By Kelly Palacios and Liliana Hernandez The Western Express
Close your eyes. Take three deep breaths, notice if you can feel your heart beat and see if you can feel your breath.
Students at Western International High School have engaged in meditation training for the past two years, offered by Lisa Nieddu, a self-employed meditation educator.
Nieddu said the meditation practice, called mindfulness, provides students to improve mental health and, hopefully, test scores.
“I believe mental health is just as important as our physical health,” Nieddu said. “To develop healthy minds, students need to learn in an environment that cares for their well-being, not just their academic success.”
Mindfulness is a form of meditation in which you nonjudgmentally acknowledge your feelings and gain awareness. Instead of letting your life pass you by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to experience.
Nieddu said the 40 teenagers learning the skills at Western International evolve over her eight weeks of instruction.
Nieddu graduated from Michigan State with a bachelor’s degree in interpersonal communications.
“Participating in an eight-week mindfulness meditation program doesn’t just provide a sense of peace and relaxation, studies now show measurable changes in the brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress,” Nieddu said in an email.
For more information on mindful lifestyles go to www.mindful.org.
