Hello .. Hello .. anyone there?

Funny (not!) scene last weekend when Melbourne weather surprised us all with a beach day.  A balmy, blue sky 30 degrees - and an invitation to join friends by the beach for a late lunch and catch up.

 

Us adults went for a walk along the nearly empty beach, with the dogs racing in and out of the water, just chatting and catching up.  The teenagers?  well when we got back to the house the teenagers (all four of them) were each immersed in their PHONE.

 

Four beautiful, happy, engaging and confident kids who hadn't had a chance to catch up for months .. all sucked into the little screen, the guru-technology.

 

Ignoring the beautiful souls beside them .. ignoring the real life unfolding around them ..

SAD :(

Online today over at Mindful.org is a report of Jon Kabat-Zinn speaking at the Harvard Graduate School of Education about applying the practice of mindfulness in schools - I have posted many times before (here under Teenagers) on the introduction of meditation/mindfulness here in our own Melbourne (Australia) schools and overseas. 

 

I learnt to meditate when I was in my final senior school year - and that was 20+ years ago!

 

You can read the full Harvard Magazine article HERE

Kabat-Zinn talked about the importance of adults showing children how to pay attention, and how to do so in the heat of the moment so they can make wiser decisions.

“Mindfulness is like a muscle, and without exercise it will lose its strength,” he said. “Our world is so much about doing that the being gets lost.”

Meditation + Kids + School Holidays

You may have you read my Snowdome metaphore (a way to view the human mind) - if not you can read it HERE - and today I read this totally BRILLIANT post on yogadork.com about a MEDITATION JAR.

Originally posted on Jugglingwithkids.com as the Mind Jar, it is described as:

“A Mind Jar is a meditation tool to use whenever a child feels stressed overwhelmed or upset.  Imagine the glitter as your thoughts.  When you shake the jar, imagine your head full of whirling thoughts, then watch them slowly settle while you calm down”.

 

So .. if you have children (or are secretly one yourself) why not make a Meditation Jar these school holidays.

 

Supplies:

~ Baby food Jar (small-ish jar)

~ Glitter Glue

~ Food Colouring

~ Warm Water

 

Directions:

Mix about 1 tablespoon of glitter glue with 1 cup of warm water (depending on the size of the jar) - you can also add food colouring if your kids like a particular colour. The warm water helps dissolve the glue, you might also try heating the water in the microwave (using a safe cup) for 30-60 seconds.  When the water is warm the glitter will fall quickly but once the water cools down it will take a lot longer.

 

You might also add some additional glitter, small objects like shells or jewels which will sink at different times or even float - enriching the metaphor of the mind settling.  I reader of the original blog suggested using shells to represent particular issues that the child might be worrying about.

 

As YogaDork suggested .. a little holiday Craftasana.

Meditating Before Lecture Leads to Better Grades

 

A new study released by George Mason University, and published in the journal Mindfulness, has found that students provided with basic meditation instruction (consisting of only six minutes of written meditation exercises) before a lecture, scored better on a quiz that followed.  The study also found that the effects of the meditation was stronger amongst freshmen students.

“Personally, I have found meditation to be helpful for mental clarity, focus and self-discipline,” says Ramsburg, lead author of the study and a practicing Buddhist.

 “This data from this study suggest that meditation may help students who might have trouble paying attention or focusing.” says Youmans, an assistant professor of psychology.  “Basically, becoming just a little bit more mindful about yourself and your place in the world might have a very important, practical benefit — in this case, doing better in college.”

 

Full article here

Meditation in Education

 

This infographic caught my eye (from YogaDork who is always insightful, witty and thought provoking) on the same day as an article from ABC News (America)"Meditation Helps Kids Chill Out, Reduce Impulsivity" arrived on my desk.

 

The article mentioned some recent research studies which support the often talked about positive benefits when children learn meditation.  Not wanting to be alarmist they also quoted some worrying statistics on how stressed our kids actually are ..

 

"One in five children said they worried a lot or a great deal about things going on in their lives, and more than 30 percent admitted to such stress-related symptoms as difficulty sleeping, according to the American Psychological Association's annual Stress in America report. Yet, the same report found that only 8 percent of parents were aware that their children experienced any stress at all."

