Episode 06: The Well-Being Curriculum
Episode 6 of The Contemplative Science Podcast saw cognitive neuroscientist Dr Dusana Dorjee come on to the podcast to talk about her research into the impact of mindfulness practices on wellbeing in young people.
For the full podcast, check out the episode here.
In this episode, we cover...
Why wellbeing should be taught in schools.
How the current zero-sum system should be changed.
The different mindfulness skills young people can develop.
Dr Dusana Dorjee is a cognitive neuroscientist, and founder of the Well Minds Lab. Her research focuses on how the capabilities that underlie wellbeing change, as we get involve in contemplative practices. Dusana also specialises in developmental wellbeing and has pioneered neuroscientific research into secular meditation with children.
Here are some of the key insights from the conversation...
Children should be taught how to learn and improve wellbeing skills at school, alongside typical subjects.
”We are very good at teaching maths skills and teaching children to read, but we are not very good at teaching children wellbeing skills. One of the main reasons for that is that we know very little about how wellbeing develops. But we need to teach them in an incremental way, just like we do with other subjects, so they can become more skilled at managing their minds and mental health.
Children learn their habits from peers, teachers and parents.
“Children are wonderful mirrors. They often take from their environment what they see. So they pick up the ways we manage our emotions when we are around them. In my children, I can recognise my responses faster in them than I can recognise them in me.””
Studies suggest that “75%” of young people have not got much hope for the future.
“We don’t ask people about identity and what matters to them. And then we look at the statistics and they show that 75% of young people feel hopeless, they feel they can’t change the world (particularly due to climate anxiety) and they feel that adults have failed them. And basically, we are failing them.”
