Just Breathe

Written by Barbara Beachler, Education Scientist ‘19

I practice meditation. Sometimes I sit once or twice a week, other times every day. I also teach American Literature to high school juniors and a bevy of electives to seniors in the Upper School at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda, MD. At this Catholic school of Pre-K through twelfth graders, educators have been invited to incorporate space for prayer and reflection into our instruction. For years I have given the first six minutes at the start of each class to journal writing. Students quietly journal in response to a prompt on the board. Sometimes we respond to a poem, other times the prompt is an open-ended question; we may also listen to music or study an image. This meditative moment for me has always been important in the classroom, and I’ve always shared this belief with students.

At the start of the 2018–19 school year, I began offering guided meditation for the first three minutes of class to Creative Writing students. Fueled by the positive response, we made it part of every class. Students have shared that they are often highly anxious and that their levels of school-related stress are off the charts. As a college-prep institution, these high school students navigate the world of classes, extra-curriculars, and at the level I teach, the world of college/university testing and applications. I have witnessed in my six years at Stone Ridge a significant increase in the number of college applications that each student completes. They cast broad nets and often suffer in the proverbial pressure cooker of expectations and perfection. How stressful is that? Initially, my thoughts on giving students a very brief moment of time to sit and practice clearing their minds was fuelled by a desire to address the reflection/prayer offer. However, as the class meditation further developed into the rhythm of our class time and students described the benefits of meditation and “checking out” for several minutes, I began to wonder if this practice also had an impact on their creative writing in any way. Would a more centered, calm and less-stressed student produce more creative writing?

Using Headspace guided meditation, which offers themed sessions on topics such as stress, sleep, and anxiety, I am researching the effects of guided meditation on the writing process in high school students. Specifically, my research questions are:

• How can meditation in the classroom encourage creativity in general and creative writing specifically?
• How can guided meditation foster creative writing?

I hypothesize that guided meditation for a three-minute duration will increase creativity and decrease the levels of anxiety and stress in a classroom setting.

What’s not to love about sitting in a room full of absolutely silent students, breathing, going inward together and coming out the other side to write?

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