Universal Mindfulness I
f I think back to when I was young girl, even before I started at Mayfield, my passion has always been psychology and understanding human behaviour. I love to study people
and understand what makes them tick or why they behave in a certain way. After graduating with a BA in Psychology, I was torn between following the path of Educational Psychology or going into business. The lure of working in the media industry won me over and I did an MA in Marketing instead. For many years, I was fortunate enough to work in Europe, Asia and the US, in sales and marketing roles, for various global companies such as Viacom and Time Warner. I was very happy and content with my chosen career path.
But last year (and now as a mother of three beautiful girls) the same old tug of working with children, within psychology, reared up in me. I wanted to do something that helped others. So I decided to take the plunge, divert career path and go into business with a childhood friend, Mary Morrall. Mary called the company Universal Mindfulness and I became the co-founder in September 2016. As good friends of 34 years, we have always had a shared belief that everyone has the right to a happy and positive life and we each have the capabilities within us to achieve that.
We work primarily with children, whilst also supporting parents and teachers. Using Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Positive Psychology, we help children to understand their own emotions, build internal resilience, and develop good social relationships and strong self-confidence. Our company mission is ‘to empower people to develop the appropriate emotional intelligence skills to fulfil their own potential’. Emotional intelligence (EQ), unlike IQ, can be learnt and includes self-regulation, empathy and resilience. Researchers have found that people with high EQ are more happy and successful as they cope better with the stresses and strains of everyday life. The Old Cornelian SUMMER 2017
Over recent months, the news both in the UK and the US has been strewn with coverage of the mental health crises in young people. Children as young as six are exhibiting stress and anxiety. Many are struggling to develop social skills as they are zoned into their tablets or smartphones for large parts of the day. ‘Helicopter parenting’ has become a common term. Social media depression and online bullying has become widespread. In the first six months of running Universal Mindfulness, it has been quite overwhelming to see the emotional needs of children regardless of education or social class. Some children just need a voice, someone to listen, to make them feel special. Some are exhibiting a lack of empathy and thought for the feelings of others. Others are trying too hard for perfection to fulfill the high expectations of their parents and as a result feel like failures. Many can’t relax and some feel anxious on a daily basis. The list is endless.
We run after-school clubs in both private and state schools as well as holiday camps and one-to-one coaching for children who need it. We teach children useful NLP and Mindfulness tools and techniques to be more positive, to be resilient, to relax and to be more thoughtful of others. We help them understand that they are unique and special in this world and they can ‘choose’ how they react to different situations. We discuss the effects of bullying, and how people who are being bullied feel, and how
the bully themselves is feeling. We also build up their self-esteem by teaching them to love themselves and be kind.
Our parent sessions have also started to take off and we mainly focus on understanding the language that we use in our daily life to build self-esteem and self-confidence in our children. I have heard many parents say ‘you are such a drama queen’ or ‘you are driving me crazy!’ but it’s very easy to take a deep breath and change the language we use to be less accusatory and demeaning to our children. It’s very easy to knock a child’s self-confidence, but it is harder to build it up. Mindfulness helps us to stop and think before we react.
I was incredibly fortunate to grow up in a loving, supportive family and to attend a warm, nurturing school like Mayfield that cared about my emotional wellbeing. Many are not so lucky. It is still very early days for Universal Mindfulness, but I feel like we are already starting to make a difference in the lives of young people and their families.
OC
Sarah Bott (née Jones) Class of 1989
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