I have been teaching meditation for years now and all types of meditation are of interest to me. I don’t believe there is only one way to meditate and that an individual has to find the way that works for them. Children are the same – individuals –
so if we bear this in mind then we won’t take it personally if they decide they don’t like meditation. What they are telling us is that they don’t like the type of meditation we are teaching them. But there are other ways.
When I wrote the book Calm Kids, I wanted it to be a starting point for many adults so they could free their own intuition and creativity and apply the type of approach to meditation that worked for them (teaching it) and for their children (learning it) so it was an enjoyable experience for both. If there is one thing I can guarantee – meditation isn’t fixed but is a fluid experience that changes every single time you sit down to experience it. It is the same when you teach it too.
Challenging Opinions
I few months ago I posted a link on our facebook page Teach Children Meditation, which was about different healing mantras that children could use to help them feel calmer. What a difference of opinion this generated! Oh my word! We had many who enthusiastically embraced the idea of teaching their children this. Then I had one or 2 comments about how this was a load of baloney and if we wanted meditation to be taken seriously we shouldn’t even mention nor touch anything that was so ‘out there’. In this person’s eyes using sound mantras in meditation reduced its credibility in the eyes of the scientist and logical thinker.
Hmmmmm…. (I thought to myself).
Finding the (Bigger Picture) Answer
At first I was annoyed at this person. Spouting out there opinions as if they were right and everyone else was wrong. Then I did what I always do… I meditated on it. When I do this I realise that the challenge (which it was) was to help me learn. To notice these strong emotions it provoked in me, to forgive myself for them (rather than giving myself a hard time for not being perfect) and to look at the bigger lesson I had to learn.
I realised that it was important for us to gather what information we could about how using sound in meditation can be measured so that it can help those who haven’t experienced it (yet) see how powerful and effective it was. So I posted a request on our page for any evidence of such information and people started listing links to research and information which were helping to show how effective sound is in meditation.
In every challenge or difficult situation, there is an opportunity to learn and grow. I suppose I wanted to share this with you in case you have been trying to teach your children meditation and felt you weren’t doing it right or disappointed in the results. Try what I did… meditate on the issue and see what your children are trying to help you learn.
Namaste.
(here’s some of the links!) – Meditation Research into Sound
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