Integrating Mindfulness into Academics

About this Guide

Click HERE for Improving Student Wellbeing: A Faculty Resource Guide

We are delighted to introduce you to a valuable resource designed to empower you in your role as educators and mentors. "Improving Student Well-being" is more than just a guide; it's a compass to help you navigate the complex landscape of student well-being.

In the classroom, you are not just imparting knowledge; you are shaping lives. This resource is your companion in that journey, offering insights, strategies, and a wealth of tools to create an environment where students can thrive academically, emotionally, and personally.

Navigating this resource guide is structured to provide you with resources and practices that suit your level of comfort and commitment. Here's how to make the most of it:

• Select Your Engagement Level: Whether you prefer high, medium, or low involvement in well-being practices, you'll find corresponding resources to suit your preferences.
  
• Formal and Informal Approaches: You can choose between formal resources that may require more structured intervention or informal resources that can be effortlessly integrated into your existing classroom practices.
  
• Dartmouth Faculty and Instructor Profiles: See examples and testimonials of actions taken by Dartmouth faculty members and instructional staff who are committed to creating conditions for well-being in learning environments.

Learn two evidence-based, easy-to-learn, and quick ways (the STOP and SHIFT practice) to offer moments of mindful pausing to use before, during, or at the end of your classes. No prior mindfulness facilitation experience necessary.

By bringing attention to a momentary pause we can help students interrupt their reactive minds and habitual patterns about how they move in the world. When done regularly, something as simple as a mindful pause can help create an environment that fosters greater resilience (by seeing that there are more possibilities than our typical knee-jerk reactions), deepens presence and focus, increases learning retention, and supports holistic wellbeing.

Meditation scripts, recording of the STOP and SHIFT practice, and teaching guide will be provided. To request a training, please click here.

Support your own wellbeing while building your capacity to create a positive classroom environment by participating in a free, 4-week, evidence-based mindfulness course based off of the Koru Mindfulness model.

The key in creating a more mindful classroom environment is developing your own personal mindfulness practice. Not only can this enhance and support your own wellbeing and capacity to be more fully present in the moment, but research has also shown that "presence-based faculty are consistently self-aware, manage emotions under pressure with poise and confidence, understand the people they teach, recognize their impact on others, as well as lead with empathy and compassion. Faculty with these characteristics are more fully present, engender trust, and can increase their positive impact, personal resiliency, reduce stress and anxiety, and support academic flourishing in those that they teach."

To request a training, please click here.

Enhance community connection, focus and performance by starting, pausing, or ending your class with a brief guided mindfulness practice by a trained mindfulness teacher.  We will connect with you to get to know your class specific needs and interests so we can provide a practice that is right. To request a workshop, please click here.

Guided Relaxation with iRest Yoga Nidra. Reduce stress and anxiety with this unique experience that promotes deep rest and relaxation through a lying down, easy guided meditation. This is a practice anyone can do, regardless of age or ability. Nothing is needed except a quiet space for folks to lie or sit down comfortably and a mind that is ready to relax. A wonderful gift to give your students.

To request a workshop, please click here.

In this session, we discuss the basics of developing a mindfulness practice while reviewing some of the latest research on why practicing mindfulness in higher education is becoming increasingly important. Includes brief meditations and interactive mindfulness.

To request a workshop, please click here.

We often find ourselves offering compassion and care for others when they are in distress, yet struggle to befriend and support ourselves when we need it most. In this workshop, students will learn what self-compassion is, the ways in which this evidence-based practice can improve their well-being and mental health, as well as how they can start incorporating it in their life right away. In addition, there will be time for reflection, connecting with others and a guided self-compassion meditation.

To request a workshop, please click here.