Many years ago when i started a local sunday school for children of buddhist parents, I ask two of my most respected teachers for advice as to what was the most important thing to teach children. Amala (Chamba Chuchi, wife of Kangyur Rinpoche) said "help them learn how to live together in harmony".
Lama Guendeun (A khampa yogi who had spent 30 years in solitary retreat) said: "Give them tools so that they can find their own inner light."
I think mindfulness should be seen as a tool, not a goal. One of many tools we need to share with our children. Without compassion and moral guidelines, mindfulness it is worse than not; it sharpens the intellect which then serves the ego and not the greater good. When i do shamatta sessions with children (ages 5 to 17) we always start by each one voicing a positive wish and the intention to help oneself and others.
And yes I totally agree, children are incredibly sensitive to authenticity and will not believe nor even listen to a teacher who doesn't walk the talk. They are not asking for perfect adults, they need to see that we also are trying our best and learning from our mistakes. Humility is such a beautiful quality.
Another thing the children taught me is to be curious and ask them to search for methods and means to solve problems, spiritual, ethical and practical. When they search for and find a solution, they accept it and remember it. Thank you for everything you do to make the world a better place.
I came to the conclusion years ago that was better to work with the teachers / school staff and help them flourish as they know the pupils and create ' the weather in the classroom '. It's the focus of my book, The Mindful Teachers Handbook: How To Step Out Of Busyness And Find Peace. https://www.crownhouse.co.uk/the-mindful-teachers-handbook
I have been teaching weekly yoga classes in schools and preschools with a very short mindfulness meditation at the end for 15 years. As children’s energy can be so high compared to adults, and so contained for much of the school day sitting, I feel that movement first is essential. My sessions begins with a moment for each child to share something briefly on a topic in a circle, then warm up, yoga postures, breath work, relaxation then meditation sitting at the end. Just like adults coming to Yoga classes, it can take years for them to start to enjoy and benefit from meditation as they need to prepare the body and mind for the stillness. Perhaps integrating meditation practices in this way keeping it fun and light might help children to embody the practices and slow down into stillness more effectively. I also feel sessions for teachers and parents are essential for everyone’s wellbeing at this time of stress-related illness in schools.
I find this intriguing as an elementary school teacher and mindfulness teacher.
I implement mindfulness each day with my students, and I'll admit through direct experience, the results vary.
However, the more that I practice, the more I notice a difference in my well-being. And the better my well-being gets, the more effective I become at work.
Hi. We’ve been implementing mindfulness in schools since 2013 through a program I founded called FocusedKids™. The findings in the two studies cited here mirror what we’ve learned in practice: mindfulness shows limited impact when it’s brief, isolated, or decontextualized.
FocusedKids is a neuroscience-based program for children ages 4–11 that teaches how the brain works (amygdala, prefrontal cortex, hippocampus) in concrete, child-friendly ways. Mindfulness is framed as a tool for regulating the nervous system, not just awareness and attention training, and is highly informed by teachers, parents, and other providers.
Implementation is relational and sustained: M.A./M.S.-level trainers teach teachers and students together in the classroom, return monthly, provide ongoing teacher PD, and engage parents early and continuously. We also have partnered with 46 community organizations who serve children and families.
From 2013 through 2024, we’ve reached:
Teachers: 2,392
Students: 20,214
Parents: 5,409
Children under 4: 592
Partner Trainings: Adult providers 11,775
Total Contacts 40,382
in two rural populations of approximately: 100,500.
Our work is measured by a Theory of Change framework developed with Harvard researchers.
Our takeaway: mindfulness works best when it’s developmental, shared, and embedded in adult modeling and brain science.
After working with children doing Rolfing Structural Integration for 47 years (and counting) one of the main lessons I’ve learned is to ask the children. Give them the opportunity to figure out what works for them and keep adjusting as they grow and learn. Also completely agree with everyone that the most important teaching is for the adult to embody it. Be honest and humble, share their own learning process and how they came to understand things and give the children an opportunity to do the same. Thank you for all of your good work.
Children are are less tainted by the myriad stresses and conditioning of modern life than adults. As such, mindfulness practices are not generally as useful a tool for them to employ.
Thank you for engaging publicly with these large-scale findings. The humility in your reflection strengthens the field.
I’m not a researcher. I’ve spent the last fourteen years working with adult students in contemplative practice, and I’m speaking from that lived experience rather than formal data.
