A new vision of mindfulness in physical education. Contributing to the social dimension of sustainable development

Background: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aims to address a series of challenges facing humanity, seeking to achieve a sustainable, peaceful, prosperous and just life on Earth. This global strategy has three dimensions: environmental, economic and social. In relation to the latter, one of its areas lies in improving health in general (SDG 3, health and well-being) and mental health in particular (target 3.4, prevention and treatment of mental health and well-being). In this sense, some techniques such as yoga have proven to be effective in improving cognitive capacity and emotional regulation, key aspects that should be reinforced in children, and why not do so through PE. Methodology: Therefore, the aim of this research is to analyse changes in the psychological well-being of PE pupils. A total of 24 pupils in the 4th year of Primary Education (9.5 years old with a deviation of 1.2) participated in the study. The research is based on an experimental design where two randomised groups were established; a control group that followed the standard PE routine (n=12) and an experimental group (n=12) that underwent a yoga intervention. The intervention lasted two weeks spread over four sessions. The Levene test, with a reliability of 0.86, showed a non-parametric distribution of the sample. Due to the sample size, the data obtained were measured using the paired samples t-test. Results: The statistics showed significant differences, indicating a better result in the experimental group for the dimensions: external, internal and conscious attention, observing, describing, acting with awareness and accepting oneself without judgement after the yoga practice intervention. Conclusions: These results could indicate that bringing yoga and mindfulness into the classroom as an additional PE content could be beneficial for students' mental and physical well-being. These findings could contribute to raising awareness of the integration of sustainability through PE