Youngsters take to meditation (Hobart Mercury, Australia)

Meditation classes for children are gaining popularity in Tasmania as young people look for tools to combat stress.Children aged between eight and 12 studied basic meditation techniques during a one-day course at Dromedary yesterday. Course teacher Jacquie Stephens said young people were keen to learn ways of managing internal conflict.

“Just like adults, children have tensions, anxiety and stresses,” Mrs Stephens said. “This is a way they can calm their mind down — a tool they can use in daily life.” Mrs Stephens, who runs the course at the Vipassana Meditation Centre, said children could acquire techniques to help them for life.

“The younger people learn about meditation the better,” she said. “I wish I had learnt this when I was a kid because it would have saved me a lot of stress in my teenage years.” She said children’s minds were open to the concepts of meditation and often grasped techniques better than adults. “They find it easier because they don’t have as much intellectual garbage as we adults do,” she said. “They take to it like ducks to water.”

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