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6. The One Where Mindfulness Makes a Comeback
32 Plays1 month ago
Welcome back to The Mindful Educator Podcast!
In this heartfelt and grounding episode, Victoria dives deep into the true meaning of mindfulness—beyond the buzzword and the misconceptions. Drawing from personal experience as a teacher, mum, and mindfulness instructor, she shares how this simple yet powerful practice has helped her navigate life's chaos and how it can do the same for you.
🎧 In this episode, you'll hear about:
- The real definition of mindfulness (hint: it's not just meditation)
- Why it matters now more than ever—for adults and especially our young people
- Eye-opening mental health statistics in Australia and what they mean
- Practical, down-to-earth ways to bring mindfulness into your day
- “Oopsie days” – what they are and why they’re a sign you need to ground yourself
- The ripple effect of stress and why a few deep breaths can make all the difference
Victoria shares relatable stories, emotional truths, and simple takeaways you can try immediately—whether you’re a busy parent, overwhelmed educator, or just in need of a mindful reset.
🧠✨ Try the week-long mindfulness challenge Victoria mentions and let her know how you go!
💬 Mentioned in this episode:
- Free Daily Mindfulness + Gratitude Journal (coming soon to the website)
- Weekly mindfulness tips on Instagram and Facebook
Recommended
Transcript
Intro
Introduction and Personal Reflections
00:00:37
Victoria R
Hello, welcome back to the Mindful Educator podcast. Oh, it has been an interesting yeah couple of weeks in our house. We have caught like every bug that is going around town at the moment. And I think it's a case of not all of us getting the same one. I think we've caught like a different one every time. So I'm really hoping we're on the tail end of all of this, but I guess time will tell.
00:01:02
Victoria R
We'll see how we But while I've got all kids back at school and I've got a few moments, I thought I would jump on and record this podcast
Mindfulness: A Life-Changing Topic
00:01:10
Victoria R
now. And this is about a topic that ah is quite dear to me now. It's one that has really helped um change a lot of things in my life and how I approach things.
00:01:24
Victoria R
And it's all about mindfulness. And a lot of what you might be going, oh, here we go. That word again, because it is a bit of a buzzword at the moment. It's kind of popping up in a lot of um places like even, you know, radio and whatnot, you're hearing about it all the time. And a lot of people also have that misconception that mindfulness is meditation, where it's actually not.
00:01:51
Victoria R
Meditation is a type of mindfulness, but it's not what mindfulness actually is.
Understanding Mindfulness: Beyond Meditation
00:01:56
Victoria R
So what I'm going to take you through today is pretty much going through what mindfulness why I'm so passionate about it, what benefits there are um from doing it, and anything else I feel like telling you along the way.
00:02:10
Victoria R
So let's get stuck in. So let's first of all clarify what mindfulness is. so As I mentioned, it's not just meditation. Basically, mindfulness is being aware of the present moment.
00:02:21
Victoria R
All right. So it's being aware of your thoughts, your feelings, your bodily sensations and the surrounding environment. And it's doing it in a way where it's being nonjudgmental. You're being open. You're just being you're just being present.
00:02:38
Victoria R
And ah way I simplify it down for children when I'm doing sessions with them is just saying it's also connecting to your senses. So what you're seeing, what you're hearing, what you're touching, what you might be tasting. And what's the other one?
00:02:54
Victoria R
and what you might be smelling but to think about that one. and So it's literally just being aware of what is happening at that present moment. So it's not thinking about what you've got to do tomorrow. It's not thinking about that conversation that you had previously.
00:03:08
Victoria R
It is simply being present right now.
Mental Health Benefits of Mindfulness
00:03:12
Victoria R
And there are so many benefits that have been found that come from doing a mindfulness practice.
00:03:20
Victoria R
and it's so great for our minds for a start it's actually really good to rest our mind and meditation is where um this kind of gets I think a little bit mistaken because meditation is when you're resting your mind and it can take practice it is one of those things that you kind of have to chip away at um but it is definitely beneficial once you've worked out kind of well how to do it or how it works for you when you're doing it but the reason that decided to start um kind of heading down the mindfulness path and becoming a mindfulness instructor, which I completed about, I think it's about two years ago now, two years ago, I'm not too sure actually.
00:03:57
Victoria R
I've said the time just seems to go, who knows, I could have that totally wrong. um And start the mindfulness sessions in the town that I live in is the benefits for adults and children for doing mindfulness has actually been proven in a lot of studies and As you're probably aware, there are a lot more mental health issues out there at the moment.
00:04:23
Victoria R
um Probably that doesn't sound quite right, but we're we're being made aware of the fact that mental health is a big thing. It always has been a big thing, but we haven't always spoken about it as much. And i think there's a lot more awareness around it.
