One of the fundamental aspects of holistic education is the importance of mindfulness and mental health. As students, teachers and parents complete tasks, work and parent, it is important to consider the emotional and mental toll it can take on each individual. The resources and tools listed in the Mind section of this website provide opportunities for parents, teachers and students to manage their stress, regulate emotion and maintain a positive mental health.
Through stress management, students can focus on a "direct experience of life that assists in self-inquiry and understanding" (Mapel, 2012). Parker et al argue that mindfulness education incorporated into daily learning plays a role in an individual's self-regulatory skills (2014) as students can handle the range of emotion through calming and coping mechanisms.
It is important to understand that managing stress and anxieties and regulating emotion is a process that is different for anyone. The resources and suggestions provided within this cite are intended to encourage a mindfulness approach to learning, teaching and living.
The social pillar of holistic education and wellbeing involved creating and nurturing positive relationships with those around you through engaging in active social wellness. "Social wellness involves building healthy, nurturing and supportive relationships as well as fostering a genuine connection with those around you" (David, n.d). Without the fostering of positive relationships with those around us, we cannot find support in anyone besides ourselves. In times of need, it is difficult to find support and comfort in the self. Therefore, it is important to find the relationships that are important to us and to care for them so that they may care for us in return.
Social wellness consideration allows us plan and connect with others and debrief all aspects of life that we feel comfortable sharing. Planned social interaction has proven to boost morale for medical residents, and can surely do the same by being an integrated requirement of one's life and routine (Hernandez, 2018). The importance of nurturing relationships and the joy that comes from doing so will be the factor that drives the importance of social wellness.
Social wellness will not have one universal meaning for a population at mass. Rather, it will be an individual experience for all. Amidst a busy life of communication, meeting new people and building caring relationships, it is understood that there will also be a need to recharge with time alone and reflection. "Self-care has been linked to increases in self-awareness, mental and physical wellbeing, life satisfaction, personal development, effective stress management, and the ability to connect more with others and the environment" - there is communication and isolation involved in the process of self-care as it one reflects and understands what they need (Viskovich & George-Walter, 2019).
One of the main pillars of holistic education is the importance of maintaining balance in all aspects of life. As such, we must be cognizant that the stress created by our work and school environments can potentially spill over into our personal lives. This can negatively impact our mental and physical health.
In order to help manage stress spillover, both maintaining work-life balance and staying organized have been recommended as two keys ways in which to decrease stress. It is known that experiencing work-life balance is considered a health promoting resource (Nilsson, Blomquvist & Anderson, 2017) and that staying organized can help reduce how stressed one perceives themselves to be (Keller, et al., 2012), which both contribute to managing the mental and physical impacts of stress. Even so, many people are not sure of how to actually make this happen in their own lives. In this section, we offer tools to students, parents and teachers to help create work-life balance and stay organized in all aspects of life.
It is important to note that work life balance can look different for everybody (Kelliher, Richardson & Boiarintseva, 2019). Some may have stricter work hours, like students or those who work in office jobs, whereas others might work at different points throughout the day, like teachers. All of these tools help with creating and organizing no matter what work life balance looks like for you.
One of the fundamental components of holistic education involves the development of physical abilities and skills. Without a doubt, exercise plays a vital role in building and maintaining physical health. An active lifestyle also contributes to social, affective and cognitive development of children (Bailey, et al., 2009).
A study (Ardoy, et al., 2014) published in 2014 looked at how cognitive performance and academic achievement of Spanish adolescents were affected by Physical Education (PE). After 4 months of study, results showed that increasing the time and intensity of PE sessions per week had a positive effect on both cognitive performance and academic achievement. A possible explanation is that exercising stimulates the production of serotonin, a chemical that is known to activate brain function associated with memory and work performance.
