education www.bahrainthismonth.com November 2021 59 Julia Knight has been teaching for 18 years in London, Bangkok and, is now a principal in Bahrain. She writes for many education magazines worldwide and offers teacher training and consultancy. You can follow her on Twitter @KnightWilliams. simple way to improve wellbeing and happiness across the school campus. Schools and parents can encourage older students to keep a gratitude journal and make it a habit to collect and focus on the nice things that happen throughout the day. Parents can also ask their children what the best bit about their day was. This helps children to relive the positive experiences and create the connections that in turn keeps the serotonin (the happy hormone) level high. Many schools have introduced mindfulness meditation into their day and this involves focusing on the present moment. A simple breathing technique readies the children for the next lesson while keeping them calm, as opposed to bells or buzzers to signal change between sessions. This can be done at home too; parents can ask their children to focus on something positive like the warmth of the sunshine, or a person or place that makes them happy. Gratitude is not about forcing children to be happy or to pretend to be happy. It is a resilience building tool that even on dark days, there will be something positive to focus on and that is the art of happiness.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Mjk0MTkxMQ==