I learned to meditate as a student at school. What an inspiring and forward thinking opportunity (especially given this was many years ago!).

Australia is now heading into exam time again.

Across schools and universities everyone is studying hard .. and so I begin to receive calls from worried parents .. seeking something .. a tool, advice, direction .. what can they do to help their kids cope with the demands and stress of exams?

Meditation!

Meditation is a life tool that I believe everyone should learn.

E-v-e-r-y-o-n-e.

Meditation teaches us how to calm and still; this supports learning, listening and self-knowing; assists us to develop and fine tune our ability to focus and concentrate, and also our ability to choose how we react or act in life.

“Teaching our children how to be mindful, to appreciate quiet and to have inner peace is one of the greatest gifts we can bestow on them” Rob Moodie, Professor of Global Health, Nossal Institute of Global Health.

I have had many teachers attend my meditation classes and so it was great to read a recent article in ScienceDaily detailing a study where schoolteachers underwent a short but intensive program of meditation and were shown to be less depressed, anxious or stressed, and more compassionate and aware of others’ feelings.

“The findings suggest that increased awareness of mental processes can influence emotional behaviour,” said lead author Margaret Kemeny, Ph.D., Director of the Health Psychology Program in UCSF’s Department of Psychiatry. “The study is particularly important because opportunities for reflection and contemplation seem to be fading in our fast-paced, technology-driven culture”

Teachers were specifically selected for the study ‘because their work is stressful and because the meditation skills they learned could be immediately useful to their daily lives, possibly trickling down to benefit their students’.

In Australia, I am aware of a number of innovative meditation-based programs being run in local schools .. the local Catholic primary schools in my area have all received meditation instruction and ‘quiet time’ programs are happily running each morning .. and I have read reports on the Positive Education programs developed by Professor Martin Seligman being implemented in some private schools.

If you would like to discuss how meditation might assist your students or school community please contact me at sarah@quietmind.com.au