Shift Movement

While prayer in school is debated, what about meditation? And not just in schools, but in hospitals, high-stress jobs, and other situations where taking time to meditate might prove beneficial.  

Link to article: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-06-07-meditate_N.htm

What do you think? 

Love it!  However, as James O’Dea makes mention…”we cannot transform others until we have done our own transformation work..” and I SOOOOO get this…..prior to my own inward journey to awakening, I wouldn’t have gotten the value of holding space for the children to become reflective….www.coeworld.org is a beautiful example of nurturing children to become in-tune with their own inner voice.  Dr. Nina Meyerhof has  a free downloadable handbook on the website…Children of the Earth…youth rising to conscious evolution. She will also be a guest speaker in October for the Illuminating Education FREE Telesummit  http://www.illuminatingeducation.com which i am co-creating, living into the vision of awakening educators/education:) Blessings! love, kimberly

@Tamra…this is so good. Of course!

NZ has more or less a Christian majority. Thank goodness, meditation is part of their (and most) culture as it could be included in the curriculum without too much controversy…properly approached it could enhance religious and cutlural tolerance, as well.

I havent checked out the url yet but anyone got ideas on implementation?

When promoting the implementation of something like this, it is sometimes necessary to take a look at reasons why people might be hesitant, and to address any fears.  I like the idea of it being used as a way to promote tolerance. The health benefits of meditation are also well-supported, so how might this be “packaged” in a way that everyone from a Christian to an atheist would see its value?

Carefully!…as an answer to packaging

Ideas that spring to mind:

changing the name/label…rather than meditation something with less religious connotations – stress reducing, focus for exams and studying?

include (disguise, lol)part of a larger package with either labelling – Health, physical education – and/or a different/specific focus i.e. a spcific group. If we’re trying to market/promote then its best to get a popular group on board 1st – make it ‘cool’. Sports, drama?

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I like using the word acceptance in place of tolerance (tolerate) as I believe acceptance brings love into the equation.

Aren’t there trail Mindfulness programmes operating in a few secondary schools at present?

How about self determination or self realisation

@Simon Cotton

Oh I like the ‘self’ and determination. Gives it a strong (masculine?) flavour, if its safe to say that in this forum? I believe, the more mainstream it sounds, the more chance it will reach the people least likel,y to have been exposed to these practices …self awareness? self management, self control…

Connie suggested “using the word acceptance in place of tolerance (tolerate)”, and this seems like improvement. However, “acceptance” can often be done reluctantly. Is there still a better word than even this?

Adding to the word list above: self-efficacy… but I also like “determination” if the goal is to keep the heart of the message while also being accepted by mainstream so that it has a chance of being implemented.

Whether people are just chatting for the sake of the conversation, or possibly letting a seed be planted to do something more with this, all contributions are welcome.

Could it be that the same thing might need to be “packaged” in more than one way depending on the audience?

And what would be the wording that would be clear, positive, even empowering, and definitely nonthreatening for “red-necks and trailer trash” (while I know many might avoid this phrasing, it has me laughing because I grew up in a rural areal where this was just “normal.”)?

Its the cultural divide, I tell you but I took out the post rather than risk offending

…it has positive connotations here as all the ‘cool’ golden oldies travel round the country in their trailers. lol, Im still rural and aspiring to both normal and trailer trashiness..

Many of our rednecks (extreme right wingers) are very affluent i.e. wikipedia definition:…”In recent decades, the term has expanded its meaning to refer to bigoted, loutish reactionaries who are opposed to modern ways”…

…Im supposing it isnt loving to pick and choose who we empower?

I think we do need to pick and choose our words for the groups that we are with and our words carry a resonance, an energy and we want to keep it a loving energy.  I might add that when I use acceptance, I also use appreciation with it and critical and creative thinking are also important in our development of ‘acceptance’ of others. We use discernment rather than judgment.  I am not ‘perfect’ in my application of this as far as feelings regarding some events and incidents that happen in my life and in our society. However, we are all perfectly imperfect, or is it imperfectly perfect?

Hi Connie — now I have that song by Pink in my head:

Linked the video version.

Art heals the soul.