With the recent "excitement" of current events such as the surprising, some would say shocking, presidential election, people all around America are bound a little too tightly and need to relieve the tension and emotions caused by these events. Acting as a role model for the whole country, elementary school children are using a new method for relief of altercations during school instead of the traditional method of detention: meditation. Yes, children ages 4 to 6 years old are practicing better self-improvement strategies than most of the adults in the United States, and we should all follow in their footsteps.
Robert W. Coleman Elementary in Baltimore has started an ingenious new method to allow children to calm down after getting in trouble with a teacher or other staff. This method consists of sending children to Coleman's Mindful Moment Room, where students participate in breathing exercises to allow them a moment of reflection and relaxation before being sent back to class. According to researchers in the early stages of experimenting the effectiveness of this method, meditation is beneficial in relieving anxiety, stress and depression.
Not only is the Mindful Moment Room fun and helpful for the students, but the teachers at Coleman Elementary are seeing major improvements in the attitudes of their students after the start of this new program. This comes to show how simple things, such as taking a minute to breathe and notice your emotions, can make an impact on your overall behavior and well-being. The people behind Coleman's Mindful Moment Room want to take their idea of allowing students to relax and take a breath (instead of locking them in a detention room where they sit and may even get more angry and frustrated) to schools around the city of Baltimore and America. This way, children all over the country will be able to ease their emotions in a more beneficial way, which will in turn allow them to be the best people and students they can be.
The adults of America should applaud and awe at the students of Coleman Elementary and use their same methods of relaxation and self-awareness to calm themselves down with all the stress that current events have put us under. The world is not over. Worrying about something we can no longer control is not helpful or beneficial to us. Instead of being angry about recent political events, take the emotions that you are feeling and turn those into something good for yourself and society. The U.S. as a whole does not need any more problems. When people are more focused on keeping themselves and their communities happy and healthy, less altercations will arise, which is exactly the strategy being successfully used with the students of Coleman Elementary and other elementary schools around America. With that in mind, let these children motivate us to be better people and better citizens of our country.