One pattern I’ve repeatedly observed is that mindfulness alone is often not initially stabilizing for dysregulated adults. Increasing awareness can amplify unprocessed affect before sufficient regulatory capacity is in place to manage it. In trauma-exposed individuals, open monitoring sometimes creates space without providing containment.
If that dynamic holds in children — particularly in populations with nontrivial stress or trauma exposure — I wonder whether attentional mindfulness may increase signal before increasing regulation.
In my own work, I’ve found it useful to sequence practices differently: brief exposure to basic mindfulness followed by explicit autonomic regulation training (paced breathing, structured somatic anchoring) before sustained open monitoring. Framed simply, awareness seems more stabilizing once regulation capacity is strengthened.
I fully agree that teacher embodiment and relational safety likely matter greatly. My question is whether physiological sequencing may be equally critical. A well-held classroom may not offset the destabilizing effects of awareness if regulatory scaffolding is insufficient.
It would be interesting to see future trials compare awareness-first models with regulation-first models, particularly in trauma-exposed youth.
I offer this not as criticism but as a hypothesis informed by practice experience. I appreciate the transparency and ongoing refinement in your work.
Thank you for such a thoughtful reflection regarding the results of this study and its implications.
I’m happy to share some reflections on this as an educator, coach and in my own personal practice (warning, it’s a bit lengthy).
Admittedly, as someone who has embraced a mindfulness practice into my own life and who wants to promote this practice and way of being in others, my initial reaction was one of shock and disappointment. Then I caught myself, recognized the unconscious reaction, and asked, “okay, why might this be the case and what else is it teaching us?”
As you point out, both context for adapting different practices, and the adults around children, may have significant impacts on the effectiveness of mindfulness teachings for kids. As Dr. Bessel Van der Kolk notes in “The Body Keeps the Score”, emotionally available and regulated adults are crucial for children’s mental, social and emotional development and health. I can see how having teachers, parents, caregivers, coaches and other adults who embody a mindfulness practice and lifestyle could be more impactful on a child’s development than simply teaching a child mindfulness given how much children attune to the adults around them from infancy through their youth.
With regard to context and adaptability, while I haven’t read the studies you reference and therefore do not know the details of the curriculum, introducing mindfulness in ways that are more passive and informal may be more accessible, beneficial, and effective for developing an individual mindfulness practice, awareness, compassion, regulation and so on down the road for kids. Short guided meditations focused on relaxing, positive affirmations, and body/emotional awareness, and allowing kids to engage soft fascination in nature, while not formal mindfulness training, may be powerful entry points.
Anecdotally, I and many others I know who meditate started through guided meditation recordings or simply just being outside, before engaging more formal training and practices.
Previously, in a college class I designed and taught at Eckerd College, I combined the course material discussions with self-awareness activities (journals and logging time spent indoors v outdoors, using screens, etc), assigned time in nature and getting bored, held every class outside, and facilitated short guided meditations in most class sessions. To one of your points, I developed a strong rapport with my class and tried to bring a grounded, peaceful, and compassionate energy. I had several students share how this class helped them feel more focused and creative, relieved their symptoms of depression and anxiety, improved mood and energy, and changed their daily habits around using phones, social media, etc and became more comfortable just sitting with their thoughts. Of course, this is one small example and these are college students in Florida where I got to spend 2 hrs a day for 4 days a week with them. So very different conditions and demographic.
I also integrated basic yoga and meditations into my methods as a collegiate track and field coach, alongside individual mindset discussions, and had some athletes express how these things helped them relax and slow down, or handle performance anxiety, limiting beliefs, and life stressors differently. Again, just anecdotal and no data I can actually point to, but interesting nonetheless and I think my relationship with my athletes was crucial because I prioritized their holistic wellbeing over anything else which was unique to their previous athletic experiences and they felt genuinely cared for.
Despite the differences of these cases and the research you highlight, I think these examples reinforce the importance of context and relationships, and explore options for how to help young people develop contemplative and self-awareness practices, cultivate emotional and mental resilience, strengthen positive views of oneself and others, skills for navigating stress, and simply a more expansive outlook on life. And I believe it is worthwhile exploring further. I am very curious to hear if others have any stories or examples of how they’ve integrated mindfulness type practices or teachings into their work with students (K through college).
Thank you for this valuable opportunity to share my perspective on this topic. I am relatively new to Substack but finding the opportunities to interact with authors far more meaningful than elsewhere online.
