Cuidado de si na escola: uma proposta para a redução do estresse e o desenvolvimento de habilidades socioemocionais na escola pública através de um programa de meditação mindfulness com adolescentes

Abstract

Given the pertinent demand for emotional balance tools so that teenagers can deal with the stress of school life and the drastic physical, psychological and social changes typical of this phase, we aimed to offer a mindfulness program, a secular meditation practice, based on the “Learning to Breathe” protocol by Prof. Patricia Broderick, PhD, at a Belo Horizonte’s Public School for students in the first year of high school. As the theoretical foundations we used studies that propose an understanding of stress in an interface among Psychology, Neuroscience and Education, which highlight the biopsychosocial dynamics of stress in adolescents’ lives, and the way this arises concomitantly with difficulties in family and peer relationships, excessive screen time, lack of supervision and support, school failure, academic pressure, social exclusion, violence, bullying, stigmatization, among others. Basing ourselves on a vast bibliography that has already highlighted the benefits of meditation for teenagers, our goal will be to adapt and articulate this protocol to the Brazilian school context and verify how it can contribute to the management of stress and the development of socio-emotional skills, so that students can take greater care of themselves and their relationships, in addition to providing a better environment for learning, reducing reactivity, agitation and dispersion, as well as facilitating the orientation of attention, concentration, openness to experience, self-compassion and empathy. Therefore, we started this research with the following question: Is it possible to create a space in public schools aimed at the developing self-care learning? In our investigation we verified which elements on the program need to be better adapted, created or articulated to our socio-historical context, in addition we evaluated through questionnaires the levels of perceived stress, socio-emotional skills, self-compassion and difficulties in emotional self-regulation. The results of this intervention were very positive. Based on the outcome of the mindfulness program accomplished, we developed a booklet containing an introduction to the benefits of mindfulness meditation, highlighting its importance in dealing with the typical stress of teenagers. The brochure also includes brief meditations, so that public school teachers who might be interested can conduct these practices during their classes, as well as incentive similar projects in their respective schools.