Inside Yoga 72 (25/3/13)

Most of will remember the stress of doing school exams, but how many of us were aware that mindfulness meditation would help us cope and even do better? Even today not many school pupils are aware of how meditation can help them, and for that matter, most teachers are not aware of how meditation can help their pupils. But this appears to be changing.

Last week, a newspaper report revealed that some teachers and schools have introduced meditation to their pupils. The Guardian reported that 3,000 students have been taught mindfulness techniques and the numbers are growing. And this month there will be an international conference, in London, on mindfulness in schools.

The school pupils have been taught two techniques, one called 7/11 and the other “beditation”. In the 7/11 technique  they breathe in for seven, and then exhale for 11, which is very similar to many of the techniques I teach in classes – using the basic exercise of increasing the length of the exhalation: and very much like the 2:1 ratio of breath in pranayama exercises.

Beditation is simply lying down meditation which allows the person to completely relax while focusing on body and awareness of the breath. Of course, falling asleep is a risk while lying down!

It is good to see that these effective techniques are becoming increasingly popular. To read the newspaper article see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2013/mar/04/mindfulness-based-stress-reduction-meditation?INTCMP=SRCH

If you are interested in learning these techniques for yourself, for your staff or students, contact me for more details: gary@yogabristol.co.uk