meditation programs held at schools in mumbai after mumbai terror attacks.
http://timesofindia .indiatimes. com/Cities/ Thane/Meditation _classes_ at_schools/ articleshow/ 3848877.cmsTHANE: Calm and gentle breathing replaces the usual cacophony in classrooms. The sound of the morning bell at Lokpuram Public School, Pokhran-II in Thane, is greeted by students sitting still in their seats with eyes shut. The students chant in a co-ordinated manner for ten minutes. As if in a trance, they train at discovering inner peace.
The 15 minutes of meditation prior to mathematics or English lessons with experts, appears to have had a healing effect on the children dealing with heightened anxiety and anger in the wake of terror strikes.
“These children are constantly asking questions. They have seen the gun battle, sitting in their living rooms and are angry and confused. Adding to this, is the stress of coping with a difficult curriculum,’ ‘ says Jyoti Thakkar, a meditation guru. “All this has had a colossal negative impact on young minds with mood swings and anxiety common among all.”
Thakkar and eight of her colleagues who have mastered the Art of Living programme have taken it upon themselves to inculcate the practice of meditation among students and are conducting a 15-minute session in all the classrooms from Monday. The initiative seems to have been well-appreciated. “Its a rejuvenating experience,’ ‘ said Lipika Chandra, a Std X teacher at Lokpuram.
Thakkar and her team have designed a short programme for stress relief and peace meditation, having witnessed the teenagers’ condition post 26/11. “It occurred to me that there is an immediate need to focus on this group after I saw children from the residential complex where I stay, assembling and chanting patriotic slogans during the terror strike. The anger was visible. More importantly, they were not led by any elder but had marched on to the streets on their own,” Thakkar said.
She added that the programme of short duration at Lokpuram, appreciated for the academic performance of its students in the CBSE curriculum, will be experimented with by other schools in the vicinity including the Arunodaya school and also select municipal schools in Thane city.
“It aims at relieving children of all tensions. I always tell them that when the mind is calm, there is more dynamism and clarity in their thinking. The school children who practice with us have given excellent feedback,” Thakkar said. “They said they feel rejuvenated, as if they have woken up after a long nap. They are able to respond better to situations and focus more as the 15 minutes in trance help them to rise above anger and ego,” she said.
