- in Parenting by Alexis Rodrigo
How Children Can Benefit from Meditation
In this day and age of constant stimulus and a lifestyle that is often rushed and packed with activities, children need time to “recharge” more than ever. While meditation is often viewed as a practice for adults, children can benefit greatly from it, too. These benefits can be carried into adulthood as useful life skills as well. Here are some of the ways that meditation can be good for kids.
– Reduced anxiety
Anxiety can lead to or be connected with depression and physical disorders such as digestive disturbances. Although adults tend to remember childhood as idyllic, children actually encounter a great deal of anxiety in their young lives. From dealing with difficult school subjects to facing bullies to family trauma, children need a way to reduce the anxiety they feel. Reducing anxiety also helps improve academic test scores.
– Enhanced concentration
Once again, meditation can help in school performance. With ADD and ADHD getting more and more prevalent among the young, being able to increase concentration can be a major benefit of meditation.
– Mental clarity and focus
Children often have a hard time focusing on one thing for very long. In an era of short visual images from television or the computer, it’s important that children train their brains to stay on one subject, topic or idea for progressively longer lengths of time. Meditation trains the brain to do this.
– Better control over anger
Helping children get a handle on their emotions, especially anger, is very beneficial. Children who can handle their anger have more and better peer relationships, and do better as adults. Anger can be destructive and frightening, and kids need to see that they can control their emotions and responses. Meditation produces a sense of calm, and teachers have said it enhances children’s compassion toward one another.
– Greater ability to handle stress
Meditation seems to carve “pathways” in the brain that go from being a deliberate exercise to an automatic response. Kids who practice meditation not only find they can handle their current stress better, but they also exhibit a greater ability to deal with stress as it comes.
Meditation can be done by parents at home, incorporated into a classroom setting, or with an instructor. Only a few minutes a day are required to obtain some of the benefits. Teaching children the art of meditation gives them important life skills that will bring immediate help as well as setting the stage for a productive future.
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