3 Lessons Learned About Teaching After Meditating 200 Hours

by Guy E. White on 29 October, 2014

What have I learned about teaching while meditating?

In the last two years, I have meditated about 200 hours. Especially after weekends of meditating 12 or more hours, I find myself carrying a new freshness and awareness into my classroom. Here’s what that awareness is telling me.

This is a secular article – nothing religious here, though many may describe some of what I’m talking about here as “spiritual.” I say this because I encounter, after a weekend meditation retreat (or even after just a 15-minute sitting) could be described in terms of “magic.” However, it’s not the type of magic that Merlin or Darth Vader used – I’m talking more about everyday magic: the stuff you notice when your mind is more fully awake.

Meditation is the cultivation of wakefulness in everyday life. That is, it’s not about blissing out, fading away, or putting my awareness on some other person or place. Instead, it’s just about paying attention to my breathing, and noticing thoughts as they come and go (and they do!).

It’s that “everyday” quality that’s most tasty to me because it follows me into the classroom. Here’s what my awake mind notices when I’m working with my students.

Lesson #1: All Students Can Learn and Want to Learn

Without exception, every student has the stuff that makes us up as humans: we are naturally curious and alive.

If I can be patient enough (and my students can be kind enough not to set fire to my classroom or hit other students), I can help each student arouse those innate human qualities within them that naturally pull them to learn.

Lesson #2: I Shouldn’t Believe Everything I Think

I’ve found that my brain can be quite wrong about a number of things. When a situation seemingly requiring my swift discipline arises, I am much slower to react. I pause a few moments.

When a student most definitely requires me to speak with them, I wait until my heart is no longer racing from anger or anxiety before I address the problem with them (usually about three minutes).

Lesson #3: “Self-Deception” is the Devil

Lying to oneself is what kills dreams, progress, and the spirit that allows learning to take place.

Students are guilty of it. However, I’m guilty of it too. I lie to myself all the time about students. Some students simply push my buttons more than others – and it’s hard to be clear minded when working with them.

That means it’s up to me to be more awake in my classroom.

What about you? How do you wake up and stay mentally present for your students?

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