The importance of bringing an attitude of humility within this topic of mindfulness research is so important. Humility not just as an attitude of being imperfect humans in a complex world, but as an attitude that is respectful and honours the unique perspective that each human brings to their research. We all have inherent biases, assumptions and ways of looking whether we recognise them or not. An important skill in research is to recognise the particular worldview we may inhabit.
I have not read the research study that you refer to, but am aware of the findings of the MYRIAD study. I have the utmost respect for the research that is ongoing within the field, but attempting to share a perspective that challenges some of the research evidence is not easy. My experience to date in trying to share my perspective in a way that is respectful but which challenges many assumptions has been incredibly difficult. Attempting to share a different perspective assumes that others who are in positions of authority and influence within the field will receive your contribution with the spirit of co-operation, mutual respect and genuine heartfelt intention to open up avenues of exploration that may not otherwise be available. Illuminating blind spots in current scientific research can only come from honouring diverse perspectives.
I have completed a masters in mindfulness-based approaches and my final year thesis was an autoethnography which explored my unique culturally situated perspective against the research available at the time. I graduated in 2024, long after having to leave my career as a healthcare professional in 2015 through significant ill health.
After leaving work, I started a regular mindfulness practice and took MBCT courses, compassion courses and courses on Buddhist meditation. I had voiced concerns about the challenges I experienced in my meditation practice and had sought advice and reassurance on a number of occasions.
During the periods of research for my masters course I came to understand that I had experienced profound childhood emotional neglect and abuse, but that the nature of the childhood trauma and the dysfunctional patriarchal household that I grew up in had never been recognised. It was just how things were. My needs, my emotions and physically painful experiences were not met with attunement and care, but with dismissal, ridicule and humiliation. I was 'the problem child' who was never truly seen because my parents were carrying their own unhealed childhood wounds, traumas and own experience of emotional neglect that they projected onto me. This is not about blaming and shaming anyone, but about the painful acknowledgement that a dysregulated carer cannot regulate themselves, let alone co-regulate their children. I was a parentified child who unknowingly and unconsciously became the carer within the household, sensing and anticipating moods and trying to avoid conflict, criticism or ridicule.
The first online retreat I sat as part of the masters course unearthed a torrent of repressed emotionally charged memories. I realised at a visceral level that had been living in survival mode all my life until I crashed. Alexithymia had served a very important role in trying to keep me safe. The deep well of toxic shame that accompanies and distorts the reality of your experience means that speaking out about such experiences within the mindfulness community and acknowledging the profound impact of early childhood trauma and disrupted attachment may not be so easily recognised or understood, is itself incredibly challenging. Speaking out feels like a huge risk because you were never believed if you tried to share concerns and you learnt to stay quiet and small.
The challenges I have endured by sharing and articulating direct experiences of the root causes of 'meditation-related adverse events' that were dismissed and minimised by teachers, researchers and academics on an individual and institutional level is beyond belief, yet I am now more grounded in my own authenticity and integrity and recognise I am providing a perspective that challenges certain ways of looking that may threaten the previously held sense of safety and security.
Complex PTSD and developmental trauma do not feature in the DSM. Adverse childhood experiences are known stressors to a developing child, but in reality the measurement of these is not straightforward. The timing, duration and intensity are all factors which are impact the health, wellbeing and 'resilience' of the child. We have to understand that 'masking' and 'performing' by being who we believe we need to be in order to feel safe in the social setting and belong to our tribe may be a trauma response. Fawning means we abandon ourselves and our needs, to please or appease in order to try and keep ourselves safe. We have disconnected from our own body because we never received the attunement necessary and have no capacity to self regulate or emotionally self soothe. Maladaptive self-soothing is rife within our culture, as is numbing and distraction techniques that try to prevent the repressed, unhealed parts of ourself from surfacing.
This is a complex area to navigate, but my concerns relate to the lack of appropriate understanding regarding the role of interpersonal neurobiology and the quality, texture and sensitivity within the relational safe holding during mindfulness practices and exercises. Mindfulness and compassion have been described as 'caught, not taught'. My unique experience, perspective and practice means that my nervous system now senses whether another human feels safe and my body provides the feedback long before mental cognition. The parts theory of 'Internal Family Systems' created by Dick Schwartz resonates with me for several reasons.
If someone has repressed unhealed parts that carry shame, fear, anger or grief, I sense them. My experience is that many (but not all) mindfulness teachers teach from a part. Relational dynamics of power and shame, control and vulnerability, and an absence of humility are like red flags to my nervous system. I have experienced so much invalidation, gaslighting and stonewalling that I have come to appreciate that not everyone is able to truly hear or accept my perspective without their own protector parts coming to the rescue. Healing from relational trauma forces you to look deeply and carefully at your worldview and assumptions and the relative positions of privilege, perspective and power.
