Psychosomatic Mindfulness at School:
The Gaia Network Project in Italy
Awareness Education
and to the global health of oneself, of others and of the planet
Gaia Network
A paradigm shift in education based on global and individual awareness.
www.progettogaianetwork.eu
At the end of a long journey of personal growth and several unofficial experiments carried out with the classes, I met a study center that provided me with excellent tools to be able to share my interest in neuroscience applied to teaching in order to help students to face the most common difficulties in the adolescent phase, those of an existential and relational type, equipping them with transversal skills necessary for all school disciplines.
This is the "Global Village" Association for Social Promotion, which has structured the "Gaia Project", an education program for self and planet awareness with a protocol that summarizes the founding nuclei of the new interconnection paradigm in 12 lessons. in its coherence, putting the quantum physical concept of 'entanglement' into practice in educational terms and offering a new model of interpretation of the human being and reality. Using the PMP (Psychosomatic Mindfulness Protocol) as the main practice of self-awareness, the class is guided in the exploration, recognition and sharing of their individuality, and during this path they are also shown video materials that illustrate some of the meanings (citizenship global, awareness of human rights, sustainability) and of the contents (Agenda 2030, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Earth Charter) of the new paradigm, with subsequent techniques and exercises for sharing and internalizing the values presented.
At the Global Village with some study companions and Prof. Montecucco
Presentation of the Gaia Project ay 2019-2020
Trained teacher for the dissemination of the project: Sabina Magagnoli
Course language: Italian or English
Principles and referents of the Gaia Project
The "Gaia Project" is an education program for global awareness and psychophysical health conceived and developed by a team of teachers, university professors, educators, psychologists and doctors of the "Villaggio Globale" social promotion association of Bagni di Lucca, which has been approved and financed by the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies, pursuant to article 12 of Law No. 383 of 7 December 2000, financial year 2013, and which is supported by UNESCO, the United Nations agency for Education, Science and Culture. In part to meet the needs expressed in the United Nations 2030 Agenda, present in Objective 3 for the 'promotion of well-being and health for all and for all ages' in accordance with the directives of the WHO, and in Objective 4, for a '' high quality education 'in accordance with the directives of UNESCO with the aim of "spreading values, awareness, lifestyles oriented towards respect for others and for the planet".
Recipients and national data
The recipients of the Gaia Project are school-age children, with particular attention to disadvantaged and at-risk young people. National data relating to "early school leaving", "bullying", "gender difference" and "physical and psychological violence against girls and boys" highlight a real problem whose roots must be sought in situations of social and social malaise. economy of a rapidly globalizing society. This malaise affects young people of both sexes, generating stress, psychosomatic discomfort, aggression, isolation and depression; disorders that the WHO, the World Health Organization, has defined as the "diseases of our time".
Purpose
The Gaia Project was developed to contribute to the resolution of these great problems of young people of school age, and to respond to the educational needs of an increasingly globalized society, expressed in the international educational lines of the "Global Education First Initiative", expressed with the " New Humanism "by Irina Bokova (UNESCO) and resumed in the" National Indications for the Curriculum of Infancy and the first cycle of Education "of the Ministry of Education, University and Research, which invites the development of educational programs capable of" provide theoretical and experiential tools to students of all ages in order to develop skills that allow the creation of a global society ", and to facilitate" The development of the knowledge necessary to understand the current condition of planetary man ... An indispensable premise for the conscious exercise of national, European and planetary citizenship ".
The purpose of the Gaia Project is to promote an educational program that places the development of a global awareness of oneself and the planet at the center and that gives the ethical, scientific and human foundations to be creative citizens of the globalized society in which we live.
