Westview Secondary School Mindfulness Course PDF

24-25 S.3 1st Term Exam English Language Paper 1: Reading & Usage P. 2 Question Booklet Part I - Reading (28 marks) A. Your school is offering a new mindfulness course next term. The school magazine has posted an article about...

24-25 S.3 1st Term Exam English Language Paper 1: Reading & Usage P. 2 Question Booklet Part I - Reading (28 marks) A. Your school is offering a new mindfulness course next term. The school magazine has posted an article about mindfulness to promote the course. (12 marks) Read the article and answer the questions. The Westview Voice Embracing the ‘here and now’ Mindfulness course will teach us the benefits of being in the moment We all need to deal with anxiety, but with today’s constant connectivity and attachment to 5 social media updates, the negative effects of stress on adolescents are worse than ever. To help us manage mental health challenges in our busy lives, Westview Secondary School will offer a brand-new course on mindfulness next term. The course, called Mind the Moment, will be run by Miss Chen, and will take place during lunchtime on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (classroom TBA). 10 Mindfulness is a form of meditation that encourages us to be completely in the present moment, with no thought of the past or future. It starts with a focus on breathing: how we are inhaling air, holding it in our lungs and exhaling it. It requires us to shut out all thoughts that don’t relate to the ‘here and now’, and to think only about things happening around us in the present moment: the cool breeze on our face, the songs of birds in nearby trees, the gentle 15 rhythm of our heartbeat, etc. There are many benefits to mindfulness. For starters, it allows us to replace anxiety with calmness, which can boost our ability to concentrate. This can help with studying and taking exams. The calmness we get from mindfulness can also help to reduce stress-related high blood pressure and balance our immune system — all essential to overall health and well-being. 20 With time and practice, mindfulness can also help us control our thoughts and feelings. We can learn to recognise when negative ones are about to begin and how to cope with them. Being more aware of our thoughts and feelings can give us more control over them and enable us to continue working to achieve success in life. Learning to be mindful won’t be easy for most of us, as we aren’t used to sitting still and 25 quiet with our phone out of reach for extended periods of time. We are used to constant stimulation, from our personal devices and social media, so it will take practice to learn to block out the ‘noise’ surrounding us. We will need to overcome our short attention spans — another side effect of the social media age — and learn to be patient, slow down, and enjoy quiet moments. 30 Recognising these and other challenges in getting teens to be mindful, Miss Chen will have a ‘drop-in’ policy for Mind the Moment. After signing up for the course, students can attend the lunch sessions whenever they like, without pressure or expectation. However, Miss Chen will have two rules: ‘Show up on time. Finish if you show up.’ In other words, if you begin a session, you will be expected to stay to the end. Here’s wishing you a mindful future. 2