In Today’s lifestyle more and more children suffer from stress. This condition can significantly impact not only their health, but also their social and academic performance. Many studies have shown that mindfulness education programs improve students’ self-control, attentiveness and respect for other classmates, enhance the school climate, and improve teachers’ moods.
We all know how much pressure our children can face while trying to balance school with their lives at home. They struggle finding time to do homework, do extracurricular activities, hang on with their friends, be with the family and study. “Students constantly booked appointments with the school counselor to talk through their personal struggles with a professional. A common response from students on their semester reflections was “I’m overwhelmed.” (Amanda Machado, 2014)
Their minds are busy just like ours, and we do not have to wait until they become adults to teach them relaxation methods and mindfulness strategies. They all can learn those from early years, at home and school. We need to create the space and time, as well as making these practices an habit for our children, it is a lifelong benefit.
Every student should have access to skills necessary for confronting the anxiety of everyday life. As Tracy wrote: “We all deserve peace, and a calm mind.” On the other hand, no matter what they are facing, meditation is a great and healthy way to start the day at school, to finish the routine at home and also to think about our own actions. We have been talking about social emotional learning at schools, and this is all about it.
We encourage our teachers and parents to learn and practice with your children meditation and mindfulness strategies, everyone will get so much from it.
Today we share three wonderful articles on this topic. One of them, pointed wonderful strategies to follow in order to teach our children meditation and mindfulness strategies, the others talk about wonderful studies and the benefits found in schools as well as many reasons to continues incorporating them in our lives.