So many humans are carrying wounds that they may not even realise have impacted them and their way of being. There are parts of us that may have been rejected, denied, repressed and exiled in order to remain attached to caregivers or belong within our social structures and hierarchy. Mindfulness practice may allow for the firefighters and protector parts to come to the fore in an effort to protect the most vulnerable exiled parts that we carry. Until we are able to recognise the deeply unpalatable truth about the existence of a shifting spectrum of attunement or neglect within the parent-child dynamic, then we risk over simplifying the mechanism and function of mindfulness practices and potential for unintended harm.
The embodiment that you mention in your article feels like the presence and awareness of an attuned, regulated human nervous system that can meet experience within themselves and others without agenda. The non-fixing, non-striving and non-judgemental awareness that is described in mindfulness practice becomes a refinement of the attitude we slowly learn to cultivate through recognising our shared humanity and shared vulnerability from simply being human. The profound impact of sustained childhood emotional neglect distorts our sense of self and impairs our ability to sit with ourself without distraction or overwhelm. We feel profound shame simply for existing with needs and emotions that were never met.
Within educational settings, there is automatically a power dynamic that exists between teacher and pupil, just as there is between parent and child. Behavioural expectations of pupils are set without necessarily having any trauma-informed perspective within the classroom. Ultimately teachers may not necessarily be in a position to know what goes on behind closed doors at the home of the child or how that may impact the capacity of the child to meet their emotions and inner landscape with kind curiosity. That is before we explore the role of poverty, disadvantage or lack of stability within the home environment.
Exploring the rich, nuanced complexity of human experience is not something easily measured through quantitative research. I hope that contributing a different personal perspective provides some food for thought. My mindfulness meditation practice feels bittersweet, because it now allows and supports me to tenderly meet, hold and understand the needs of the child that was never seen, met or understood, but the slow process of healing means that you see the patterns of behaviour, verbal and non-verbal communication and unmet needs in others. It is the presence of an attuned, regulated human being who is not overwhelmed by your experience and who can mirror back your own basic goodness that allows for healing through non-pathologising.
Thanks for openly dealing with this development. I’m not sure I agree with some of your conclusions though:
1. For example, you say the people delivering the courses were experienced and well trained, and yet you also conclude that the poor results may be due to shortcomings in these individuals.
2. You mention that in your unpublished study there is evidence of systemic outcomes (ripple effects). You mentioned this in a recent podcast but the evidence you cited was that teachers had more faith in the bureaucracy. Is this really evidence of systemic change or just evidence that teachers are less critical?
I have granddaughters in that same group who spent their earlier years in Germany, half in American schools and half in German. The elder has had concentration issues, mostly associate with social media. The younger is more inwards focused with reading and journaling. I'm wondering how much the Danish kids are influenced by social media, which is hardly conducive to learning how to focus. Perhaps if we were able to provide alternatives to the "anti-social media" that is designed to induce dopamine on demand, training on mindfulness might be more successful.
Thanks for the reflections on how to interpret the findings. I was so shocked by it, geniunely surprised just based on my own experience. To understand that it can be lost in translation is so important and to begin with teachers seems so obvious now you have highlighted it. I really think that understanding how pur brains work is a bridge for some and a permisssion slip for many more. How amazing would it be if it was normalised!
Getting some children to sit still and engage is the challenge having tried it … it would be best delivered following exercise and exertion which is another problem in the education system as we have reduced the amount of physical activity of children in schools when I feel it should be increased. The classroom is focused on the mind but if the school day could have a 50/50 approach to study and movement I feel the children’s engagement in class and results would be better all round. Meditation has to be taught as a life long skill to be practised alone and collectively as a school community … 10 sessions could never be enough … and also include further support for whatever arises in those children with ‘special needs’ … and ‘special circumstances’ as we also have to acknowledge the environment that some children arrive into at home… it’s therefore never going to be a 1 size fits all approach … but I really hope we keep trying 🙏🏻
I read both studies referenced. In the Hirschberg et. al. study I could not find the actual PROMIS scores pre and post intervention. While the graph shows a decrease with the intervention, without the actual scores it is hard to know how many participants actually received a clinically robust effect.
Many years ago when i started a local sunday school for children of buddhist parents, I ask two of my most respected teachers for advice as to what was the most important thing to teach children. Amala (Chamba Chuchi, wife of Kangyur Rinpoche) said "help them learn how to live together in harmony".
