All that we are arises with our thoughts
With our thoughts, we make the world

The Buddha

Working with the mind

Cathie Paine, CEO of Reach2 in her recent guest blog reflects on how important training her attention and mastering her mind has been for her leadership saying: 'I have learned how to skilfully focus and work with the mind so it became my servant and not my master. That has been so important in my own journey as a leader'

We lead schools, and schools are crucibles for shaping young minds. Kath Murdoch a Primary School Principal working with teachers across Australia, recently noted how important this is to the role of teachers saying “right now, the most important reason to become a teacher is the opportunity to nurture the critical, curious and courageous minds we will need to navigate our way through complex futures.”  

The moment a child decodes a word for the first time, or catches an idea and smiles as new worlds open up is wonderful. Being able to think, plan, invent, create, read and write is a gift. But there is a down-side to this.

The mind, whilst being a wondrous faculty, can overwork. The thinking mind can easily become the worrying and anxious mind. It can erode our confidence and self esteem, stunt our creativity, and deplete us of energy. As John Milton so aptly described in Paradise Lost; “The mind is its own place and, in itself, can make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven.”

How Mindfulness can help.

One of the first things that bring many people to mindfulness is being driven by the voices in their head, leaving them overwhelmed and exhausted. This was certainly true for me. The first time I was told 'thoughts are not facts', I remember thinking - really - you mean all this stuff in my head isn't necessarily true?

I gradually learned to see how much power I was unknowingly giving to these uninvited thoughts of 'I should have done this, I shouldn't have done that, that's rubbish, you're going to mess this up'. They have the potential to drive us quite crazy and often do.

Through mindfulness practice we learn to consciously observe our thoughts as they arise in our minds, deliberately deciding which to attend to and which to let go of. In essence, mindfulness practice allows us to catch particular negative thought patterns before they trip us into a downward spiral.

As leaders we create the weather in our schools. Your thoughts have a significant impact on this. To what extent are they like storm clouds, already gathering as you walk across the car park first thing in the morning? Or instead, can you practice deliberately orienting to thoughts of purpose, gratitude and appreciation at the start of a new day?

Here’s how:

Notice and label the thought
First of all, recognise you are having a thought then put a label on the thought, ‘planning is here, rehearsing a conversation is here, worry is here’. Don’t try to answer it, argue with it or get rid of it. Instead notice a thought as a thought, as a mental fabrication, which, although it can feel quite powerful, is in fact no more significant than that.

Fact check the thought
We often fixate on the worst case scenario when overwhelmed, catastrophising about the future, and giving too much significance to perceived past mistakes. Instead, with curiosity and kindness try saying, “this feels very real but it’s not necessarily true.” We accept that the thought is here, we sit with it for a moment and by de-centring and fact checking it, we are more likely to let it go.

Move away from the thought
When a thought becomes very intrusive, threatening to overwhelm us, try ‘throwing down an anchor’. Bring your attention away from the thought to your feet, or to your hands, or try settling your attention on the breath. As you do this, the mind itself will start to become still. Each time it races away again, notice this, and gently note; ‘this is a thought and not me’ and come back to one of your anchors. When we bring our attention to the body in this way, we can never be anywhere but in the present moment.

Accept the thought
Try meeting intrusive thoughts with kindness. Note the thoughts and accept them for what they are - part of being human. Ask yourself - is this thought helping me be more present. Is it supportive or erosive of my wellbeing? If the answer is the latter then isn’t it better to let it go? The more you practice this and the quicker your attention can shift away from the thought and the less they will negatively impact on your day

Ask yourself - is this thought helping me be more present?. If it isn’t strengthening your presence and supporting your wellbeing then isn’t it better to let it go?

By learning to adjust our relationship to our thoughts, we are more able to loosen the personal narrative that we attach to them. We can then intentionally choose which thoughts to attend to, seeing them more clearly - unshackled from the drama we build around them.

If you have time, take a listen to Amish Jha’s TedEd talk where she explores how we can handle a constant stream of thoughts and tame our wild mind.