00:04:36
Victoria R
But in saying that, we're also living in a very different world to what we used to live in. We've got technology that we're competing against. We've got, um, everything's kind of at your fingertips. Now there's never really any downtime. Like you can literally be on 24 seven if you want it to be.
00:04:53
Victoria R
And for some people they are.
Technology, Youth, and Mental Health Challenges
00:04:56
Victoria R
So naturally this is going to affect what is happening mentally, what is happening physically. And it's been found, we've got studies here from various, um,
00:05:10
Victoria R
websites, I think this one's the Australian Bureau of Statistics, but it basically says one in five Australians experience a mental health condition in any given year and almost one in two will experience a mental health condition at some point in their lifetime.
00:05:23
Victoria R
So they're pretty big statistics when we're already looking at it. So almost one in two of us is going to have a mental health condition at some point throughout our life. And for some people that might just be ah short-term mental health condition, for others it's going to be a long-term mental health condition.
00:05:39
Victoria R
It's also saying that anxiety is the most common mental health condition in Australia right now. All right, so on average, there's one in four people, so one in three women and one in five men will experience anxiety throughout their life. All right, so already these statistics aren't sounding that great.
00:05:59
Victoria R
And then it says here, this is kind of the one that concerns me a lot, nearly 40% of young Australians aged 16 to 24 are that's more than 1 million people experience a mental health disorder or experience a mental health disorder in the previous year. And it was up from 26% in 2007.
00:06:19
Victoria R
So that was the latest statistics taken from 2022. Now,
00:06:25
Victoria R
yeah obviously, that was three years ago. it'd be really interesting to see what the statistics are now regarding that, because I i suspect that it's probably increased.
00:06:36
Victoria R
i actually think that um our young people are experiencing a lot more mental health conditions than what we would have when we were growing up.
00:06:47
Victoria R
And like I said, it's not the whole reason, but I think technology does have a very big part to play in that. um But that's a conversation for another day. ah But what we're now dealing with is a lot of children that do show a lot of anxiety, that do you start displaying symptoms of depression.
00:07:08
Victoria R
um not to mention the other health and mental health conditions that are out there as well.
00:07:15
Victoria R
And as someone who has worked with children for a majority of my adult life, I also and witness to seeing this firsthand as well and also, you know, being a parent and working and being around other children, it is quite evident that this isn't this isn't just something that's going to go away.
00:07:37
Victoria R
um It's something that is definitely affecting a lot of people um and we don't quite know yet what the long-term repercussions of all this is going to be. We're kind of, yeah, we're kind of the first lot of people dealing with this new kind of type of society where, you know, you do something, you mess up and it's there for everyone to see.
00:08:04
Victoria R
There's video evidence. It's not going to go away. And as adults, we find that incredibly difficult to deal with. So how on earth do we expect our children, our tweens and our teens to be able to handle something that most adults struggle with?
00:08:23
Victoria R
And this is where, for me, i wanted to be able to do my bit and help kind of build that resilience and build that bravery and help these children be able to ah suppose, have those coping mechanisms to to be able to go forth and be able to assist them when these challenges do arise.
00:08:50
Victoria R
And I also have the hope that I will be able to do this more with adults as well because it is something that is so important. And as someone who has suffered from mental health myself, I know exactly yeah the effect that it can have and I know how dire it can be.
The Emotional Impact of Mental Health and Mindfulness Advocacy
00:09:07
Victoria R
and just how your own mind can sometimes work so badly against you that you know that it's not rational you know that it's it's almost like he yeah you yeah you're you're aware but you're not aware of what's going on and it's a very odd feeling and I really don't want others to have to experience the severity to which I have and I've witnessed others experiencing as well And I think we can also understand just as a society, we are seeing that there has been an increase in suicides.
00:09:45
Victoria R
And in a small town that I live in, there has not been a great track record over the previous years. um And it has been something that the effect, it is a huge ripple effect, whether you're close to that person or not, to be able to ah deal with that is very confronting and it affects us all it affects everyone around you and I don't want our children to be growing up thinking that they've got no other option thinking that if they end their life it's better off for them and for everyone else because that is not the case
00:10:29
Victoria R
sorry I get very emotional talking about this um And so for me, mindfulness is kind of a small part, a small key in helping with this.
Implementing Mindfulness in Schools and Workplaces
00:10:42
Victoria R
It is something that is able to allow people to come back to their bodies, to connect with their minds, their hearts, themselves. And in such this fast-paced world that we live in so many of us need this more than we even realise.
00:11:00
Victoria R
So for me to be able to lead these sessions, to be able to offer them. It really, it it is something that I feel very strongly about.
