What is Smiling Mind?

“Our goal is to see mindfulness on the national Australian curriculum by 2020. We believe young people need to learn the skills to build a healthy mind and have the skills to navigate life’s challenges.”

Smiling Mind was developed in Australia in 2012, with the goal of delivering the philosophy and technique of mindfulness meditation in a simple way, and to as many people as possible. The Smiling Mind Education Programme, developed with teachers, psychologists and health professionals, is a series of bitesize, simple meditation modules for children, teachers and parents. The app is provided to schools for free, aiming to build happier, healthier and more compassionate children and adults who can deal with the stress and challenges of daily life.

The app, available as a mobile or web app, contains mindfulness programmes and easily accessible resources. The programme is non prescriptive and flexible, allowing teachers to use their intuition to decide when and how to bring mindfulness into the classroom. Educators are provided with visual presentations to explain mindfulness, research and other resources to successfully implement the programme in the classroom or across the school. Schools are guided through a step by step introduction to meditation, enabling them to develop a toolkit of tailored practical exercises to make mindfulness a daily practice in their school. Professional development workshops are offered, where trained facilitators demonstrate the ease of using meditation in the classroom.

Lesson plans, tailored to different ages and developmental stages, are also included. The meditations for students aged 7-9 are aimed at developing social skills and independence, whilst ages 10-12 focus on the power of thoughts, treating each other with respect, and leadership. The programmes for older students support teens as they transition through high school and on to plan for the future.

The programmes are mapped to the Australian National curriculum and designed to support Social and Emotional Learning, as well as linking well into Positive Education, popular in Australia. Students report a sense of greater awareness of their emotional well-being and improved capacity to act on this, to manage how they feel and understand the impact they can have on others. This can also lead to an increased capacity for young people to connect with their peers, parents and teachers, which helps to build stronger relationship and support networks.

Smiling Mind is quick and simple to implement in the classroom. All you need is an iOS or Android device to download the app or a computer connected to the internet to access the resources through the Smiling Mind website, as well as speakers to play the meditations to the class. Time commitment is flexible according to the needs of the class.

HundrED Criteria

innovativeness

impact

scalability

Smiling Mind uses the power of technology to provide programs that are simple, easy to use and engaging for young people. The programs are designed to be low intensity and low effort on behalf of the teachers, with no intensive training program, teachers can simply download the app and play a meditation.

Research has shown that with use of Smiling Mind, student sleep, wellbeing, ability to manage emotions, concentration, and school behaviour significantly improved, and disruptive behaviour and bullying was reduced.
Students who experienced higher levels of emotional distress before participating in the program showed the biggest improvements as a result of the program.
Teachers taking part in a 5 week Smiling Mind program reported they personally experienced improved sleep, wellbeing, ability to manage, describe and accept emotions, tension and mindfulness.

The app is currently only available in English. Originating in Australia, Smiling Mind is also now used in Spain, Portugal, the US and UK.
So far, 2 million people have downloaded the app and
25,000 educators have registered to use the program in their schools. The program is not prescriptive and it can be adapted to suit the needs of a particular community or school.