Benefits of meditation at school
Meditation has many and broad-ranging benefits. For teachers, perhaps the most pertinent is stress-relief and the ability to remain calm and centred under trying situations. It's also a very effective means of treating ailments such as insomnia, anxiety, migraines, hypertension and the full gamut of stress related illnesses. Meditators are typically more calm and content, healthier and better able to efficiently deal with the demands of busy work, family and community lives.
Our main concern here, however, is with the benefits that students can potentially derive from learning to meditate at school. These can be summarised as follows:
Physical Relaxation
The first and most important aspect of meditation is learning how to quickly and effectively relax. This is an invaluable skill and effects everything else that we do. Meditation educates the body to adopt a relaxed but alert posture - free from the unconsciously held tensions which often lead to injury, illness and chronic physical conditions later in life.
Enhanced Concentration
Children are often asked to pay attention during class, but they're rarely taught how to do this! The ability to control our own attention is actually the most important skill we can learn, as it is the foundation upon which everything else rests. If we couldn't control our attention we wouldn't be able to perform even the most basic task. Concentration is a core skill in meditation, so it acts both as a foundation for the technique and a very useful means of developing concentration. It enables students to focus not only on what naturally interests them, but on any task they need to perform.
The ability to view thought processes objectively
As any meditator well knows, it is virtually impossible to prevent thougths from arising or even to exert any significant degree of control over them. However, we can learn to observe our thought processes impartially. In this way thoughts become less able to dominate and disturb - and less likely to set off the powerful emotional reactions which often result in agressive, fearful or other destructive behaviours.
Greater ability to recognise and accept emotions
Children can feel entirely at the mercy of their emotions. Teenagers often feel completely overwhelmed by the strange feelings and emotions which frequently flood their bodies. Through meditation children become more familiar with the range of feelings that pass through their mind and body. They can learn to accept them more readily, to recognise that most emotions often disappear as quickly as they come, and to remain at ease whilst experiencing feelings such as anger and sadness.
Better memory
Memory is a key ingredient in learning. Listen to any bunch of students prior to examinations and you'll hear them wistfully praying for their memory to serve them well. A good memory depends on our ability to pay attention to what is happening - if we don't hear the teacher in the first instance, there's not much chance of the information entering our memory at all. Anxiety and worry (emotions typically felt prior to an examination) also inhibit our ability to recall what we've learnt. As meditation helps to still these inhibiting emotions, it also allows students to remember more effectively.
Creative Thinking
A good imagination and creative ability depends on the students ability to access, or be open to, the unconscious levels of the mind where original ideas germinate. As the conscious, thought filled mind becomes quieter during meditation, this allows the creative aspects of the mind to rise to the surface.
Self Understanding
To move successfully through life we need to be able to look at our own habits, behaviours, beliefs and patterns - as these are what colour all our experiences. Introspection, or the ability to see the part we play in the relationships and interactions of life is vital if we are to develop harmonious relationships with ourselves and those around us. Meditation aids this inward looking process - helping to develop greater self understanding and responsibility for our own actions.
Awareness/Mindfullness
In order to learn children need to be open to stimuli from all the senses. They need to be aware not only of what they are taught - but also the environment around, input from peers and to their own internal dialogues. When all our attention is caught up in distracting thoughts, worries and plans there is little attention available to notice what else is going on. Meditation frees the mind up to be mindful, or aware, of what is going on around us at any moment.