Education is an important part of tackling any long-term issue. Complex problems often demand a consolidated effort from subsequent generations over time. Not only do we need to intervene today, but we also need to imbue our children with the values and knowledge to understand and continue the work.

When I think about the commodification of attention, widespread increases in mental health issues, and challenges in ethical decision-making, it’s clear that mindfulness will play an important role in the next generation of leaders, but what’s the best way to introduce mindfulness to youth?

This was the third question we brought to A Mindful Society 2015, where we led a design thinking workshop with a group of professionals who produced clear insights for us to share with the community.

We designated areas for each question at A Mindful Society 2015. Attendees are free to reflect on others’ ideas and post their own, while trained design facilitators analyze and group them in real-time.

Why introduce mindfulness to youth?

Good design is all about questioning assumptions, so the first discussions circled around why it’s important to introduce mindfulness to youth at all. Attendees shared a lot of passionate personal stories which tended to include a few common elements:

Being a kid in today’s world can be extremely stressful. Self-judgement is a natural reaction to a world full of conflicting ideas and values.

Mental health concerns are on the rise, and mindfulness is associated with less reactivity and a host of other improvements to health and wellness.

School is a long process and kids have a lot to learn. Many experts in the group described evidence that kids learn better when they are calm.

Introspection leads to wisdom, empathy, and a sense of interconnectedness which can bolster compassion and caring behaviour.

Start with a few key segments and spread from there.

We are fundamentally social animals, and kids are especially affected by the power of social influence. When youth see their peers / siblings getting involved with mindfulness, they’ll become naturally curious. A good strategy is to start with a few key groups then let the practice spread organically. But which specific groups are most important to address first? According to experts at the conference:

those who show mental health symptoms (anxious, inattentive, depressed)

those likely to be stressed (high-achievers, switching classes/schools)

volunteers who are already interested in meditating for their own personal reasons.

Building the case for youth themselves.

Building an effective case is essential to bring mindfulness to society. When convincing parents, teachers, principals or school administrators, we can follow roughly the same guidelines we previously published about earning trust from decision-makers in organizations: make it accessible, present the evidence and tailor the program to address real issues.

But there’s a unique challenge with kids. How do we build the case for mindfulness in the eyes of youth themselves? How do we present the program in a way that they actually want to try it? Some ideas from the group:

Focus on how mindfulness addresses issues they face (relationships, family, conflict, social, loneliness, bullying, etc.)

Make it a two-way dialogue, start a conversation with them and introduce the practice as it applies to their language and context.

Be accessible and universal in the language you choose, concepts you teach and practices you guide.

Have youth who already practice share their stories, give peers a platform to teach each other.

Embed into regular activities to make it a normal part of life (morning/bedtime routine, transitions, drama class, sports)

Offer mindfulness in media which already have youth’s attention (social media, mobile apps, video games, TV/movies, flashmobs, pop culture)

Kids change a lot as they age, remember to tailor your approach to the specific age group of your participants. There’s no one-size-fits-all.

Whose responsibility is it to introduce mindfulness to youth?

There were some who felt strongly that parents should model mindful and compassionate behaviour. They should teach their children to be present and demonstrate the attitudinal elements of mindfulness every day. Parents don’t need to force practice as an authority figure; instead, they can simply give youth access to tools and resources while encouraging them to reflect and inquire. Teach and trust them to own the process themselves.

Sure, those of us with strong mindfulness practice can bring it into our parenting, but what about those who don’t have a practice but still want the best for their kids?

Others were quick to point out that parents can’t teach what they don’t know. Sure, those of us with strong mindfulness practice can bring it into our parenting, but what about those who don’t have a practice but still want the best for their kids? The school environment is a key answer to this question. There were a wide range of ideas around how we might embed secular forms of mindfulness into the school system:

Educate and train mental health professionals who already work with schools.

Provide mindful toolkits for teachers to bring practice to class.

Find student leaders and empower them.

Make it a social event (i.e. running a mindfulness “challenge”).

Incentivize teachers (i.e. teachers can apply to grants/programs).

Influencing policy-makers to bring focused programs into the system.

Develop curiousity / cultural readiness before deploying initiatives.

Pilot programs to gather proof points and compelling stories.

Use parent-teacher evenings to consolidate (parents/teacher/students all practice together, bring in a respected speaker to introduce topic and field questions, etc.)

Make embodied practices part of the physical education curriculum.

Try to incorporate it into the routine (transitions between periods?)

In any context — whether school, home, healthcare, or work — the goal of the facilitator is to provide a safe space for people to experiment, explore and discover mindfulness for themselves. The idea of embedding mindfulness into curriculum was controversial in our group of experts, as the process can backfire if it becomes just another task. Youth need to own the experience — being too prescriptive can turn the practice into just another thing on the to-do list.