Meditation for Kids & Teens

‘I’m bored!’ It could be the mantra of youth.

In our fast paced, technology driven world our kids are conditioned to expect constant external stimulation. With hundreds of TV channels and movies on demand, constant pinging of messages on mobile phones, 101 different social media accounts to keep updated with the latest selfies, it’s a wonder that they have time to get bored. But they sure do!

Unfortunately, our most common response as parents is to offer a list of alternative activities to stimulate our disgruntled offspring. ‘Why don’t you call Jenny/Johnny and see what they’re doing? Watch a movie. Ride your bike. Play with the dog….’

We’re all conditioned to look outside ourselves – to do or to get something to satisfy this underlying sense of lack. But is this feeling of not enough ever truly satisfied?

Think for a moment about a situation where your child plagued you morning and night for the latest toy or gadget. Do promises like ‘If you buy me this, I’ll never ask for another thing!’ ring any bells? And how long after you bought this supposedly life changing item did that promise last?

Of course, it depends on the individual, and we are equally guilty of this as adults. Have you ever thought to yourself ‘Once I have the latest [fill in the blank] life will be good.’ Or perhaps it’s ‘When I lose x kilo’s’ or ‘When I find the perfect mate’.

But ultimately, it’s an illusion. Nothing external in life will ever give us a permanent sense of satisfaction, because satisfaction – the sense of enough – comes from within. It is not your circumstances that dictate your happiness, it is how you relate to your circumstances.

The practice of meditation helps us appreciate this. Meditation helps us learn how be in the world without the need to do or to have. To paraphrase Ekhart Tolle, we are after all human beings, not human doings.

Meditation helps us reconnect to our essential nature, to find the peace within, and importantly find the truth that we are enough.

These wise words from American author and teacher Marianne Williamson sum things up beautifully: Ego says ‘Once everything falls into place I’ll feel peace’. Spirit says ‘Find your peace, then everything will fall into place.’

There are a range of different meditation techniques, from breath, to mantra, body sensing and visualisation. Different types of meditation appeal to different people, so it’s worth trying several approaches to find the one that suits you.

For young people, a combination of yoga and meditation often works well, with the yoga giving them the opportunity to work off some energy as well as learn to draw their focus inwards before practicing meditation in stillness.

Numerous scientific studies have demonstrated the benefits of meditation for managing stress, anxiety and depression. But in my view, the greatest gift of meditation is learning how to simply ‘be’.