Georgina Hooper - Mindful Thoughts for Students: Nurture Your Mind, Flourish in Life

NURTURE YOUR MIND,
FLOURISH IN LIFE

Georgina Hooper

Educators will often impress on their students the importance of good study habits. As both a teacher and a life-long learner, I have seen many different approaches to learning, and tried many myself. Of them all, mindful scholarship is the most empowering, effective and gentle. Through many years of applying the techniques of mindfulness, I have opened my eyes and mind to see that there is no single right way to be a student. The path to learning is unique to every human being, and this path must be found through the development of self-knowledge.

The practice of intertwining mindfulness and study is a learning philosophy that cultivates the development of self-knowledge alongside academic knowledge. The object of our attention becomes not just our particular field of study, but ourselves as a learner.

In Japanese and Chinese, the word to represent mindfulness, consists of two characters: meaning now, and meaning mind. A mindful approach to study cultivates attention through our now mind. This simply means developing a habit of mentally being here and now in the lived moment. This is achieved by awareness of our bodies, our environments and our mental activity. When we are present-minded, we can worry less about the future, where exams, assignments and presentations loom, and we can let go of the past, where old failures can threaten to crush our confidence. Mindfulness offers strategies for resilience, helping us bounce back and turn up when we are challenged or our motivation dips. It fosters our mental health by building self-compassion, and helps us de-stress by relaxing our nervous systems. It strengthens our self-discipline and ability to concentrate, by training the mind like a muscle. When we integrate mindfulness with study, we equip ourselves with a greater capacity for joy in learning, and build within ourselves the habit of recognizing our achievements through self-observation and awareness.

Mindfulness fosters insightful knowing, rather than a brain overloaded with information. Through the self-knowledge that comes with mindfulness, we can intentionally foster what is beneficial to us and let go of what no longer serves us, empowering ourselves to make conscious and wise choices in our study and for ourselves. As we come to understand the way we learn best, we also come to intimately know ourselves and who we are as human beings, part of both small and global communities.

I am excited to offer through this book the insights I have gleaned on my journey as a scholar, a teacher and a practitioner of mindfulness. The act of learning, when we do it mindfully, can be greatly deepened, and foster in us a love of learning that can lift us up in our lives in ways that we never imagined.

It can seem overwhelming when we start out on our journey as a student. A mountain of work looms ominously in the distance, and as we look at the path stretching ahead of us, and consider the distance that needs to be covered, we can feel crushed by the enormity of the task before we have even taken the first step.

The great Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said, The journey of a thousand miles begins where you are and with a step. Life is simply a series of many individual moments strung together over time. By bringing your focus to the immediate moment and tuning in to the present, you can be empowered to make strong choices for your right now and take the steps needed to achieve your scholarly aspirations. Small and consistent practices make for big and affecting change. How well we mindfully choose to use each moment often determines the wider outcome of our existence. With consistent attention to the present moment, we have the capacity to reach great heights as students.