Understanding What Stress Means

Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory high school counselor, Christine Leendersten, explains her San Francisco school’s stress reduction curriculum.  “First we work with the students to define what stress means to them,” she says, “and how it affects them mentally, physically, and socially.  For some kids, it’s family pressures, for others it’s homework, and others are worried most about relationships. 

“We’ve found that if an individual can identify what’s stressing him or her, and their reaction— from lashing out at parents and friends, or an inability to concentrate—we can teach the student how to deal with it.  Some of the words students use after learning guided imagery meditation are ‘relaxing’ and ‘peaceful.’” Leendersten has freshmen keep stress logs and then teaches them a 10-minute meditation using guided imagery so that they use this technique to calm themselves any time they feel stress during the day.

Quiet on Campus

Some schools use transcendental meditation or TM^®, developed 50 years ago by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, for all students, faculty, and staff at the beginning and end of every school day. Other schools are establishing a silent period twice a day where students sit to rest or read.

Daniel M., a student at the University of the District of Columbia, says, “Since I started doing TM I’m sick much less.  I used to get headaches all the time, but I have only had two headaches the entire semester, and my attention span has improved, and studying is easier.”

The control that students can achieve by learning to be in the moment is something they will value for the rest of their lives. Maybe parents should take a chill pill and relax when their teens do!

• Previous Page
• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page