Lama Guendeun (A khampa yogi who had spent 30 years in solitary retreat) said: "Give them tools so that they can find their own inner light."
I think mindfulness should be seen as a tool, not a goal. One of many tools we need to share with our children. Without compassion and moral guidelines, mindfulness it is worse than not; it sharpens the intellect which then serves the ego and not the greater good. When i do shamatta sessions with children (ages 5 to 17) we always start by each one voicing a positive wish and the intention to help oneself and others.
And yes I totally agree, children are incredibly sensitive to authenticity and will not believe nor even listen to a teacher who doesn't walk the talk. They are not asking for perfect adults, they need to see that we also are trying our best and learning from our mistakes. Humility is such a beautiful quality.
Another thing the children taught me is to be curious and ask them to search for methods and means to solve problems, spiritual, ethical and practical. When they search for and find a solution, they accept it and remember it. Thank you for everything you do to make the world a better place.
Love this. Compassion led by self compassion
I came to the conclusion years ago that was better to work with the teachers / school staff and help them flourish as they know the pupils and create ' the weather in the classroom '. It's the focus of my book, The Mindful Teachers Handbook: How To Step Out Of Busyness And Find Peace. https://www.crownhouse.co.uk/the-mindful-teachers-handbook
I have been teaching weekly yoga classes in schools and preschools with a very short mindfulness meditation at the end for 15 years. As children’s energy can be so high compared to adults, and so contained for much of the school day sitting, I feel that movement first is essential. My sessions begins with a moment for each child to share something briefly on a topic in a circle, then warm up, yoga postures, breath work, relaxation then meditation sitting at the end. Just like adults coming to Yoga classes, it can take years for them to start to enjoy and benefit from meditation as they need to prepare the body and mind for the stillness. Perhaps integrating meditation practices in this way keeping it fun and light might help children to embody the practices and slow down into stillness more effectively. I also feel sessions for teachers and parents are essential for everyone’s wellbeing at this time of stress-related illness in schools.
The intellectual honesty that Richie and Cort demonstrate is why I follow this Substack.
I find this intriguing as an elementary school teacher and mindfulness teacher.
I implement mindfulness each day with my students, and I'll admit through direct experience, the results vary.
However, the more that I practice, the more I notice a difference in my well-being. And the better my well-being gets, the more effective I become at work.
Hi. We’ve been implementing mindfulness in schools since 2013 through a program I founded called FocusedKids™. The findings in the two studies cited here mirror what we’ve learned in practice: mindfulness shows limited impact when it’s brief, isolated, or decontextualized.
FocusedKids is a neuroscience-based program for children ages 4–11 that teaches how the brain works (amygdala, prefrontal cortex, hippocampus) in concrete, child-friendly ways. Mindfulness is framed as a tool for regulating the nervous system, not just awareness and attention training, and is highly informed by teachers, parents, and other providers.
Implementation is relational and sustained: M.A./M.S.-level trainers teach teachers and students together in the classroom, return monthly, provide ongoing teacher PD, and engage parents early and continuously. We also have partnered with 46 community organizations who serve children and families.
From 2013 through 2024, we’ve reached:
Teachers: 2,392
Students: 20,214
Parents: 5,409
Children under 4: 592
Partner Trainings: Adult providers 11,775
Total Contacts 40,382
in two rural populations of approximately: 100,500.
Our work is measured by a Theory of Change framework developed with Harvard researchers.
Our takeaway: mindfulness works best when it’s developmental, shared, and embedded in adult modeling and brain science.
I am happy to share more if desired.
After working with children doing Rolfing Structural Integration for 47 years (and counting) one of the main lessons I’ve learned is to ask the children. Give them the opportunity to figure out what works for them and keep adjusting as they grow and learn. Also completely agree with everyone that the most important teaching is for the adult to embody it. Be honest and humble, share their own learning process and how they came to understand things and give the children an opportunity to do the same. Thank you for all of your good work.
Children are are less tainted by the myriad stresses and conditioning of modern life than adults. As such, mindfulness practices are not generally as useful a tool for them to employ.
Thank you for engaging publicly with these large-scale findings. The humility in your reflection strengthens the field.
I’m not a researcher. I’ve spent the last fourteen years working with adult students in contemplative practice, and I’m speaking from that lived experience rather than formal data.
