Proponents of meditation who support the positive results and outcomes from this exercise believe that this practice should be a critical component in schools for the benefit of students of all ages. In fact, even the Dalai Lama noted once that if every eight-year-old in the world was taught meditation, “we will eliminate violence from the world within one generation.”
In today’s society, people become overly preoccupied with work and their social lives that they lose sight of who they truly are, deep down inside. People morph themselves in many ways in order to fit in, whether it’s with their family, at the office or with a group of friends. This also can cause people to become self-centered and lose sight of the world around them. But some fans of meditation believe that if humans felt at peace with themselves, in tune with themselves, from an early age and were taught meditation in school, they would tap into their passion, their creativity, their interests, and core.
Benefits Of Meditation
There are many perks of meditation, especially in helping school-aged students excel not just academically, but personally and spiritually. One study by Harvard University professors Sara Lazara and Catherine Kerr showed that this form of mental exercise, when regularly practiced, can bring about changes in a person’s mental state and resting electroencephalogram patterns that continue even once the meditation session is done. In this study, Lazar and Kerr concluded that regular sessions of meditation could be directly linked to an increased thickness in the subset of cortical regions in the brain related to somatosensory, auditory, visual and interoceptive processing. It also slowed the age-related thinning of the frontal cortex. People who practice meditation are less prone to stress, worry and illness.
In a study conducted by Robert Schneider, Clarence Grim and Maxwell Rainforth, a group of people who suffered from coronary heart disease took part in either a transcendental meditation program or a health education program. After 5.5 years in the study, the group that participated in the transcendental meditation program showed a 48 percent reduction in their risk of heart attack and stroke.
Meditation also has brain-boosting power. A study by Giuseppe Pagnoni and Milos Cekic compared the gray matter in the brains of people who practiced Zen meditation versus non-meditators over a considerable period of time. While gray matter typically shrinks with age, the gray matter of those Zen meditators was not reduced at all.
Meditation Is Not A Religion
Meditation is not a religion, but rather a practice or exercise, supporters say. The term meditation refers either to a state of mind or to the practices and techniques utilized to meditate.
Meditation Heightens Mindfulness
In a sizable study of more than 3,5,00 people who participated in mindfulness meditation programs, the study leaders Madhav Goyal and Sonal Singh detected evidence of decreased anxiety, a drop in depression and a reduction in pain levels.
Meditation In Schools
It isn’t too late for the next generation still in school to reap the benefits of mindful meditation. Activist Will Stanton recently wrote a book called Education Revolution that proposes a new global education model called The Six Dimension Model that focuses on meditation. Stanton believes that students who engage in meditation in school would bond with all living things and feel less of a need to compete with peers.
Meditation’s goal is to promote relaxation, build an internal energy or life force and develop compassion, love, generosity, patience and instill forgiveness. While there are different forms of meditation that have been linked to numerous religious traditions and beliefs, it is designed to merely cleanse the mind and soul of concerns, and even boost health. Meditation can be done sitting, standing or even while carrying out daily tasks like Buddhist monks do. But no matter how you try it, you will enjoy the benefits of meditation and our world just may be a better place if it is introduced in the school system.
