According to the American Psychological Association, meditation can ease anxiety and stress, boost memory, lower your likelihood to overreact, and increase relationship satisfaction. This is demonstrated quite clearly for adults. But what about kids?
From Baltimore to Brooklyn and all the way to California, educators are trying a different approach to modifying poor behavior. They’re meditating.
Baltimore’s Robert W. Coleman Elementary School has been working to implement programs designed to reduce bad behavior and provide young people with tools to cope with difficult situations. According to an article in US News and World Report, many of these students have challenges in their home life that carry into the classroom. Teaching them how to take stock for a moment before reacting is proving successful.
“When I get mad at something or somebody, I just take some breaths,” says Dacari, age 9. “It gives you confidence when you need to do something important.”
Guided by a program put in place by Holistic Life, a Baltimore based non-profit, students practice meditation for 15 minutes at the beginning and end of the day. They also have a “Mindful Moment Room” complete with yoga mats, essential oils and floor pillows. The program leverages older students who have been in the program to guide younger students, thus giving them the ability to carry the practice back out into the neighborhoods.
Is it working? According to Carlillian Thompson, Principal at Robert Coleman, it is having an impact. She says there have been zero suspensions since the Mindful Room has been open.
As we’ve written in our blog before, Mindfulness is being practiced in many different ways in our world today. Weaving this into your marketing and customer experience programs can go a long way to connecting your brand experience with better wellness for your audience.
If you’d like to learn more about Mindfulness and marketing, join us for our upcoming webinar Four Steps to Build Loyalty with Conscious Consumers on February 7, 2018 at 1p.m. EST.