One pattern I’ve repeatedly observed is that mindfulness alone is often not initially stabilizing for dysregulated adults. Increasing awareness can amplify unprocessed affect before sufficient regulatory capacity is in place to manage it. In trauma-exposed individuals, open monitoring sometimes creates space without providing containment.
If that dynamic holds in children — particularly in populations with nontrivial stress or trauma exposure — I wonder whether attentional mindfulness may increase signal before increasing regulation.
In my own work, I’ve found it useful to sequence practices differently: brief exposure to basic mindfulness followed by explicit autonomic regulation training (paced breathing, structured somatic anchoring) before sustained open monitoring. Framed simply, awareness seems more stabilizing once regulation capacity is strengthened.
I fully agree that teacher embodiment and relational safety likely matter greatly. My question is whether physiological sequencing may be equally critical. A well-held classroom may not offset the destabilizing effects of awareness if regulatory scaffolding is insufficient.
It would be interesting to see future trials compare awareness-first models with regulation-first models, particularly in trauma-exposed youth.
I offer this not as criticism but as a hypothesis informed by practice experience. I appreciate the transparency and ongoing refinement in your work.
Thank you for such a thoughtful reflection regarding the results of this study and its implications.
I’m happy to share some reflections on this as an educator, coach and in my own personal practice (warning, it’s a bit lengthy).
Admittedly, as someone who has embraced a mindfulness practice into my own life and who wants to promote this practice and way of being in others, my initial reaction was one of shock and disappointment. Then I caught myself, recognized the unconscious reaction, and asked, “okay, why might this be the case and what else is it teaching us?”
As you point out, both context for adapting different practices, and the adults around children, may have significant impacts on the effectiveness of mindfulness teachings for kids. As Dr. Bessel Van der Kolk notes in “The Body Keeps the Score”, emotionally available and regulated adults are crucial for children’s mental, social and emotional development and health. I can see how having teachers, parents, caregivers, coaches and other adults who embody a mindfulness practice and lifestyle could be more impactful on a child’s development than simply teaching a child mindfulness given how much children attune to the adults around them from infancy through their youth.
With regard to context and adaptability, while I haven’t read the studies you reference and therefore do not know the details of the curriculum, introducing mindfulness in ways that are more passive and informal may be more accessible, beneficial, and effective for developing an individual mindfulness practice, awareness, compassion, regulation and so on down the road for kids. Short guided meditations focused on relaxing, positive affirmations, and body/emotional awareness, and allowing kids to engage soft fascination in nature, while not formal mindfulness training, may be powerful entry points.
Anecdotally, I and many others I know who meditate started through guided meditation recordings or simply just being outside, before engaging more formal training and practices.
Previously, in a college class I designed and taught at Eckerd College, I combined the course material discussions with self-awareness activities (journals and logging time spent indoors v outdoors, using screens, etc), assigned time in nature and getting bored, held every class outside, and facilitated short guided meditations in most class sessions. To one of your points, I developed a strong rapport with my class and tried to bring a grounded, peaceful, and compassionate energy. I had several students share how this class helped them feel more focused and creative, relieved their symptoms of depression and anxiety, improved mood and energy, and changed their daily habits around using phones, social media, etc and became more comfortable just sitting with their thoughts. Of course, this is one small example and these are college students in Florida where I got to spend 2 hrs a day for 4 days a week with them. So very different conditions and demographic.
I also integrated basic yoga and meditations into my methods as a collegiate track and field coach, alongside individual mindset discussions, and had some athletes express how these things helped them relax and slow down, or handle performance anxiety, limiting beliefs, and life stressors differently. Again, just anecdotal and no data I can actually point to, but interesting nonetheless and I think my relationship with my athletes was crucial because I prioritized their holistic wellbeing over anything else which was unique to their previous athletic experiences and they felt genuinely cared for.
Despite the differences of these cases and the research you highlight, I think these examples reinforce the importance of context and relationships, and explore options for how to help young people develop contemplative and self-awareness practices, cultivate emotional and mental resilience, strengthen positive views of oneself and others, skills for navigating stress, and simply a more expansive outlook on life. And I believe it is worthwhile exploring further. I am very curious to hear if others have any stories or examples of how they’ve integrated mindfulness type practices or teachings into their work with students (K through college).
Thank you for this valuable opportunity to share my perspective on this topic. I am relatively new to Substack but finding the opportunities to interact with authors far more meaningful than elsewhere online.
The importance of bringing an attitude of humility within this topic of mindfulness research is so important. Humility not just as an attitude of being imperfect humans in a complex world, but as an attitude that is respectful and honours the unique perspective that each human brings to their research. We all have inherent biases, assumptions and ways of looking whether we recognise them or not. An important skill in research is to recognise the particular worldview we may inhabit.
