Kindness Pauses

Drawn from the research of Petrovic et. al (2024)

A review of 23 randomised studies with adults found that brief “loving‑kindness” practices (silently sending kind wishes) lifted positive feelings (mindfulness, warmth, mood) and also reduced negative mood/symptoms compared with doing nothing. Importantly for educators, the length and method of delivery (in person vs online) didn’t change results.

This means bringing in loving-kindness practices can be flexible. To try a kindness pause, short is fine, and no special facilitator or long program needed. Also important from this research is that the effects are modest, so we can let students know to expect a gentle tone shift, not big behaviour shifts.

Kindness Pause: A 60–90 Second Script:

• This is a short kindness pause. It can improve mood and goodwill a little. If you do not feel like participating, sitting quietly is fine.

• “Settle your gaze, look down, or close your eyes. Begin with one full breath.”

• “Say to yourself: ‘May I have a nice day. May I be kind to myself’ (pause)”

• “Think of someone close to you: ‘May they have a nice day. I want to support them today.’ (pause)”

• “Now make it bigger: ‘May I treat all people as kindly as I treat myself, and my close friends.’ (pause)”

• “Before we finish, notice how you feel... there is no 'right' answer, just look in.

• "Okay, back to our lesson."

Some notes on safety

• Always offer an opt‑out: students can just sit quietly and breathe.

• No need to force thinking about difficult people: pick someone easy to begin with.

• Don’t Use this immediately after a heated incident: regulate difficult emotions first. Best to not associate loving-kindness as a “fix” to serious distress.

• Note that the evidence base from this meta-analysis is adults, not specifically children or teens.