Resilience a Mindful Key to Well-Being

 

Failure is a part of life. It happens to us all. As students work toward mastering a new skill they will fail first. When they fail, they often struggle. This struggle looks different for each person, for each student. Failure does not have to be seen as something to be ashamed of, or something to avoid. 

Teaching our students how to handle failure is a skill that will help them to build a better outlook on their skills and ultimately a better self view. 

Mindfulness is a useful tool to utilize when teaching acceptance of failure. Another way to frame this kind of education is; teaching resilience.

Resilience is the ability to bounce back from adversity. 

Resilience is a skill that will help our students learn and grow. These are skills crucial to well-being and development. 

In the article What is Resilience we are introduced to the topic of resilience and how to build it in students. One point in the article states that we should celebrate students progress, not just success. We we celebrate progress, even in the midst of failure, we teach students to persevere in the face of difficultly. 

The tool of mindfulness teaches students to pay attention to the present moment and accept the present moment. This means accepting the moments of failure.

Reachout.com is a great resource with information on resilience. To help with learning resilience there are lessons you  can download, one of which is on mindfulness and another called learning from failure.

As we come into a testing season adding extra mindfulness and teaching resilience is not only a great idea but a necessary one.