UK ministers are considering introducing mindfulness lessons in state primary and secondary schools. At a commons education select committee this week, Liberal Democrat Mr. Laws was asked whether the Department for Education planned to promote mindfulness courses to boost children’s well-being. His reply (from Daily Mail online): “We are very interested in promoting this and we certainly think that it’s an area that merits consideration based on the evidence we’ve seen to date […]Mindfulness or meditation has been shown to be an invaluable tool to help bolster young people’s resilience to psychological stress. It also boosts concentration, depth of thought, happiness and achievement.” We’re hearing more and more about how mindfulness is making its way to the UK. We reported in the August issue of Mindful magazine that Chris Ruane, the Vale of Clwyd MP, invited 12 MPs to spend 75 minutes a day meditating for 8 weeks. And it looks like Ruane’s efforts as parliament’s leading advocate for mindfulness are paying off. So far, more than 50 MPs have participated in the mindfulness course Ruane set up in conjunction with the Oxford Center for Mindfulness. The Huffington Post recently reported that another round of the 8-week course took place in February, with a further 25 signed up.
