Mindfulness and Yoga in Schools A Guide for Teachers and Practitioners

CHAPTER 4: THE MINDFUL LEARNER • 77

anger. In essence, he said he had to let the anger go in order to think positive thoughts about
his peers. Samuel said that, when he did this, it made it easier for him to be friends with
Mark and some of the others kids he used to be mad at all the time.

THE WISDOM OF MINDFULNESS

A drive for wisdom comes from the intention to be effective in your life. Mindfulness com-
bined with wisdom serves personal effectiveness. Mindful wisdom can be viewed from a
few different perspectives.
Wisdom is the integration of thinking and feeling to make decisions and guide your actions
(Cook-Cottone, 2015). When working with middle school, fifth-grade female students in a
yoga-based program designed to increase self-care and decrease eating disorder risk, we intro-
duce the thinking and feeling brain as a central teaching of the program (i.e., Girls Growing
in Wellness and Balance: Yoga and Life Skills to Empower; Cook-Cottone, Kane, Keddie, &
Haugli, 2013). The children are taught about the feeling part of their brains (i.e.,  the limbic
system) and the thinking part of their brains (i.e., the prefrontal cortex). We use a drawing of a
brain to show them the connections (see Figure 4.2). The thinking and feeling parts of the brain
work together to make the best decisions. Real wisdom, equanimity, and neurological inte-
gration come from using both the thinking and the feeling parts of the brain together (Cook-
Cottone et al., 2013). This program is described in greater detail in Chapter 11 of this text.
Hanson and Mendius (2009) call mindful wisdom “applied common sense” in which
you come to understand what hurts and what helps. Wisdom in action can be viewed as
the letting go of what hurts and strengthening what helps (Cook-Cottone, 2015; Hanson &
Mendius, 2009). Sternberg (2012) makes a distinction between abstract wisdom and personal
wisdom. Abstract wisdom is knowing of the conceptual, theoretical, and even empirical
spheres of knowledge. Personal wisdom is an attitude toward life. It is the openness to
learning about yourself and how you react to and are in your world. Concentration and

Equanimity and

Integration

The brain works best

when we use the

Thinking and Feeling

parts of the brain

together to make choices. The Feeling part of our

brain is the emotional part

of our brain. It allows us to

feel our feelings and is

strongly connected to our

bodies.

The Thinking parts of our

brain help us understand

and make sense of things,

put things in order, connect

ideas, and make plans.

Breathing helps this part

calm down.

Breathing helps us pay

attention to this part (even

when we are upset).

T F

FIGURE 4.2 The thinking and feeling brain.