It is mind-boggling really when you realize all of the physical and mental health benefits, as well as the everyday career and lifestyle benefits, derived from practicing meditation. Practicing different forms of meditation has gained popularity and has picked up steam in all sorts of demographics – sports coaches, life coaches, corporate cultures, science geeks, workaholics, athletes, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and spiritual teachers – all utilize forms of meditation, because the results are profound and undeniable.
What’s so Great About Meditation Anyway?
Still to this day many people scoff at the idea of meditation, thinking of it as some woo-woo, pseudo-spiritual science stuff, but it really isn’t. Meditation is used by many people for many different reasons, but they all have a common theme – to quiet the mind, ground oneself in the present moment, to let go of all other mental chatter, and to focus the mind on being calm and present. Practicing presence, calm, and focus have benefits that carry over whether you’re an MMA fighter who needs to focus and calm himself, a high-achieving entrepreneur who has to deal with lots of complex problems, ambiguity, and chaos, or a regular person who cares about productivity, relaxation, and mental clarity.
On top of being good for high-performing individuals, it is also good for everyday people in reducing anxiety, dealing with depression, nurturing creative and spontaneous thinking in the mind, reducing stress, and for relaxation and letting go of worry. The reality is though, that millions of people and many successful people meditate, and attribute much of their success to meditation. Studies have shown meditation helps fight addiction, improves your sense of well-being, increases your sense of empathy and connection, enhances your immune system, helps your cardiovascular system, improves your relationships, and preps your brain for high quality decision making.
The Curriculum of the Future
Our current education system in America is pumping out unhappy, depressed students who don’t know what drives them, lack meaning in their lives, who have not developed very many applicable skills to the real world, are searching for some sort of guidance on how to navigate this weird and scary thing called life, and are addicted to distracting themselves in order to hide from their lack of certainty or clarity about their long-term life prospects.
If instead of focusing on arbitrary curricula that do not teach any truly valuable skills, and we focused on getting in touch with ourselves, discovering our interests and passions, fostering gratitude and joy, and learning to love life, our kids would be equipped with the intra-personal skills and mental tools required to effectively deal with life.
Teaching children to practice meditation at a young age would have profound effects on reducing anxiety, depression, and hyperactivity in kids. It would also be very healthy for their brain development, development of relationship and communication skills, and it would teach them to be calm, grounded, empathetic, and rational. Meditation would empower so many children to tap into their creative powers, learn about themselves, and to discover where true happiness, gratitude, and long-term fulfillment comes from. We are doing children an enormous disservice and leaving so much potential untapped by not teaching meditation throughout society.