Meditation is a practice in which one uses a set of techniques that are intended to achieve an elevated state of awareness and focused attention. It is a consciousness-enhancing technique that has been shown to have a wide range of benefits for its practitioner.

A Brief History of Meditation: How and When

The oldest records hinting at the practice of bringing stillness to mind through meditation date back 5000 years. In fact, different religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and Sufism advocated the spiritual benefits of meditative practices. Meditation was used extensively in the past throughout Asia and began to make its way to other parts of the world during the 20th century. It rose to prominence in the West during the 60s and 70s. There are many types of meditation techniques propagated by various sects or individuals like mindfulness, transcendental meditation, mantra meditation, vipassana, guided meditation etc. Most people practice it without a focus on the religious or spiritual beliefs, but mainly because of the tremendous benefits gained in their physical and mental well-being.

Herbert Benson, a Harvard cardiologist based on his study of religious and secular literature around the world, used meditation techniques on his patients, and after repeated clinical trials, discovered dramatic changes in their physiological parameters including change in their brain waves to the relaxing theta waves. He named this mind-body effect as the “relaxation response” and with his scientific proof, it is now being taught in many medical schools in the world and being used in treating many diseases in which surgery and drugs are not completely successful.

Benefits of Meditation:

“Practice meditation or be mindful” is an oft repeated suggestion. Tons of articles, videos and courses have covered this topic. The benefits of meditation are so profound that there can never be said enough about it and school education cannot remain aloof of it and cannot deprive the students of the benefits of this age-old and now medically accepted practice.

Just few of the many benefits that meditation and mindfulness can bring to our school students are enlisted below:

1. Improved focus and attention – Meditation helps in making the students more attentive in their academic pursuits. It enhances the attention span and helps in increasing the focus on the work in hand, rather than scanning the text without absorbing its meaning.

• Improves working memory – Thesmart devices are always pulling the attention into a hundred different directions. Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube – there’s just so much happening everywhere all the time. Though technology moves at the speed of light, our biology does not! The students often try to work on many things in parallel and instead of doing one thing well, end up doing many things poorly. Meditation helps them get better control over their focus, helps in retrieving the learnt subject matter quickly and correctly, and helps them perform better at (unavoidably) many parallel tasks.

• Relieves anxiety –  Harvard researchers show that a normal human mind wanders 47% of its awake time. This mind-wandering triggers unhappiness by oscillating our thought process between future worries and past emotions, which leads to a state of anxiety. Meditation is known for its ability to help relax and de-stress the mind by stabilizing the breathing rate and by releasing happiness hormone – dopamine. A relaxed and happy mind becomes more creative and productive too.

• Provides a better understanding of self – Meditation hinges on inward reflection. It is not just sitting quiet and focusing on one’s breath but being mindful of one’s thoughts and actions. It’s about developing a daily practice of responding and not reacting, savoring every good experience, developing an attitude of gratitude, being available with full attention in every situation – good or bad.

• Improves self-esteem – Through regular practice of inward reflection, one learns better about one’s realities, focusing more on the strengths and preparing to conquer the challenges as well, leading towards enhanced self-esteem of the student.

• Builds empathy and compassion – When you are mindful you start seeing things from other people’s perspective and start valuing others’ opinions about various aspects. It builds empathy and compassion in the minds of the young students. They also benefit from building stronger relationships, which they tend to get criticized for ignoring.

The importance of meditation and the benefits of this practice cannot be emphasized enough in writing or speech but can be internalized only by a regular practitioner. The mindfulness is not only for our own selfcare but for our interconnectedness to improve the community wellbeing. All stakeholders of school education – the school managements, Principals, teachers, parents and the society should work in tandem to give impetus to this age-old practice and make the netizens reap the benefits through early intervention and regular practice.

Author: Jaswinder K Sidhu

The Author is the Principal of DAV Public School, BRS Nagar, Ludhiana