00:11:12
Victoria R
And I would love to be able to see this done in schools as just part of the curriculum, as something that is just a normal part of the day where they can have that time to just be.
00:11:25
Victoria R
Because don't know if you've been in a school classroom recently, but it's pretty full on at the moment. um There's a lot that needs to happen, a lot that needs to be done throughout the day And it can feel very rushed. And this isn't only for the benefit of the children. I honestly believe that staff and teachers would greatly benefit from a daily mindfulness practice within the classroom setting as well.
00:11:48
Victoria R
um And I believe that all of us will be able to benefit from doing some type of mindfulness throughout our day. so if you find yourself...
00:12:01
Victoria R
this is a kind of I call it one of those oopsie days. If you find yourself having a day where you're kind of running into things a lot or you're dropping stuff all the time or maybe the doom scrolling has kicked in if you're not being aware of any physical cues from your body, there's a very good chance that you might need to just take a moment and have a little bit of mindfulness in your day.
00:12:29
Victoria R
so Like I said, I call these oopsie days and i know i know when I have these days that I am totally not grounded, that I'm obviously off with the fairies and I need to bring myself back into my body and back into the present moment.
00:12:44
Victoria R
But a lot of the time people ignore these different cues and signs that they get. They're too busy. There's too much going on. They're feeling too stressed or too rushed or there's a deadline or they've got to do this or they've got to do that.
00:12:55
Victoria R
And the thing that is great about mindfulness is it doesn't have to be a long practice. It is something that can be done within less than a minute if you want to. It is so easy to do And one of my favorite ones is just breathing.
00:13:13
Victoria R
And I'm not talking about, you know, your everyday breathing. I'm talking about your deep breathing, the purposeful breathing where you just literally just take a moment to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.
00:13:24
Victoria R
And you do that maybe four or five times and just notice a difference. Do it now if you can. And just what do you notice is happening to your body and your mind as you're doing it?
00:13:39
Victoria R
right You might be like, oh, Victoria, this is so ridiculous. And that's okay. You can curse me. I don't care. But I would like you just to take that moment to just do four or five deep breaths. And I will guarantee that most of you,
00:13:52
Victoria R
if not all of you will instantly feel that little bit calmer just from doing that one simple exercise there. Now on my socials, I do like to share a mindfulness tip each week. That's something that I've started doing. I've probably been doing it for about the last year.
00:14:09
Victoria R
ah And it's also a really good reminder for me as well, because I'm like you guys as well. I get caught up in the moment and feel the rush and feel the stress. And I also do forget sometimes to take a moment and just be mindful.
00:14:26
Victoria R
And so it is a really good reminder for me too. But there are so many other ways that you can practice mindfulness in your everyday life. So as I mentioned at the start, meditation is a type of mindfulness and there are so many things out there to help you with meditation.
00:14:41
Victoria R
A lot of people go, oh no, I'm not going to sit there and go h ah with my legs and arms crossed and you know eyes closed. It doesn't have to be like that. There are so many apps and free downloads and this and that where you can do like a quick five-minute meditation. It's a guided one and you just listen along and you just do it and it's just bringing it back into your body.
00:15:03
Victoria R
And so many people that do this find that, if for example, if you do it at the start of the day, it's a really great way to set you up. And um just from speaking to people, they have noticed a massive difference, even in their productivity, in their focus, in their calmness throughout the day.
Simple Mindfulness Practices for Daily Life
00:15:21
Victoria R
um and another way that you can do it is just at the end of the day as well. You can do one to help you relax and get yourself into a deep sleep if you have trouble sleeping or falling asleep easily.
00:15:31
Victoria R
It's one way to help practice switch your mind off. um especially during those important times. When you're eating, just take a moment to, you know, really look at what it is that you're eating. Smell it, you know, maybe feel it with your hands. And then as you're chewing it, really focus on those flavors and the texture and the taste that's coming through.
00:15:53
Victoria R
That there is mindfulness. You're not thinking about anything else. You're focusing exactly on what's happening in that present moment, which is what mindfulness is. right? So it doesn't have to be overly complicated.
00:16:06
Victoria R
know, if you're outside, take your shoes off and dig your feet into the ground, into the grass, into the sand, wherever you might be, and just take a moment to feel the sensation of that sand or that grass on your feet.
00:16:18
Victoria R
Take those deep breaths, you know, close your eyes. What can you hear? What can you feel? Maybe there's a breeze blowing. If you live where I live, you'll probably get blown away by the breeze half the time.
00:16:31
Victoria R
But this is what mean. This is mindfulness. It's just literally being in the present moment. All right. It is as simple as that. But the benefits of it are so great.
00:16:44
Victoria R
All right. It has been found to help people with their mental health. all right, there is research into this. It's not me just going, oh, it's great, do it because, you know, I'm just making up these statistics.
