Mindful Breathing — A Metacognitive Strategy for Self Regulation

Many teachers and students recognize that stress is greatly impacting their lives. It may be related to school, their work life, finances or family situations. Chronic stress has a debilitating effect on all aspects of our lives, including our academic performance, our interpersonal relationships and our physical and mental health. One way to combat chronic stress is to incorporate mindfulness practices into our daily lives. Mindful Breathing is a metacognitive strategy for increasing self-awareness, monitoring cognition, attention and emotions, cultivating wellness and reducing stress. It combines a deep breathing technique with mindfulness that increases our ability to monitor our cognition and regulate our attention and emotions. It also promotes a healthful mindset so we can cope with daily stressors more effectively. Mindfulness techniques like mindful breathing are currently receiving considerable attention from researchers in the fields of psychology and neuroscience. Psychologists and mental health practitioners are finding therapeutic benefits to teaching self awareness practices such through mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness based cognitive therapy (MBCT) which share similarities with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). These types of therapies are “present centered” and “solution focused” approaches for improving the quality of thinking and enhance self-awareness. Mindfulness practices as therapeutic interventions for psychological conditions enhance metacognitive thinking ability (self knowledge and self regulation) and introduce healthful patterns of thinking to enhance mood and reduce anxiety. Mindful breathing can be taught to individuals or groups to increase metacognitive thinking and to develop resilience to respond to stressful situations. In the field of education, teachers and students benefit from using mindfulness practices such as mindful breathing that build self-knowledge and self-regulation. Learn more about mindful breathing at www.mindfulbreathing.net.