 

Andrew Kelly (founder of a children's meditation program called Boston Buddha who began teaching "mindfulness" techniques to K-5 students in the Milton, Mass., School District) quotes..

 

"The magic moment where they understand mindfulness is when they can catch themselves not paying attention. That's their chance to control their impulsivity".

 

Meditation not only provides a whole host of physical and mental health benefits .. it also teaches us how to self manage our stress and better understand (and stand with) our true inner self.

 

This gives us a greater awareness of how we choose to react or act in life.

 

For students about to embark on exams, learning some simple meditative exercises and tools for relaxation, will not only support a greater sense of wellbeing and ease, but assist with improved focus and learning, and understanding of how we might better manage feelings so they don't become overwhelming.

 

We have posted before on Children & Meditation HERE and Teenagers and Meditation HERE

 

We have some Exam Ease classes coming up in the next school holiday period. 

 

Meditation for students

Meditation to boost test scores

My daughter is in senior school now.  She has had exams before, but this year exams bring  additional pressure ..  career aspirations, growing outside school responsibilities and interests, more to learn, more competition, more to retain.

I hope she remembers her meditation!

(I can't remind her because she is a teenager and reminding = nagging!)

I might however slip these links to her .. because in recent weeks three well known media outlets : The New York Times, PsychCentral and The Telegraph have all reported on a recently published study into mindfulness meditation and student test results. 

Researchers in the department of psychological and brain sciences at the University of California have been studying the relationship between mindfulness and mind-wandering  or the tendency to allow of our minds to drift away to unrelated thoughts.

Past studies have already shown that mind-wandering underlies performance on a variety of tests, including working memory capacity and intelligence. 

 

The better a students working memory (ability to hold large chunks of information and use them) – the better they tend to perform on reading comprehension tests.

The study was recently published in the journal Psychological Science and was based on research of 48 University of California undergraduates that went through a two-week intensive mindfulness training program, reduced their mind-wandering, improved their working memory capacity, and also performed better on a reading comprehension test.

The mindfulness training included “sitting in an upright posture with legs crossed and gaze lowered, breathing exercises and minimizing the distracting quality of past and future concerns by reframing them as mental projects occurring in the present”.  "Our results suggest that cultivating mindfulness is an effective and efficient technique for improving cognitive function, with wide reaching consequences" the researchers wrote in the Psychological Science study. 

 

Hear that teenager?

 

I shall be scheduling some Exam Ease meditation class in June and July (Melbourne, Australia) if you would like to find out more please contact me at sarah@quietmind.com.au

'Mindfulness' in schools

Great article in The Guardian online today .. "Could meditation be the answer to exam nerves?' Mindfulness' is the latest big thing in schools. What is it and why is it so popular?"

Reporting on the growing interest in ‘mindfulness’ practices in the UK school system .. with results of recent studies due to be presented at a conference in London later this month (I will be watching with interest).

Exam Ease (Meditation) Classes

Almost exam time .. and so we thought it the best time to introduce our Exam Ease class.

Meditation is an ancient practice that has been shown to provide a whole host of physical and mental health benefits, not just the ability to self manage stress but also to heightened creativity, improve sleep, develop greater levels of focus and concentration .. and a greater awareness of how we choose to react or act in life.

For students about to embark on exams, learning some simple meditative exercises and tools for relaxation, will not only support a greater sense of wellbeing and ease, but assist with improved focus and learning, and understanding of how we might better manage feelings so they don't become overwhelming.

Being able to identify and reduce everyday stress, manage our responses and tap into that inner calmness before a presentation, exam or life challenge, is a life tool we all need!

This 1.5hour class will explore a number of Meditative Exercises which are short, simple and practical mindfulness practices focused on the breath and the body.  While these exercises may only take a few minutes (up to 20minutes) they provide us with an opportunity to pause, adjust our breathing to a more efficient and productive breath, release stress and tension, and refresh mind and body.  These exercises often provide an immediate sense of relief and ease .. a much better foundation for handling life or an exam.

Classes are being held at our Brighton and Black Rock venues with each class limited to ten participants. 

READ more about teenagers, kids and meditation here

INQUIRE about our Exam Ease Class here

Football and meditation?

