The first time I was introduced to meditation was by a family member. This way of life had helped him through difficult times and suggested I have a try of it. Initially, we were both a bit sceptical of the thought of melodic music and soothing voices. We both thought that simple breathing exercises and peace wouldn’t help us with our problems. To our surprise, actually taking a 10-minute meditation session improved our happiness and ability to get through the day without stress, anxiety or doubt.

Many others feel the same way. Millions of people across the world participate in meditation practises. They guide us through many challenging topics and help us deal with them in a calm manner. The sessions opened my eyes particularly to the harshness we give ourselves and how damaging that could be in the long term. They also show that we all have extremely busy lives and that we can easily fall into a cycle of bad habits and over working which can lead to serious health effects. Since the NHS in this country is already strained, researchers are saying that we should be teaching meditation in school, so we can learn how to act and behave in challenging mental, social and emotional situations.

I spoke to Megan Alcalay who works as a Customer Success Associate at a popular meditation app called Calm.  She describes that the atmosphere at Calm is “very…. calm! We meditate as a team once per day and our office is very clean and cosy.” She also says that the atmosphere at work should be introduced in schools.

Megan says that before she thought “meditation was more intense than it really is. You can meditate for 2 or 5 minutes and it counts – you don’t have to sit for many hours to benefit from meditation.”

She recommends to students to meditate when they are “feeling stressed out by school, especially before a test! Meditating for a few minutes can help you clear your mind and stay focused.”

Lastly, she says that “meditation should be interwoven with all subjects” and that Calm offers free lifetime memberships to teachers.

I also wanted to hear what people in my local area thought of the idea of meditation in schools. I made a questionnaire and asked a range of people their thoughts. I got some interesting results.

When asked: “How do you view meditation?”, just over 60% of responses said beneficial while the remaining 40% said that it was not for them or they couldn’t commit to doing it regularly.

The response that most shocked me was the response to “Who should provide the resources for meditation?” just under 60% of total responses said that the government should. I thought that schools would be the second highest in popularity, but councils were next highest with just over 40% of the total responses given.

The most important question was “Should meditation be introduced in schools?”. On this question, the scoring system was 1 being no and 100 being yes. The average score was 70, so this means that most of the responses agreed to meditation being in schools. This is great news to me as I am sure that many schools would benefit from it.

To conclude, meditation is a relaxing practise. People can be bombarded with daily life, with its business and stress. Sometimes, we need to take a step back and take back control. We shouldn’t need to rush to meet deadlines or try to be the best. We just need to be who we are. At the end of the day, that’s all that counts.

More information on the Calm app can be found at https://www.calm.com/

More information on Calm in schools can be found at https://www.calm.com/schools