Another beneficial aspect of physical exercise is its effects on psychological well-being. Components of psychological well-being include a variety of dimensions such as mental health, positive self-regard, beliefs, and aspirations (Bailey, et al., 2009). Regular physical activity has proven to be conducive in reducing stress, anxiety, and depression (Anderson & Shivakumar, 2013) (Meyer, et al., 2016). A recent study led by Karmel Choi from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health suggested that our mood can benefit from exercise no matter how intensive the physical activity is (the article can be found here).
In addition, being physically active also contributes to self-confidence, personal growth, social interaction and integration (World Heath Organization). The social aspect of participation, i.e., the need of working collaboratively as a team to achieve goals, encourages the development of a number of skills and desired behaviours such as respect, morality, empathy, leadership, a sense of community, and teamwork. Moreover, the experience of success and loss helps cultivate stamina and endurance, essential traits that individuals need to have to become resilient against difficult life circumstances.
Since physical health is a crucial part of an individual’s overall growth, let’s take a look at what are the resources that we can draw on to help students lead a more active lifestyle.
Reference List
Alison E. Parker, Janis B. Kupersmidt, Erin T. Mathis, Tracy M. Scull & Calvin Sims (2014)The impact of mindfulness education on elementary school students: evaluation of the Master Mind program, Advances in School Mental Health Promotion, 7:3, 184-204, DOI: 10.1080/1754730X.2014.916497
Anderson, E. H., & Shivakumar, G. (2013). Effects of exercise and physical activity on anxiety. Frontiers in psychiatry, 4, 27.
Ardoy, D. N., Fernández‐Rodríguez, J. M., Jiménez‐Pavón, D., Castillo, R., Ruiz, J. R., & Ortega, F. B. (2014). A physical education trial improves adolescents' cognitive performance and academic achievement: the EDUFIT study. Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports, 24(1), e52-e61.
Bailey, R., Armour, K., Kirk, D., Jess, M., Pickup, I., Sandford, R., & Education, B. P. (2009). The educational benefits claimed for physical education and school sport: an academic review. Research papers in education, 24(1), 1-27
Christopher T. McCaw (2020) Mindfulness ‘thick’ and ‘thin’— a critical review of the uses of mindfulness in education, Oxford Review of Education, 46:2, 257-278, DOI: 10.1080/03054985.2019.1667759
Hernandez, R. G. (2018). Creating Structured Opportunities for Social Interactions to Promote Wellness. Academic Medicine, 93(10), 1421–1422. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000002357
Kelliher, C., Richardson, J., & Boiarintseva, G. (2019). All of work? All of life? Reconceptualising work‐life balance for the 21st century. Human Resource Management Journal, 29(2), 97-112.
Keller, A., Litzelman, K., Wisk, L. E., Maddox, T., Cheng, E. R., Creswell, P. D., & Witt, W. P. (2012). Does the perception that stress affects health matter? The association with health and mortality. Health psychology, 31(5), 677.
Mapel, T. (2012). Mindfulness and education: Students’ experience of learning mindfulness in a tertiary classroom. New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 47(1), 19–32.
Meyer, J. D., Koltyn, K. F., Stegner, A. J., Kim, J. S., & Cook, D. B. (2016). Influence of exercise intensity for improving depressed mood in depression: a dose-response study. Behavior therapy, 47(4), 527-537. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2016.04.003
Nilsson, M., Blomqvist, K., & Andersson, I. (2017). Salutogenic resources in relation to teachers’ work-life balance. Work, 56(4), 591-602.
UC Davis. (n.d.). Social Wellness. Retrieved from https://shcs.ucdavis.edu/wellness/social
Viskovich, S., & George-Walker, L. D. (2019). An investigation of self-care related constructs in undergraduate psychology students: Self-compassion, mindfulness, self-awareness, and integrated self-knowledge. International Journal of Educational Research, 95, 109-117. Retrieved July 25, 2020, from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2019.02.005.
World Health Organization. Physical activity and young people. https://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/factsheet_young_people/en/
Wozniak,T. (2019, November 5) Lower risk of depression with elevated exercise. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/11/physical-activity-may-protect-those-at-risk-for-depression/