I have not read the research study that you refer to, but am aware of the findings of the MYRIAD study. I have the utmost respect for the research that is ongoing within the field, but attempting to share a perspective that challenges some of the research evidence is not easy. My experience to date in trying to share my perspective in a way that is respectful but which challenges many assumptions has been incredibly difficult. Attempting to share a different perspective assumes that others who are in positions of authority and influence within the field will receive your contribution with the spirit of co-operation, mutual respect and genuine heartfelt intention to open up avenues of exploration that may not otherwise be available. Illuminating blind spots in current scientific research can only come from honouring diverse perspectives.
I have completed a masters in mindfulness-based approaches and my final year thesis was an autoethnography which explored my unique culturally situated perspective against the research available at the time. I graduated in 2024, long after having to leave my career as a healthcare professional in 2015 through significant ill health.
After leaving work, I started a regular mindfulness practice and took MBCT courses, compassion courses and courses on Buddhist meditation. I had voiced concerns about the challenges I experienced in my meditation practice and had sought advice and reassurance on a number of occasions.
During the periods of research for my masters course I came to understand that I had experienced profound childhood emotional neglect and abuse, but that the nature of the childhood trauma and the dysfunctional patriarchal household that I grew up in had never been recognised. It was just how things were. My needs, my emotions and physically painful experiences were not met with attunement and care, but with dismissal, ridicule and humiliation. I was 'the problem child' who was never truly seen because my parents were carrying their own unhealed childhood wounds, traumas and own experience of emotional neglect that they projected onto me. This is not about blaming and shaming anyone, but about the painful acknowledgement that a dysregulated carer cannot regulate themselves, let alone co-regulate their children. I was a parentified child who unknowingly and unconsciously became the carer within the household, sensing and anticipating moods and trying to avoid conflict, criticism or ridicule.
The first online retreat I sat as part of the masters course unearthed a torrent of repressed emotionally charged memories. I realised at a visceral level that had been living in survival mode all my life until I crashed. Alexithymia had served a very important role in trying to keep me safe. The deep well of toxic shame that accompanies and distorts the reality of your experience means that speaking out about such experiences within the mindfulness community and acknowledging the profound impact of early childhood trauma and disrupted attachment may not be so easily recognised or understood, is itself incredibly challenging. Speaking out feels like a huge risk because you were never believed if you tried to share concerns and you learnt to stay quiet and small.
The challenges I have endured by sharing and articulating direct experiences of the root causes of 'meditation-related adverse events' that were dismissed and minimised by teachers, researchers and academics on an individual and institutional level is beyond belief, yet I am now more grounded in my own authenticity and integrity and recognise I am providing a perspective that challenges certain ways of looking that may threaten the previously held sense of safety and security.
Complex PTSD and developmental trauma do not feature in the DSM. Adverse childhood experiences are known stressors to a developing child, but in reality the measurement of these is not straightforward. The timing, duration and intensity are all factors which are impact the health, wellbeing and 'resilience' of the child. We have to understand that 'masking' and 'performing' by being who we believe we need to be in order to feel safe in the social setting and belong to our tribe may be a trauma response. Fawning means we abandon ourselves and our needs, to please or appease in order to try and keep ourselves safe. We have disconnected from our own body because we never received the attunement necessary and have no capacity to self regulate or emotionally self soothe. Maladaptive self-soothing is rife within our culture, as is numbing and distraction techniques that try to prevent the repressed, unhealed parts of ourself from surfacing.
This is a complex area to navigate, but my concerns relate to the lack of appropriate understanding regarding the role of interpersonal neurobiology and the quality, texture and sensitivity within the relational safe holding during mindfulness practices and exercises. Mindfulness and compassion have been described as 'caught, not taught'. My unique experience, perspective and practice means that my nervous system now senses whether another human feels safe and my body provides the feedback long before mental cognition. The parts theory of 'Internal Family Systems' created by Dick Schwartz resonates with me for several reasons.
If someone has repressed unhealed parts that carry shame, fear, anger or grief, I sense them. My experience is that many (but not all) mindfulness teachers teach from a part. Relational dynamics of power and shame, control and vulnerability, and an absence of humility are like red flags to my nervous system. I have experienced so much invalidation, gaslighting and stonewalling that I have come to appreciate that not everyone is able to truly hear or accept my perspective without their own protector parts coming to the rescue. Healing from relational trauma forces you to look deeply and carefully at your worldview and assumptions and the relative positions of privilege, perspective and power.
