"Mindfulness without the fluff"
The Mindful Music Teacher
I have to confess to a slightly unconventional approach to all of this…
I came to the concept of mindfulness initially around the mid 2000s when my friends started talking about it. I bought the books and tried the CDs, but only dabbled inconsistently. During the ten years of my PhD I tried to practise more regularly, but really only came to it as a regular commitment during the Covid 19 lockdown period, finding that it enriched my life significantly, and I have grown into it ever since.
So much so that, in 2023, I decided to push myself to learn more and immerse more in mindfulness by signing up to become a mindfulness teacher through an excellent course run by Mindfulness Now. I learnt much about what mindfulness was, what it wasn’t, and the many health and wellbeing benefits it can bring.
Importantly, as well as learning what I liked about it, I learned what I did not like, and so from that has emerged my own “take” on the practice of mindfulness and, more to the point, how I deliver it.
I am not one for what I regard as “over-soothing” - this type of delivery actually has quite the opposite effect on me. And since there is plenty of evidence which supports the benefits that a regular mindfulness practice can bring, in my view this requires a clear, no-nonsense and down-to-earth approach to delivery.
Equally, it’s important for mindfulness to fit in with busy lives, so it requires realistic and achievable commitment from my clients. Starting small, building bigger in time and with practice. Working with the client to tailor sessions and courses to their own needs through preliminary meetings and detailed discussions. These are the elements which are most important.
With that in mind, I work to deliver something very practical, something that clients and individuals can identify with and use in real life.
In The Mindful Music Teacher I focus on two passions:
- Developing Musical Intelligence within ourselves and our students (sharing some of my research findings).
- Becoming the best version of ourselves we can, for ourselves and our students.
These two aims are underpinned both by a continuing curiosity and a regular mindfulness practice.
My mission is to help music teachers to bring more awareness into the work we do. The Mindful Music Teacher is a space for music educators who want to stay grounded, reduce stress, and teach with more clarity and purpose.
It’s about learning to become more creative with our teaching, coming up with fresh ideas for how to approach an element, becoming creative with how we manage and teach students with particular behavioural issues, and many other areas of teaching.
It’s about learning to practise acceptance of certain situations, finding the space to step back and let go of uncomfortable feelings, perhaps irritation, and from here working out how to change ourselves for the better.
Much can be achieved through a regular mindfulness practice.
