Meditation Helps Bodine Students to ‘Thrive’
by Anthony David Williams,
Why does one even bother to meditate? If you were to ask an individual with looming deadlines, an air-tight schedule, a demanding work ethic, and a partridge in a pear-tree, why they bust their hump, they might just think you’re crazy. Imagine, an archetype of this very hustle-and-bustle lifestyle, who of course has no time to meditate, may just retort with a witty clichèd comeback–something to the tune of: “Why do you think I work? For my health? ” Does that sound about right or am I relying too heavily on American idioms? Culture criticisms aside, one principal that crosses cultures is that of good health. Mediation is a paradigm shift for everyday living. By and large, anyone from the desperate housewife to the busy individual needs to meditate and here’s the kicker–it is good for your health!
Now, while this first-page-worthy news may come as no great surprise, many are still ignorant to the ways in which a brief ten-minute meditation once a day can significantly impact one’s everyday life. For the sake of argument, let’s use high school students as an example.
In the city of brotherly love, the William W. Bodine High School for International Affairs, one of Philadelphia’s blue-ribbon high schools, is known for offering the most successful International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (the IB) for its juniors and seniors in the city by count of IB diplomas and certificates earned. The IB program is committed to excellence and “has a hard-earned reputation for high standards of teaching, pedagogical leadership and student achievement” (ibo.org). To the students of Bodine who are in the program, this translates to stress, stress, sleep deprivation, and more stress. As a student of the program, I can attest to the simple fact that when high school students feel stressed, we tend to procrastinate; starting work on time has just gone out-of-style — let’s admit this. Then, surprisingly (or not so surprisingly), post procrastination, we’re stressed-out tenfold; wait, why is procrastination in-style again? If only there was a way to block the seemingly urgent traffic of thoughts, impending due dates, and disconcerting test schedules. Oh, wait, there is! Read more…