So many humans are carrying wounds that they may not even realise have impacted them and their way of being. There are parts of us that may have been rejected, denied, repressed and exiled in order to remain attached to caregivers or belong within our social structures and hierarchy. Mindfulness practice may allow for the firefighters and protector parts to come to the fore in an effort to protect the most vulnerable exiled parts that we carry. Until we are able to recognise the deeply unpalatable truth about the existence of a shifting spectrum of attunement or neglect within the parent-child dynamic, then we risk over simplifying the mechanism and function of mindfulness practices and potential for unintended harm.
The embodiment that you mention in your article feels like the presence and awareness of an attuned, regulated human nervous system that can meet experience within themselves and others without agenda. The non-fixing, non-striving and non-judgemental awareness that is described in mindfulness practice becomes a refinement of the attitude we slowly learn to cultivate through recognising our shared humanity and shared vulnerability from simply being human. The profound impact of sustained childhood emotional neglect distorts our sense of self and impairs our ability to sit with ourself without distraction or overwhelm. We feel profound shame simply for existing with needs and emotions that were never met.
Within educational settings, there is automatically a power dynamic that exists between teacher and pupil, just as there is between parent and child. Behavioural expectations of pupils are set without necessarily having any trauma-informed perspective within the classroom. Ultimately teachers may not necessarily be in a position to know what goes on behind closed doors at the home of the child or how that may impact the capacity of the child to meet their emotions and inner landscape with kind curiosity. That is before we explore the role of poverty, disadvantage or lack of stability within the home environment.
Exploring the rich, nuanced complexity of human experience is not something easily measured through quantitative research. I hope that contributing a different personal perspective provides some food for thought. My mindfulness meditation practice feels bittersweet, because it now allows and supports me to tenderly meet, hold and understand the needs of the child that was never seen, met or understood, but the slow process of healing means that you see the patterns of behaviour, verbal and non-verbal communication and unmet needs in others. It is the presence of an attuned, regulated human being who is not overwhelmed by your experience and who can mirror back your own basic goodness that allows for healing through non-pathologising.
Thank you for reading if you made it this far!
Thank you for your comment. I would like to read your autoethnography.
Thank you for your interest. Please send me a direct message via Substack with your email and I’ll send you a copy.
Thanks for openly dealing with this development. I’m not sure I agree with some of your conclusions though:
1. For example, you say the people delivering the courses were experienced and well trained, and yet you also conclude that the poor results may be due to shortcomings in these individuals.
2. You mention that in your unpublished study there is evidence of systemic outcomes (ripple effects). You mentioned this in a recent podcast but the evidence you cited was that teachers had more faith in the bureaucracy. Is this really evidence of systemic change or just evidence that teachers are less critical?
I have granddaughters in that same group who spent their earlier years in Germany, half in American schools and half in German. The elder has had concentration issues, mostly associate with social media. The younger is more inwards focused with reading and journaling. I'm wondering how much the Danish kids are influenced by social media, which is hardly conducive to learning how to focus. Perhaps if we were able to provide alternatives to the "anti-social media" that is designed to induce dopamine on demand, training on mindfulness might be more successful.
Thanks for the reflections on how to interpret the findings. I was so shocked by it, geniunely surprised just based on my own experience. To understand that it can be lost in translation is so important and to begin with teachers seems so obvious now you have highlighted it. I really think that understanding how pur brains work is a bridge for some and a permisssion slip for many more. How amazing would it be if it was normalised!
Getting some children to sit still and engage is the challenge having tried it … it would be best delivered following exercise and exertion which is another problem in the education system as we have reduced the amount of physical activity of children in schools when I feel it should be increased. The classroom is focused on the mind but if the school day could have a 50/50 approach to study and movement I feel the children’s engagement in class and results would be better all round. Meditation has to be taught as a life long skill to be practised alone and collectively as a school community … 10 sessions could never be enough … and also include further support for whatever arises in those children with ‘special needs’ … and ‘special circumstances’ as we also have to acknowledge the environment that some children arrive into at home… it’s therefore never going to be a 1 size fits all approach … but I really hope we keep trying 🙏🏻
I read both studies referenced. In the Hirschberg et. al. study I could not find the actual PROMIS scores pre and post intervention. While the graph shows a decrease with the intervention, without the actual scores it is hard to know how many participants actually received a clinically robust effect.