Mindfulness for Staff Wellbeing With Kamalagita Hughes | In This Together Ep 10

Mindfulness trainer and author of The Mindful Teacher's Handbook, Kamalagita Hughes joins Becky Dawson to focus on why mindfulness in education matters and how educators can step out of busyness and find peace. She offers the single most practical mindfulness technique—Pausing for Presence—that teachers can implement in a busy school day to immediately reduce stress and emotional overwhelm.The episode delves into the immense pressures facing educators today, arguing that mindfulness is a crucial tool for professional development, allowing staff to be a "bigger container" who respond rather than react to behaviour that challenges and create a calmer classroom atmosphere. The discussion emphasises that leadership must champion staff wellbeing and that cultivating a "way of being" is more impactful than simply "doing" another thing.TakeawaysImplement "Pausing for Presence": Learn and use a simple, single technique of stopping for a moment to step out of autopilot, helping to reduce stress and provide a mini-reset during the school day.Prioritise Staff Wellbeing for Impact: Understand that an educator’s regulated presence creates calmer, more focused atmospheres in the classroom, even if they never teach the skills to pupils.Shift from Reacting to Responding (Behaviour Management): Mindfulness helps teachers become a "bigger container," enabling them to respond with choice rather than a knee-jerk reaction to pupil behaviour, preventing low-level incidents from escalating.Mindful Transitions: Use transitions (like walking to the staff room or break times) as purposeful opportunities to reset and come back to centre, rather than just rushing to the next task.Whole-School Wellbeing Approach: Advocate for senior leadership backing and a slow, organic growth of mindfulness, as top-down rollouts do not work—leaders must first lead themselves by practicing what they advocate.Sharing is CaringKamalagita recommends that the most valuable thing an educator can do is "Pause for Presence," which is demonstrated at the end of the episode. Don't forget to follow us on your podcast platform and give us a rating and review to help more educators find these crucial conversations. Share your thoughts, comments, questions, or brilliant work by emailing the team at [e-mail] 00:00 - Introduction: Kamalagita Hughes on Mindfulness in Education.03:24 - The Practical Technique: The most practical mindfulness technique for a busy school day: Pausing for Presence.04:10 - Stepping Out of Autopilot: Why the pause is necessary to step out of the mechanical "doing" mode and into a mindful state.05:54 - The Power of Presence: Why genuine presence is what pupils and staff want most and how it solves problems.08:37 - Teaching Experience Influences Advice: How classroom experience informs the advice on behaviour management and creating a bigger container.09:40 - Respond vs. React: Becoming a "bigger container" to respond rather than knee-jerk react to student challenges.10:53 - Creating the Weather: The teacher's influence on the atmosphere and low-level behaviour escalation.12:27 - Professional Development & Regulation: The importance of teachers' self-regulation for creating calmer classroom relationships.14:32 - Whole-School Approach & Leadership: The need for senior leadership to champion staff wellbeing and lead themselves.17:06 - Organic Change: Growing mindfulness slowly and organically, avoiding top-down rollouts.18:49 - Being vs. Doing: Resetting the mindset to see mindfulness as cultivating a way of being rather than another thing to do.21:06 - Mindful Transitions: Using change in the school day as an opportunity to reset and move out of driven doing mode.23:25 - Noticing the World: Mindfulness as being fully aware and alive in the world, not just emptying the head.24:17 - Trauma-Informed Delivery: Why mindfulness is not for everyone and the need for a compassionate presence.25:02 - Pause for Presence Practice: A live guided practice to implement immediately.