00:16:58
Victoria R
No, it has been, there's been lots of research done into it. And I don't know if you remember, I think, I haven't actually heard it recently, but a few years ago on the radio, they did have the mindful moment sort of thing when they would tell you to stop in your car. Like, obviously, if you're driving, don't stop. But, you know, take a moment, think about this. And they kind of,
00:17:20
Victoria R
spoke and talked you through a mindful moment um throughout your day, which was a really good way um to remind people to do it as well. Because again, it is something that is definitely needed.
00:17:34
Victoria R
So said, mindfulness, it's one of those things that's so simple, but so many people don't do it. And I challenge you to maybe for the next week,
00:17:50
Victoria R
I would like you to really focus on each day doing something mindfulness related. right. And i have got lots of ideas on my Instagram and my Facebook page if you need to get some ideas for a mindful moment.
00:18:08
Victoria R
I've got lots of them. And i really urge you to do this for a week and just see what you have noticed, what difference you have noticed within your mind, what difference you have noticed within your body, all right, and just the feeling over overall.
Challenge: Practice Mindfulness for a Week
00:18:28
Victoria R
So what's this, how are you feeling after doing it? And as I said to you before, it doesn't have to be long. It can literally be less than a minute, all right. It doesn't have to be overly complicated.
00:18:39
Victoria R
If you're stuck for ideas, just focus on the breathing, Honestly, that is probably hands down one of the best um mindfulness tools that I use frequently.
00:18:50
Victoria R
And it's also a really good one when you're parenting as well and you really do just need that moment. And I know we tell our kids all the time, just take a deep breath. And that can be so frustrating for them to hear.
00:19:02
Victoria R
um But it honestly, it really does work. So if you'd like to do it with your children as well, get them just to to take a moment. I know... A few years ago, our mornings were shocking getting the kids to school. Like trying to get out of the house and get them to school on time was like torture.
00:19:25
Victoria R
And so those mornings where we had all been at each other, wasn't very calm. I actually got them to sit in the car with me before getting out and we did three deep breaths.
00:19:38
Victoria R
We took a moment. And then we got out of the car and started their day. And that really, really helped all of us just to reset, to drop back into our bodies, to be present in that moment.
00:19:52
Victoria R
And I know um one of my kids, yeah, totally took the piss out of me. But in saying that, they still did it. definitely is something that is worth doing with your children as well.
00:20:09
Victoria R
And I know um ah different phases and stages that we go through, we definitely do draw on meditation to help at night or visualization. um so all these things are such a great tool, not only for you, but for your children or the children in your lives as well. So it's definitely something worth doing.
00:20:27
Victoria R
looking into. I know a lot of workplaces are also starting to bring it in, which I think is amazing. I think it should be something that every workplace, every school needs to be doing daily.
00:20:39
Victoria R
And until then, just get yourself doing it for the next week. See how you feel. And I can guarantee you that you'll be wanting to continue it in different ways because it honestly is so beneficial to the the way we think and the way we feel.
00:20:55
Victoria R
and I am going to leave it there. I've spoken for the last 20 minutes about mindfulness, but it is something that i feel quite strongly about. um It has really helped me. It's helped me kind of reset um my own life.
00:21:10
Victoria R
And i find if I am doing those kind of oopsie day things where I'm doom scrolling, dropping, running into things, that it kind of helps bring me back into the moment and reminds me that I need to slow down a little bit. I,
00:21:25
Victoria R
And now very aware of those signs as they approach and come up. And I urge you to do the same as well because you will probably realise that um it happens a lot more than you think.
00:21:36
Victoria R
So if you're having days like that, definitely take a moment and do some deep breathing.
Audience Engagement and Future Resources
00:21:43
Victoria R
But I would love to hear how you go if you try it for the week and if you have continued doing it as well because, like I said, this is something that, yeah,
00:21:54
Victoria R
The more you do, better, like, I wouldn't say the better that you get when it comes to meditation, definitely, but the the more that you realize the benefits that it's going to have for your body and for your mind.
00:22:05
Victoria R
So i definitely get onto it. All right, I am going to leave it there. If you ever have any questions about mindfulness, want suggestions, tips, ideas, um I will be popping lots up onto the website very soon.
00:22:18
Victoria R
um And included in that is a daily mindfulness gratitude type journal. So that's a freebie. Jump on and grab that because even just that daily practice is so good.
00:22:34
Victoria R
Focusing on all the positives that have happened throughout your day. um That is another big key of it as well. Anyway, will speak to you guys very soon. Can't wait to hear about your mindfulness practices. And like I said, reach out if you have any questions.
00:22:49
Victoria R
All right. Goodbye.