Application of Meditation Practices in Education

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we have become,” proclaimed Buddha, an enlightened individual that is credited for his words of wisdom and is known as a symbol of peace and happiness. More importantly, however, is remembered for his practices of meditation and how it has the potential to awaken the mind and promote a healthier lifestyle that creates a positive and relaxing atmosphere for those who choose to use the technique.

Meditation is a technique that has been practiced through many cultures and is the process of relaxing the mind and promoting awareness and harmony in one’s daily life. It has the ability to expand the mind which can create a state of peace and serenity to a person’s well-being and can transform one’s attitude into a content and joyous being. How, then, could this beneficial technique be used to promote a healthier lifestyle and to introduce people to the positive elements it has to offer? Meditation must first be implemented with those who need these positive aspects the most: students attending secondary schooling. High levels of stress and tension moderately rise as students rush to reach academic standards set out for them and achieve their full capacity in order to reach success in the future. Alexandra Ossola pronounces, “It’s more competitive than ever to get into college, so it’s incumbent on students with the wherewithal to apply to the most competitive schools to present the strongest possible portfolio, and their parents and teachers push them to do so”. This type of pressure produces a problematic, unhealthy lifestyle by creating stress and other negative qualities that could severely impact that student’s academic and personal future. The levels of tension and anxiety continuously increase which further reduces the student’s exquisite ability to fulfill their true potential regarding their education. This then tends to lead to student’s performance bad decisions in order to cope with the intense burden of meeting the requirements set out for them. However, if meditation was incorporated through their daily lives, then the intensified pressure would decrease allowing a more clear and positive atmosphere for the student to perform in. With that being stated, if meditation was incorporated into secondary schools across the United States then the results of students containing feelings of stress or pressure would decrease significantly which would allow a more efficient and clear pathway for the student’s education and success in the future.

Meditation has the ability to clear the mind, allowing it to accept the daily life struggles and then turn them into something positive. When exercised or practiced, it brings a sense of awareness to your well-being and fills your body with serenity allowing all distractions to evaporate. Clive Erricker explains meditation by stating, “The primary purpose of basic meditation is to calm and stabilize both the mind and physical body, and to inspire. As such it is a practice for reflection, awareness, stillness, and well-being”. Due to the awareness and relaxation it creates, positive aspects are therefore produced to create a sense of peace and tranquility throughout one’s life. Considering the pressure and tension inflicted upon secondary students, it must be known of the negative tolls secondary schooling is permitting to them and how it is affecting them in an intimate and educational way. Due to high amounts of pressure and tension, students are able to be more susceptible to stress and anxiety. Such pressure would be a cause from attempting to reach good grades, taking AP classes, participating in after school activities, and other encouraged activities in order to reach the succession of getting into superior colleges and pursuing a high-paying career in the future. A psychologist named Mary Alvord describes the pessimistic effects schools have on its students by saying, “In the short term it can cause anxiety; over long periods of time, elevated levels of stress hormones can degrade the immune system, cause heart problems, exacerbate respiratory and gastrointestinal issues, and bring on chronic anxiety and depression. That’s bad for anyone, but it can be especially bad for high schoolers”. Meditation has been reported to provide numerous positive aspects which serves to be extremely helpful for the case of our secondary students.

Perhaps the most important ability meditation has is the ability to improve one’s health and well-being. Scientists have performed experiments proving how meditation can change the brain positively. In an interview held by Brigid Schulte, a neuroscientist, Sara Lazar, performs an experiment and found through the results that specific areas in the brain were positively influenced and improved due to meditation. Sara gathered a group of people who have never meditated before and put them in an “eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction program”. There were four different regions that were influenced, but perhaps the most important one for this case was the left hippocampus, which “assists in learning, cognition, memory and emotional regulation” and the amygdala which is involved in feelings of anxiety and stress. The results of these changes in the brain indicate that there can be an improvement of learning and a significant reduction of anxiety which is so common in today’s students. Dr. Philippe Goldin held a similar experiment as Sara Lazar did and the results were primarily the same. He proclaims that the participants reported “less anxiety and worrying...They put themselves down less, and their self-esteem improved”. One of anxieties highest participants is self-esteem: if a student cannot feel confident and stable in their life, then how will their self-esteem improve and therefore their motivation? This becomes one of the leading causes to symptoms leading into depression and then depression itself. A research took place at two high schools that surveyed 128 students. Many reported containing great amounts of stress, but perhaps the most devastating fact was that 26 percent reported being clinically diagnosed with depression which is “over four times the national average of 6 percent”. This clearly illustrates that students are being negatively influenced by the work secondary schools lay out for them. If meditation were available for them throughout the day then signs of depression would decrease due to the calmness and relaxation meditation has to offer.

