Teenagers learning meditation to manage stress

DUBAI // A private school is teaching its senior pupils how to meditate as a means of managing stress and anxiety.

Dubai College has recently completed a pilot programme involving its Grade 12 and 13 pupils that introduced them to the fundamental principles of mindfulness, in addition to other lessons in life beyond school, such as financial literacy.

The practice allows the pupils, even for just a few minutes, to clear their minds of all the noisy thoughts and worries they pick up in their everyday lives, and focus on the present moment to gain a better sense of calm and well-being.

The mindfulness session is one of several life-skills classes to be taught to the senior pupils in a compulsory 10-week course called Home Alone Sessions, meant to help them deal with “the most stressful period in their school careers”, said Mike Lambert, assistant head of sixth form, academic and careers guidance.

“They’re probably at the peak of their stress in terms of A-level examinations. If they’re taking SATs for American schools and they have admissions tests for the UK and the university applications, there’s quite a lot going on in their lives, so we thought this was a very good time to introduce it.”

Mr Lambert, who has been appointed headmaster of the school for the next academic year, added: “We have 10 separate courses introducing them to life beyond school, when they will be home alone, as it were. And one of these is coping with stress and anxiety. So we give them a 45-minute introduction to a mindfulness meditation programme.”

Other lessons focus on financial literacy, healthy eating, self-defence, basic first aid, relationships and CV writing, to name a few.

Mr Lambert was inspired to introduce mindfulness training following the success of the well-being programme of Wellington College, in England, which started in 2006. After adopting the mindfulness meditation, the Berkshire school’s rankings soared.

“They’ve actually not put that down to academic rigour but they’ve actually put it down to these mindfulness classes because they’ve got happier, more well-adjusted students,” Mr Lambert said. “They feel that actually that is the contributing factor to their success. That’s what got me thinking about it.”

The mindfulness lesson taught by Mr Lambert borrows from the book Mindfulness: A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world. In the exercise, a group of up to 24 pupils are moved into a quiet, dimly lit drama studio where the desks are arranged in a circle. For the first five to 10 minutes, Mr Lambert discusses the documented benefits of meditation. Then each pupil is given a small piece of wrapped chocolate. They are instructed to focus on the experience of touching the wrapper, hearing the crumple of the paper being slowly removed from the chocolate, smelling the chocolate and then placing it on their tongues, savouring the many flavours as the chocolate slowly melts.

“Mindfulness is all about bringing your attention to the present moment,” Mr Lambert said. “So rather than wolfing it down and chewing and swallowing it and moving on to the next thing, they spend about a minute and a half or two minutes with this chocolate sitting on their tongue melting and just being aware of the sensation of the melting and the tastes that they feel.”

The point is to show how they could take a “mindful minute” at any point in their day to settle their minds when they felt stressed or anxious.

“If you could take time to pause and recognise that everything is well and basically lower your cortisol levels, lower your stress levels, then you can step into that next lesson,” Mr Lambert said.

Next year, the school is looking into introducing mindfulness training for all pupils in Grade 7 and above.

Jenna Denton, a 17-year-old who is graduating from Dubai College, in Al Sufouh, this year, said she was “really happy” with the meditation session. “It actually does make you feel more relaxed,” said Jenna, who is in Grade 13.

Rohan Padmanabhan, 18, said he was sceptical at first but now finds himself practising, even at home.

“I think it’s slowly helping me along to just focus on one thing that I’m doing at a time.”

rpennington@thenational.ae