Meditation for children: iVillage

Meditation for children

Childhood stress
Meditation at school
Activities for children

Could meditation be the key to raising balanced, focused children who perform better both academically and creatively? Anna Selby investigates

'Stress' became one of those buzzwords of the 1990s, humming its way through the decade as the cause of all ills. At one end of the spectrum we were presented with bloated businessmen suffering heart attacks as they ran for the train, at the other working mothers pulled every which way and reaching for the Prozac. Stress was the bogeyman that would dog you if you had a high-powered job or if you were long-term unemployed, if you were getting divorced or buying a house, or even if you were going on holiday. In fact, it could make just about everyone suffer - except for one significant group?children.

Childhood stress
Most of us would like to think that childhood is a time of happiness and innocence. The reality is that children are under just as much pressure as the rest of us. Exams are now taken by children as young as six and seven - and children are only too aware of the importance of academic performance to most parents. But these are not the only stresses for children. Peer pressure and bullying are rife, more families break up than ever before, and even time off tends to be a relentless bombardment of noise and image in the form of television and computer games. Born into a mercilessly hectic and noisy world, children may find that the only quiet moments they experience are when they are asleep.

As adults, we have tried some unusual methods of stress-busting. We have suspended ourselves in dark flotation tanks, inhaled flower essences and become addicted to everything from aerobics to rebirthing. However, long-term stress is another matter, manifesting itself as high blood pressure, raised cholesterol levels, anxiety, depression and insomnia.

The seeds of stress
To overcome these problems, a quite different form of deep relaxation is needed, in which severe stress of both body and mind can disperse. Rather surprisingly - for a practice in which to the observer it appears that nothing much is happening - regular meditation has emerged as the most effective way of achieving this. A considerable body of research - focusing mainly on the most dramatic and measurable manifestations of stress, such as heart disease - has shown it results in substantial reductions in high blood pressure and cholesterol levels. The seeds of these diseases of middle and later life, though, have generally been sown long before we become aware of them. Perhaps even as long ago as childhood.

The authors of Teaching Meditation to Children, David Fontana and Ingrid Slack, two psychologists who specialise in working with children, certainly believe so. They suggest that children should be taught to meditate because 'The more we can help children to be at peace with their own bodies, the better chance we have of helping them avoid these killers in later life.' The benefits, however, are not just for the future.

The benefits
Meditation gives even very young children power over their thinking and their emotions, not by a repressive self-control, but by enhanced self-understanding and self-acceptance. Fontana and Slack advocate meditation as a gentle and effective means of overcoming a wide variety of psychological and behavioural problems, such as anxiety, hyperactivity and aggression, and they back this up with case histories. They also see meditation as a much more general tool, applicable to all children and bringing the following benefits:

Physical relaxation
Improved concentration
Increased tranquillity and ability to deal with stress
Improved awareness
Improved creativity
Improved memory

Transcendental Meditation
At the moment, the concept of children meditating is still in its infancy. One of the few places where children can learn is with Transcendental Meditation. If the Maharishi conjures images of the Beatles, beads and kaftans, you might be surprised to learn that one of TM's most vociferous advocates these days is retired chairman of ICI, Sir John Harvey-Jones. He believes its stress-busting powers make it vital for anyone working in business. Over four million people have now learned the technique worldwide - and technique is the relevant word here. Adherents point out that it is, in essence, a mind exercise. Religious beliefs are irrelevant and, once you have been trained to meditate, you practise the technique alone, so no further involvement with the TM organisation is necessary.

For adults, the technique consists of mentally repeating a mantra twice a day for 20 minutes. Effortlessness is emphasised - it doesn't matter if you are constantly distracted by thoughts or even if you fall asleep. You just go back to the mantra when you realise you're not saying it any more. For young children, it is different, because it is not considered advisable for children to sit for any length of time with their eyes closed - even if they could. Instead they do it as they walk to school or play with Lego. At five they 'do their word' for five minutes twice a day and thereafter add one minute for each year of their age.

