… brief, pre-recorded daily mindful awareness trainings discussed here significantly predict a difference in term grades in science and reading, as well as notable improvements in classroom behaviour.

– Maximizing Mindful Learning: An Innovative Mindful Awareness Intervention Improves Elementary School Quarterly Grades

A striking observation about children is that they are naturally mindful.

– Mindfulness Based Interventions for Children

Mindfulness is becoming more of a science than an esoteric art with apps like Headspace being downloaded 3.34 million times in the first quarter of 2021 and Calm being downloaded a total of about 10.5 million times in the second quarter of 2020 (statista.com). At the heart of this increasing popularity of mindfulness, is the working memory.

The working memory, “can be defined as the small amount of information that can be held in an especially accessible state and used in cognitive tasks” (Covan, 2015) and is necessary for “information processing, executive function, comprehension, problem-solving” (Covan, 2015) among other things.

For example, when attempting an open-ended comprehension exercise, a student needs to:

a) Understand the questions
b) Form a hypothesis with the questions
c) Read the passage and verify if the hypothesis was correct
d) Decode novel vocabulary in context
e) Make inferences
f) Identify answers
g) Rephrase text as it is found to fit questions
h) Re-read to check spelling, punctuation and grammar

Students have been taught to annotate passages for deeper understanding. They also need to be able to identify question types and recall the correct technique for a question type.

This is not to say that this is an onerous task; most of these processes would happen automatically since open-ended comprehension exercises have been a staple of the English curriculum for years.

What it does mean is that the exercise would be demanding on the working memory and the student would need to know that the mind would be able to handle this cognitive load well only if it is not handling anything else.

Alas, even so, the working memory is subject to the whims of the thoughts which appear in the mind. Some of these thoughts could cause anxiety. One definition of anxiety is “fear or nervousness about what might happen” (Merriam – Webster).

Anxiety drains the working memory of its vitality. Research suggests that, “corresponding anxiety is often detrimental to students’ academic performance, despite sufficient preparation and learning prior to the test” (Naveh- Benjamin et. al, 1987, as cited in Bellinger et al., 2015).

Anxiety is future oriented and it could be based on past experiences of self, others or imagined fears. The irony of anxiety is that it detracts from the very thing it seeks to secure. Paradoxically, the more important something is, the more relaxed the manner it is handled should be for the best possible outcome to ensue.

This is because, when it matters most in a cognitively demanding task (not a fight or flight type of situation) the part of the brain that needs to be at the forefront is the PFC or prefrontal cortex. When thoughts capable of giving rise to anxiety enter the consciousness, the “emotional centres of the brain rather than” “the higher cognitive centres” (Martin et al., 2013) would be very active if they are not handled expediently.

Thoughts which enter the mind without conscious intention, even if threatening in terms of future outcomes, do not necessarily have to crystallise into anxiety which hijacks the executive functions of the higher brain regions. If they are processed the right way, the working memory can continue unimpeded.

There are a number of ways to process such thoughts. All of these ways are premised on the notion of autonomy and choice. In other words, there needs to be recognition of the freedom and ability to choose.

While thoughts in themselves are inherently capable of giving rise to a variety of emotions including negative ones such as worry, they only become a problem if they are latched onto. If we take a negative thought, begin to devote attention to it, and begin to weave a narrative around it, it will become stronger and begin to loom very large in our consciousness, amplifying the intensity of the emotional response.

While this may not be a problem in certain situations, it will become a problem when it compromises functionality when it is required. Functionality is tied to quality of life. Due to a confluence of factors, people are realising that functionality does not have to be compromised even in testing circumstances.

While some have by dint of necessity, always guarded zealously their bandwidth, the advent of mindfulness as a way of life through for example the taster episodes of Headspace on Netflix, has given rise to a more widespread desire to be free from unwanted thoughts and emotions.

In essence, mindfulness promises to make mental jiu jitsu exponents of all who practise it. There are two main deceptively simple steps. First, one has to be aware of an unproductive or draining thought. Second, that thought has to be let go of. That is pretty much it.

This is of course much easier said than done because firstly, one needs to be emotionally and mentally alert and have some degree of self-awareness. Secondly, even if one were able to spot the emotion and the thought which caused it, that does not mean one would be willing to walk away from wrestling with it. Also, some things matter deeply and nothing else might seem worth paying attention to.

Mindfulness’s answer is as follows. It is precisely because something is important that one needs to spend the time problem-solving instead of being deep in emotions. In general, intense emotion impedes cognitive function. Emotions are most useful when they are channelled into problem solving efforts.

Therefore, intense emotions or anxiety has to be regulated to free the working memory to do its job.

The second step of the two-step formula mentioned earlier needs training and some spend years doing that. While, research shows the benefits will be deeper with sustained practice, it also shows that six weeks is enough to have tangible effects on how emotions and negative thoughts are handled. Some of these techniques clear the mind almost immediately and the working memory gets relief at least for the short duration necessary to complete some task.

The second step; that is, to switch attention to something where it is needed or would be better employed can be trained the following ways. First, there must be an intention to switch thoughts. Then, attention can be brought to the breath; or to how the body is feeling; or to some other thought. It turns out that it is easier to focus attention on some stimuli such as the breath or the body than to be completely focus free. Higher level practitioners are able to let thoughts weave in and out of their consciousness without conscious effort.

There have been a number of studies done on children and educational outcomes. Bellinger et al., (2015) found mindfulness “may allow students to remain focused on the task in anxiety-producing” circumstances. Participants of this study were young adult students. Bakosh et al., (2016) found that listening daily to pre-recorded guided meditation training improved both grades and classroom behaviour of primary school children.

William Stanley Jevons is said to have demonstrated the limitation of the working memory by counting beans. It turns out that counting less helps us count more.

The Brain Dojo