and connected me with mindful educators from other services. Be You helped to embed the benefits of mindfulness for the long term."
If you’d like to begin embedding mindfulness in your learning community, reach out to a Consultant in a Be You Conversation, or read our Mindfulness Fact Sheet.