Based on the fact that meditation can improve one’s well-being, it can then therefore be established that it can help to improve the student’s academic performance. Meditating has the ability to help increase attention spans and concentration. Due to the mind opening up in result of meditating, the brain can then gather more information and is more liable to be stored in long-term memory. Clive Erricker discusses the potential of attention as he states, “When the young mind is open and pliable it can more easily absorb new habits such as the power of attention. This attention is not just for the purpose of absorbing information, but also to develop a more protective state of being”. Kelly McGonigal, a health psychologist, further elaborates this benefit by proclaiming that meditation can help one to ignore all distractions which lead to the important ability to concentrate. This is due to an activation of specific regions in the brain that are responsible for improving attention when meditating. By an increment in attention, students are able to focus more on their daily lessons and therefore improve their academic excellence.

There are numerous schools across the US that have incorporated meditation into their programs and have reported having high success rates as well as a decrease in violent actions in the students. In one instance, there is an elementary school that has replaced detention with meditation and the results from doing so show that the kids are less violent. Instead of sending students to detention, they are sent to a meditation room to be taught how to control their actions with grace and peace. Andres Gonzalez is the co-founder of this program and tells of the benefits and effects this new idea has on its students by proclaiming, “When you're having a heightened scenario, whether its anger, stress, or frustration, your heart rate increases, and if you're able to use your breath to slow everything down, you're not as impulsive, you're not as reactionary, and your able to respond to whatever scenario happens to present itself”. Due to this program, the school has reported having far less behavioral problems. Due to not having to send students out of class for disrupting others, the students are able to use that valuable time to learn the lesson being taught instead of wasting their learning time in detention.

Another school that has a meditation program available for its students proclaims that the students are less stressed and therefore more willing to learn. Dr. George Rutherford is the principle of Ideal Academy Public Charter School and reports that the student’s ability to learn has increased. He proclaims, “If kids are stressed, they are too agitated to learn. If our students are clear and calm, then they are receptive to learning”. One student that attends the academy proclaims that he has noticed a difference in his grades and behavior due to the meditation program laid out for the students. Clearly, meditation has significantly impacted these students in a positive way.

In relation to violence, as the pessimistic behavior of students can change due to meditation, so can their ability to make poor decisions. More and more students turn to the side effects of drugs and alcohol in a way to cope with the stress and anxiety they are containing. Marya Gwadz, a research scientist, proclaims, “Its a quick fix to forget about the real problem at hand instead of dealing with it, and can also lead to addiction in the long term”. As stated earlier, meditation has the ability to decrease stress and anxiety and therefore can be an alternative to help cope with such disabilities instead of getting involved in substance use which has the potential to lead to addiction.

Despite all the benefits meditation has to offer for students of secondary schooling, there are still critics who are completely against the idea and critique how meditation could negatively impact the students. Such critique would be that most people would define meditation as a religious practice based upon its religious background and by incorporating meditation to the school system would be to force religion upon its students. However, there are many forms of meditation that can be practiced without any beliefs or dedication to a religion which could therefore be practiced by anyone with a non-religious background. Fundamentally connected with any particular religion, but can often intensify your own religious experience. Swami Rama further elaborates on the subject by stating, “Meditation is a precise technique for resting the mind and attaining a state of consciousness that is totally different from the normal waking state...is not a part of any religion; it is a science, which means that the process of meditation follows a particular order, has definite principles, and produces results that can be verified,” (Rami). Due to the scientific changes meditation has on the body such as improvements of brain regions, it becomes clear that meditation is a form of science rather than a religion and can be practiced by anyone who wishes to fulfill peace and tranquility without having a religious background. Students, therefore, should not have to question if meditation would interfere with their religious beliefs as it is simply an act of science.

Another critique that is elaborated upon is a fear that having a meditation program in the schools would steal away the student’s time to learn. However, as simple as 5 to 10 minutes of meditation a day has proven to help significantly for the one practicing the method. David Kiefer, a family physician with a background of medicine, proclaims, “Meditation is a simple technique that, if practiced for as few as 10 minutes each day, can help you control stress, decrease anxiety, improve cardiovascular health, and achieve a greater capacity for relaxation”. Clearly, just a small amount of time can result in a significant amount of benefits in the long-term.

Incorporating meditation techniques in secondary schools across the US would significantly aid the students in their development of education which would create and more efficient and successful pathway for that student’s future. Numerous experiments have taken place to prove meditation has the ability to not only change specific regions of the brain responsible for cognitive development and peace, but also provides many health benefits that students of secondary schooling should contain. It is proven that students experience an abundance of stress and anxiety in secondary schools due to the high amounts of pressure and tension which could potentially lead them to a depressed state. These negative symptoms clearly negatively impact their learning ability which puts them in a critical condition of failure. Therefore, meditation would serve the students numerous benefits and would positively influence their learning development.