Meditation at school
So far, there is only one school in the country where meditation forms part of the curriculum - the Maharishi School in Skelmersdale in Lancashire. Started in 1986 by a group of dissatisfied parents (all meditators), the school began with one teacher and 14 children. There are now 100 children, ranging from four-year-olds in the reception class to 16-year-olds taking GCSEs.

If the effectiveness of meditation is measured in terms of academic success alone, the school results would seem pretty conclusive: for four out of the last five years, the Maharishi School has been top of the Lancashire league table for GCSE results. It is also in the top 2.5 per cent of the schools in the country, including the top selective independent schools. This performance is even more remarkable as the school is not academically selective and is happy to take children who have not fared well in other schools.

Creatively, they are thriving, too: pupils at the school have now won so many poetry competitions that they're currently under a one-win-a-term rule from the Poetry Society. Clearly, something is working but is it meditation?

Focusing on balance
Derek Cassells, the headmaster, certainly thinks meditation is the key and, interestingly, he regards stress as the underlying cause of all learning and behavioural problems. 'We have a very traditional curriculum but, because we also have TM or word of wisdom for the younger children, they experience a level of rest that is at least twice as deep as deep sleep, twice every day. Stresses and tensions are released and the nervous system is brought into balance. From that balance come all the benefits - such as greater ability to focus - and this produces academic results. These aren't our goal; they're just a side effect. What's important is that the children are so at ease they automatically enjoy learning and they can utilise more of their potential. We just bring out what's already there.'

The teachers all meditate, too. The maths teacher, Mark Gaskell, says, 'If I closed my eyes - as we do every day during meditation - in most schools, when I opened them again, the class wouldn't be there. After this deep silence, the children are very aware, alert and receptive. This is the great benefit for a teacher. In other schools, it's a struggle just to get the class to be quiet and listen, let alone teach them something. Here, they're refreshed and happy. It's easier for them to be creative because they want to learn.' The theory is that there is an underlying association between brainwave coherence (brainwaves becoming more synchronised between the hemispheres of the brain during meditation) and learning and creative thought.

Understandably delighted with all this success, Derek Cassells is now keen to encourage other schools to take up meditation. 'People are looking for a better system of education. Extra cramming and more pressure are finally being recognised as the wrong approach and there is more willingness to consider something different. We have been talking to a range of schools who are interested in using our methods.'

Children with learning difficulties
Keith Snape teaches at one such school that specialises in pupils with learning difficulties. Still in the early stages of introducing meditation to a few of the children, the school isn't ready to officially 'go public', but teachers, pupils and parents all claim to have already seen positive results.

Such schools are, of course, rare exceptions, while the pressures put on children continue to soar. 'Unhappily, little is done within formal education to help [children] learn to understand themselves, to control their anxieties and their thought processes and to discover tranquility, harmony and balance within themselves,' say authors David Fontana and Ingrid Slack.

'Little is done to help them to manage their own inner lives, to use their mental energy productively instead of dissipating it in worries and random thinking, and to access the creative levels of their own minds. Meditation is one of the most important ways in which we can help young children cope better with their lives, at both the personal and the academic levels.'

Activities for children
There are teachers of Transcendental Meditation all over the country or, if you'd like to try introducing meditation to your child yourself, here are a few ideas to help you get started:

Breathing meditation
This is a good basic meditation for adults and children alike but, while adults can practise it for 20 minutes or more, young children should do it for no more than five minutes, and only one or two to start with. This is a very calming meditation as it slows down the breathing - we breathe more quickly and shallowly when anxious - and it helps the body to relax, too.

You can do this in a chair, providing your feet are flat on the floor, but children prefer to sit cross-legged on the floor. Make sure they are sitting on a cushion, their backs are straight and they have closed eyes. Then guide the meditation as follows: