Mindfulness

Mindfulness focuses on awareness and acceptance. Being mindful or aware of ourselves and our surroundings and then accepting it allows us to be in a natural state of peace and happiness. (McKenzie, 2015). Feelings of stress usually don’t combine with feelings of peace and happiness. It may seem that being fully aware of ourselves and our surroundings is intimidating instead of helpful, but being mindful is a factor that leads to flow—intense concentration (Egbert, 2004). This intense concentration may be the cause of higher productivity. Mindfulness, as the basic ability to be fully present, can potentially benefit language learning outcomes since it helps to better focus our attention and avoid distractions that may keep us from reaching our goals. Awareness and acceptance are important qualities to practice while focusing on specific strengths and weaknesses in character and personality because comparison and judgment may be factors people use against themselves, causing feelings of negativity. The lesson plans included in this chapter integrate mindfulness with language learning activities and were designed to help learners improve their overall well-being as they develop language skills.