For all you Australian footy fans who find it hard to relax before or after the big weekend game .. take the lead from former Collingwood head coach Mick Malthouse, who spoke on 3AW recently and commented that he used meditation before matches as a crucial part of his preparation for game days.

"For at least the last two years I'd do it morning and night" Malthouse said, noting that meditation provided an outlet for players to relax and channel their thoughts before game time. "Collingwood developed a meditation strategy under David Butterfield to lower the heart rate...It was fundamental to how we'd play in the first quarter," he added.

"You can get into a very deep meditation. You come out of it 30 minutes later completely relaxed and not tired .. It is a wonderful opportunity to explore for anyone looking to get rid of life pressures," he concluded.

Miley suggests meditating to get real life answers!

I remember watching Miley Cyrus in Hannah Montana .. (my teenager is going to be rolling her eyes now) .. but from a parent’s perspective, at the time, the show provided good role models and pretty practical 'cause and effect' type life situations.

We all need good role models.

And so it was great to read today that Miley meditates .. more than just meditate, she found "meditation and realised her best friend is herself – and she urges other confused teenagers to follow her example and get in touch with the real you .. and find out what you really want out of life".

That’s a great message.

Hannah says she is sick of meeting your girls who want all the ‘wrong things in life'.

“I just wanna shake them and say, 'Wake up! The world is so much greater. Go, be by yourself, go meditate, go spend 10 minutes really looking at yourself".

Children and meditation

Photographer : Ben Bloom

This morning I woke to hear a report on the Today Show about parents seeking our yoga and meditation to assist their children in managing stress.  Wonderful to hear Karl championing the cause .. and of course children can benefit from both meditation and yoga practice!

My daughter first joined me in my meditation practice when she learnt to climb out of her cot (she was about 2yo) and found me sitting on my  meditation cushion in the living room .. quiet and still.  Rather a talkative child with a passion for asking questions (still) on this occassion she didn't prod me (or jump on me for that matter) but instead pressed herself into my lap and sat patiently.  I opened the blanket I had around my shoulders and wrapped it around her too .. together we sat quietly for a few minutes before I finished my practice and we got on with our day. 

She would often join me.  She didn't ask for a long time what in fact I was doing.  I like to think that she intuitively acknowledged this was quiet time and enjoyed the moments we spent together in the darkness before the busyness of our day began.

When my daughter was about nine, I enrolled her in a kids yoga class.  I knew the teacher and the centre and thought it was a brilliant idea for a child growing quickly (physically) .. an opportunity to connect body and mind, build focus and awareness, flexibility and strength .. she loved it!  The class was very dynamic and they expended lots of energy (it's not all sitting), explored stillness (externally and internally), coloured in mandalas and chanted Om.  She dragged along friends from school and became known as a little bit of a hippie.

In 2009 I completed training with Relax Kids .. an amazing program that incorporates movement and stillness for children starting at pre-school level and now expanded up to seniors.  Relax Kids offers a wealth of research and resources on their website, and have implemented a range of innovative programs into the British education system.

When is the right time?  how long is a piece of string! 

My daily meditation practice provided a rhythmn in our household that my daughter took to naturally include her, if she chose.  Children have a limited attention span and asking a child to sit for a half hour meditation practice is probaly inviting resistence.  I like Deepak Chopra's suggestion that you start with a minute for each year of age .. a three year old could start with a three minute meditation .. a twelve year old would have worked up to twleve minutes.  Slow and steady .. there is no race or finish line .. this is the development of a life skill!

Meditation is a joy .. learning about yourself, resting in that deep stillness within, building resilience and focus, simply being present to the moment .. and everyone can learn to meditate including children!

A Mental Recess

I love this!

Appearing on American News Channel 3 is a report about a new program being implemented into a Lausanne Collegiate School in East Memphis .. wait for it ..

'a mental recess'

Students (10-14yo) are being given the option of skipping standard school recess to attend a meditation session where they are being asked not to think!

Just 10-15minutes to relax their minds and get unplugged (and from my experience as a parent getting them to unplug and do nothing is quite a novel idea) so they can refresh their minds, ‘de-stress’ and re-focus. 

The school believes this will assist students to perform better in standardized tests.

Brilliant!