Goals of the Gaia Project
The practical objectives of the Gaia Project are:
1. Develop greater psychosomatic self-awareness of self (body and emotions)
2. Improve psychophysical well-being by reducing stress, anxiety and depression.
3. Improve academic performance by increasing attention and presence, and by reducing restlessness and tension.
4. Management of emotions and containment of reactivity and impulses (self-regulation)
5. Improve the climate and cooperation of the class group
6. To offer a foundation of ethical, scientific and cultural information for global citizenship.
7. Intercultural and human rights education for global citizenship (UNESCO).
Methods: Gaia Protocol and scientific validations
The Gaia Project, to achieve its objectives, develops specific socio-relational skills in teachers who have been trained in the "Gaia Protocol" and enables them to use the most effective practices of self-awareness, psychophysical well-being and emotional intelligence for allow young people, even in conditions of serious social and cultural hardship, to activate personal resources and improve self-confidence in order to relate positively with others and with society in transformation.
The effects of the awareness practices used in the Gaia Project have been scientifically validated by numerous international psychological and clinical researches that prove the effectiveness of these practices for the reduction of stress, anxiety and depression, for the improvement of psychophysical well-being, self-esteem and also for the improvement of attention, concentration and academic performance (see attachment "scientific evidence of the effectiveness of the techniques").
The Gaia Project has been tested with excellent results starting from the 2013-2014 school year, on thousands of children and young people in schools of different school orders in all Italian regions.
The scientific basis of the protocol
The Gaia Project, in order to develop a real global awareness, provides a protocol divided into four main educational areas that correspond to the main human neuro-psychological dimensions: self-awareness in yellow, which corresponds to the central function of the brain, awareness in red. emotional body of the subcortical brain, in blue the scientific awareness of the rational hemisphere and in green the Multimedia supports: the videos of the Gaia Project
In the "National Indications for the Curriculum of Infancy and the First Cycle of Education" the Ministry of Education, University and Research invites to "Teaching how to recompose the great objects of knowledge - the universe, the planet, nature , life, humanity, society, body and mind and evolution in a complex perspective, aimed at overcoming the fragmentation of disciplines, and integrating them into a new overall picture ”.
In this regard, the Gaia Project provides educational videos and documentary films that can be downloaded for free from the Internet through the IWB (Interactive Multimedia Whiteboard), which contain a synthesis of the theoretical principles of the new scientific paradigm in which the great objects of knowledge are "recomposed" in a unitary and evolutionary perspective.
The videos and films of the Gaia Project have as main topics: the Earth (Gaia) and the web of life, the ethical principles of the United Nations and the Earth Charter (UN), the most recent scientific knowledge on body-mind unity, the practices of psychophysical well-being and emotional intelligence which are considered essential to develop an awareness more suited to the needs and challenges of this critical moment of change towards a globalized society.
Duration of the Gaia Project
The minimum period of time to carry out the Gaia Project and have appreciable results on school performance, on the improvement of attention and concentration and on the reduction of stress, anxiety and depression is 12 meetings distributed in about 3-4 months. Obviously, by extending the educational path, the results also improve and stabilize. Experiences of shorter duration (some meetings) are however useful and important even if obviously they do not give consistent and stable results.
The meetings and modules of the Gaia Project
The Gaia Project is made up of weekly “meetings” organized in thematic modules. Each meeting is a functional didactic unit, with its own theme, its own scheme of development and its own purpose. The modules group the weekly meetings according to a certain logical sequence. In particular cases, the protocol can be adapted to the different situations and needs of teachers and students.
Timing and modalities of the intervention: each meeting has a total duration of about one hour a week and can be held both during normal teaching activities and in extra-school hours.
Measurable and verifiable results
The Gaia Project involves the use of evaluation forms and questionnaires for school-age children and adolescents (ASEBA TRF / 6-18 for the clinical analysis of the subject's behavior based on skills, syndromic scales, two global problematic scales, on a total scale and on DSM-5 scales) and specific psychological tests (SQ, FFMQ, Zung, etc.), in order to statistically verify the effectiveness of the project in its different educational, cognitive, psychological dimensions and well-being oriented ethical awareness of the intuitive hemisphere. The integrated understanding of these four dimensions leads to a global awareness, which integrates the personal dimension with the social and cultural dimensions.