Getting the Buffalo off Their Chests

Mindfulness practice has increasingly been shown to provide a powerful method of addressing the mental health needs of young people. In this article, teacher-researchers discuss a mindfulness experiment in a high school English language arts classroom. Students practiced meditation and other mindfulness activities and were surveyed to see how their attitudes changed about stress, learning, and test pressures, among other things. Results showed that students' mindfulness and focus increased, and they gained in self-awareness and self-understanding after doing the eight-week program.