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Mindful Wellbeing for Teachers with Stress and Anxiety

Develop your mindfulness skills and learn how to reduce stress and anxiety in the classroom and beyond.

849 enrolled on this course

A man with beard standing on the street with his eyes closed, enjoying a moment of peace.

Mindful Wellbeing for Teachers with Stress and Anxiety

849 enrolled on this course

  • 4 weeks

  • 4 hours per week

  • Digital certificate when eligible

  • Introductory level

Find out more about how to join this course

Discover practical mindfulness techniques with the University of Aberdeen

From dealing with the pressures of COVID, to managing workload, the classroom can be an increasingly stressful environment.

On this four-week course, you’ll be introduced to practical techniques to reduce the impact of stress and anxiety in the education profession.

Framing mindfulness techniques and practices within the context of educational settings, you’ll learn to manage your stress and anxiety symptoms whilst also gaining tips to enhance the wellbeing of your students.

Explore the scientific principles of mindfulness for teachers

Referencing key neurobiological research, you’ll discover how neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, and phenomenologists are exploring the effects of mindfulness on the brain and nervous system.

As you encounter techniques relating to mind, body, and compassion, you’ll link this back to these scientific principles, helping you contextualise the practical mindfulness techniques and advice featured on this course.

Examine compassionate practices and mindful self care

Compassion towards yourself and others is proven to affect the chemicals circulating on your body and help maintain homeostasis.

Using a wide range of exercises and activities, you’ll learn the value of self care and how to continue sustainable applications of mindfulness in the classroom and beyond.

Improve your reflective practice and reduce anxiety

Guided by experts in mindfulness, you’ll use reflective journaling throughout this course, helping you enhance your understanding of what induces stress and anxiety in your personal context.

By the end of this course, you’ll have furthered your knowledge of what contributes to stress and anxiety for educators, whilst gaining a broad range of approaches and techniques to help address and reduce these stressors.

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Skip to 0 minutes and 13 seconds Hello, and a warm welcome here to the University of Aberdeen. And our future learned course, mindful well being, to support teachers with stress and anxiety. So the big question we want to look at on this course is, can mindfulness support teachers in dealing with their stress and anxiety of the everyday things that we deal with in the classroom? We will look at what mindfulness is, how would you define it, and one of the benefits that it can bring to you. But many people still regard mindfulness as a tool for calm and relaxation. And this really doesn’t do justice to the huge potential impact and positive effect that mindfulness can have on our well being.

Skip to 1 minute and 3 seconds For instance, if we develop self awareness, we are able to see the habits that we have, the thinking habits. Even if those are full of stress and worry, we can at least be aware of them, and have the choice to do something about it. So, to treat mindfulness as a tool for relaxation and calm, it’s a bit like having a top of the range computer, and only using it to do calculations. The amount of evidence is growing, particularly the neurobiological evidence that substantiate the positive impact that mindfulness can have not only on our well being, but also on the structure of our brain. Imagine that we can actually develop practices to re-sculpt our own brain.

Skip to 1 minute and 49 seconds And with mindfulness, we have lots of practices that we could use at the mental gym to develop our mindfulness in our everyday life. On this course, we will look at mindfulness practices such as paying attention, using the body, the breath, being aware of our emotions, developing our heart fullness in terms of compassion, and loving kindness. And all of these will become a set of tools that you can call on at any point, particularly in a busy classroom, or at the end of a difficult day at school. So as a teacher, we know you have so many demands on your time. So where do you find time to look after your own mental well being?

Skip to 2 minutes and 34 seconds At the end of this course, we hope that you will be able to understand how you can use the tools and techniques of mindfulness, understand the neurobiology which underpins those, and be able to apply these techniques not just in the classroom, but to any area of your everyday life. So, let’s take that first step forward and see if we can answer that big question. How can mindfulness support you as a teacher to manage your anxiety and stress?

Syllabus

  • Week 1

    What is Mindfulness and How Do We Practice it?

    • Introduction to Mindfulness

      This activity will provide an introduction to mindfulness and how it can help you with stress and anxiety.

    • Journaling on the Course

      This activity will introduce you to keeping a journal as part of the course and provide an overview of how we would like you to use it.

    • Practicing on the Course

      This activity will introduce you to the audio mindfulness practices on the course and give you the opportunity to reflect on these.

    • Science and Principles Underpinning Mindfulness

      This activity will introduce you to the science and principles that underpin mindfulness and the challenges surrounding it.

  • Week 2

    Mindfulness of the Body

    • Introduction to Mindfulness of the Body

      This activity will introduce you to becoming more connected with your body.

    • Mindful Body Practices

      In this activity we will take you through a series of audio mindfulness practices and you will have the opportunity to reflect on these.

    • Science and Principles of Body Based Mindfulness Practices

      This activity will take you through the evidence base and neurobiology underpinning mindfulness.

  • Week 3

    Mindful Compassion

    • Introduction to Mindful Compassion

      This activity will introduce you to being compassionate to yourself.

    • Mindful Body Practices

      This activity will take you through a series of audio mindfulness practices and you will have the opportunity to reflect on these.

    • Science and Principles of Compassion

      By the end of this activity you will have an understanding of the evidence base and neurobiology underpinning mindfulness.

  • Week 4

    Mindfulness of the Mind

    • Introduction to Mindfulness of the Mind

      This activity will introduce you to mindfulness of the mind.

    • Mindful Mind Practices

      This activity will take you through a series of audio mindfulness practices and will you will have the opportunity to reflect on these.

    • Science and Principles of Mind based Mindfulness Practice

      This activity will take you through the evidence base and neurobiology underpinning mindfulness.

    • Course Completion

      Course completion message and activities.

When would you like to start?

Start straight away and join a global classroom of learners. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.

  • Available now

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Apply mindfulness to address stress and anxiety
  • Develop mindfulness practices to support reduced anxiety and stress
  • Describe the evidence base and neurobiology underpinning mindfulness
  • Develop reflective journaling techniques

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for educators working in all settings and at all levels who recognise the impact of stress and anxiety in the workplace and want to explore the advantages of mindfulness.

Who will you learn with?

I am course co-ordinator for post graduate mindfulness courses and have regularly worked with teachers for over 10 years, supporting wellbeing techniques. Her current research in in embodied teaching.

Who developed the course?

University of Aberdeen

University of Aberdeen is the 3rd oldest Scottish and 5th oldest UK University. With 14500 students from 120 countries, it is a world leader in medical research, energy, environment, law and business.

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Ways to learn

Choose the best way to learn for you!

Subscribe & save

$27.99

For the first two months. Automatically renews

Develop skills to further your career

  • Access to this course
  • Access to 1,000+ courses
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Digital certificate when you're eligible

Cancel for free anytime

Buy this course

$104/one-off payment

Fulfill your current learning need

  • Access to this course
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Printed and digital certificate when you’re eligible

Limited access

Free

Sample the course materials

  • Access expires 25 Apr 2024

Find out more about certificates, Unlimited or buying a course (Upgrades)

T&Cs apply.

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