Why Meditate and Practise Mindfulness?
Having recently been accepted as a Registered Meditation Teacher with Meditation Association of Australia, it has been wonderful to have the opportunity to introduce Meditation and Mindfulness to the entire Year 10 cohort at a prominent Brisbane girls’ school. The benefits of meditation and mindfulness along with breathing and relaxation techniques are invaluable to this age group. It provides them with some simple but essential tools to deal with the demands and stresses associated with being a teenager and coping with high school education.
Given the excitement and energy which comes with the new frontiers encountered at this age, it is all the more important for them to acquire techniques to help them quieten and focus the mind as well as learn the art of relaxation to reduce stress levels. But to try and make this notion interesting for this age level can be something of a challenge. What teenager is really that interested in sitting down, quietening the mind and being “still”?
Fortunately, the meditation and mindfulness were part of a broader project on Empathy conducted by the school in partnership with QUT and involved other activities such as research and reflective journaling to understand what the barriers are to feeling empathy towards fellow students. With this as the main theme for the meditation and mindfulness sessions, the challenge was then to make it appealing and easy to practise. With all of the scientific studies that have been and are being conducted at prominent universities around the world on the benefits of meditation and mindfulness etc, it provides the young (and sometimes sceptical) minds of the teenage audience with something more interesting and meaningful to engage their attention.
So why Meditate and practise Mindfulness?
Jon Kabat Zinn, Professor of Medicine and the Founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic (1979) and the Centre for Mindfulness in Medicine Health Care and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (1995)
Wrote a book on meditation called “Coming to Our Senses".
Speaks about meditation really being about inhabiting your life fully with awareness so that you’re not missing your moments but actually really living them fully in the present, which is the only time any of us ever have.
If we want to live less stressful lives, the present moment is the only time that we really have in order to live fully.
www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/spiritofthings/mindfulness/3249176
We meditate to:
Quieten the mind
Slow down our breathing
Lean to relax
Be in the Present – when we are in the present moment, we are being MINDFUL.
As Master Oogway said (from the movie )-
Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery, but Today is a gift. That is why it is called the “Present”.
What happens when we Quieten the Mind and practise Being in the Present?
Improves Focus & Concentration and Improves Memory
Initiates Relaxation Response to Reduces Stress
Neutralises Flight & Fight Response and Reduces Inflammation
Increases Mental Awareness
Reduces Anxiety and Depression
Promotes Improved Self Acceptance
Helps Regulate Emotions
Increases Confidence & Self-sufficiency
#Meditateandrelax #stress #Healthandpeaceofmind #reducestress #YogaAustralia #mentalrelaxation #Meditationteacher #EmpathyprojectQUT
