It’s no exaggeration to say that children today are experiencing the toughest times. The internet-penetrated gadgets and manifold distractions surround them in a way that’s encouraging them to slowly sink towards a sedentary lifestyle. But it is important that kids move past their inactive way of living and try to develop some new skills beyond their regular academia.
We, at Marigold International School, ranked among the top ten schools in Bengaluru, know that the stresses of this lifestyle can be a real cause for concern but it is important to recognize these dangers and combat them with healthy alternatives. It is vital to neutralise the effects of digital habits such as browsing the web too much and multitasking by increasing their ability to focus more effectively.
By taking time out from your busy schedule each day to practice meditation with your child, you should notice an improvement in the quality of their attention span for school work, assignments and anything else that comes their way during exam season.
It’s said that the simple act of practising meditation can provide one with many positive benefits for their wellbeing and learning. Not only does it improve focus and concentration, meditating regularly also makes you empathetic, compassionate and much more mindful. A University of British Columbia study found that a single 20-minute session of mindfulness comes with significant improvements to one’s ability to read others’ emotions. Here are just some of the ways meditation enhances academic performance:
Meditation Improves Concentration Power
A lot of parents have trouble getting their young ones to actually learn anything. It’s very frustrating when your little one seems to be unable to memorise the alphabet or recognize numbers – it’s enough to drive any parent crazy! You start thinking about whether you’re doing something wrong as a parent, but the truth is that your child may either not be interested or is finding it too difficult to focus and understand.
Because of this, a lot of parents often wonder why their children seem more intelligent at times and struggle with learning other times when they think they should be on top of things. The truth is that these seemingly random bouts of intelligence most likely come from your child being able to fully relax brain function. Since kids are impulsive beings by nature and prone to being distracted easily, we find that whenever situations allow them an opportunity to fully relax then learning flows through them like a river during these periods.
Meditation Enhances One’s Ability To Focus On Details
At MIS, we’ve often noticed that the way certain students excel in class is by learning how to become more efficient at their work. There are so many ways a student can have better focus, and one way that has been proven is through meditation. We’ve seen children whose test scores and homework become easier due to the effect of meditation on their daily classroom activities like reading off the board or paying attention in class. Meditation helps students gain better control over their own bodies (which also affects their minds) and can help them be less anxious about everyday tasks as well as help them focus on a task if competing distractions come up later.
Meditation Enhances Creativity & Innovation
The benefits of meditation go way beyond helping one to concentrate and think more clearly. It impacts the ability to be creative and innovative and helps to create a framework for thinking “outside the box”. Meditation helps to boost brain power, improve productivity, accelerate learning rates and amplify creative thought processes.
Children who meditate on a regular basis are able to maintain focused thoughts for longer periods of time and turn into improved learners, leading to a deeper well of knowledge about a subject. As a result they become more receptive to ideas or concepts that are innovative. Furthermore, this leads them to become creative thinkers themselves and therefore create new ideas quite easily as they have gained an ability to think outside the box.
In essence, meditation is an effective tool that helps kids learn more effectively and grow their brains in ways that make them able to think quickly and solve problems creatively. This is why Marigold International School has included meditation in our curriculum as one of the extracurricular activities we have for our students.