Thinking Skills and Creativity 1 (2006) 146–151

Keynote

Still thinking: The case for meditation with children

Robert FisherSchool of Sport and Education, Halsbury Building, Brunel University, Uxbridge UB8 3PH, UK

Received 21 June 2006; accepted 26 June 2006Available online 25 September 2006

Abstract

This paper argues the case for meditation with children. It seeks to define what meditation is, why it is important and how itcan be practised with children. Meditation provides a good starting point for learning and creativity. It builds upon a long traditionof meditative practice in religious and humanistic settings and research gives evidence of its practical benefits. We need to helpchildren find natural ways for body and mind to combat the pressures of modern living and to find better ways to help focus theirminds on matters of importance. There are strong pedagogical reasons for including meditation as part of the daily experience ofpupils of all ages and abilities. Meditation is a proven means for stilling the mind, encouraging mindfulness, and providing optimumconditions for generative thinking and reflection. This paper aims to encourage more experimentation and research into meditativepractice with children.© 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Meditation; Mindfulness; Thinking; Creativity

‘The issue is keeping meditative thinking alive.’ Martin Heddegger (1966).

‘It’s like a shower. It cleans your mind, so you can do your best thinking.’ Jamie, aged 10.

A Zen story tells of a professor who came to the Zen master Nan-in to learn about Zen. Nan-nin poured the professora cup of tea, and when the cup was full kept pouring. The professor protested, ‘Stop! The cup is overfull already.’Nan-nin replied: ‘Your mind is over-full like this cup. To learn about Zen you must first empty your cup’ (Reps, 1994).

Children’s minds are often too full of buzzing ideas and emotions to do their best thinking or learning. In recentyears there has been growing interest in what meditation has to offer teachers and learners. Those who advocatethe practice of meditation in schools argue that it is a technique that can help children overcome blocks to learningand is an ideal preparation for creative activity. They support this view with research evidence that claims toshow that the practice of meditation reduces stress, promotes relaxation and well-being while developing the skillsof concentration and self control, while enhancing emotional intelligence and self-esteem (Erricker & Erricker,2001).

Teachers report that it helps create a happier, healthier and more focused learning environment (Fisher, 2005).Meditation requires no special materials or costly resources for schools. It is the purest form of personalised learningand it comes for free. But what is it? And how does it help thinking and creativity?

E-mail address: robert.fisher@brunel.ac.uk.

1871-1871/$ – see front matter © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/j.tsc.2006.06.004

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1. What is meditation?

‘It is a very special kind of sitting quietly doing nothing, in which the mind is held clear and still, alert andwatchful, and free from losing itself in thinking’(Fontana & Slack, 1997 p5).

The word ‘meditation’, derived from the Latin meditatio, originally referred to all types of physical or intellectualexercise. Later it came to mean contemplation as when Christians ‘meditate’ on the sufferings of Christ, or as inDescartes’ Meditations to refer to philosophical thinking about of the nature of reality.

By the late 19th century the word ‘meditation’ was used to refer to various religious or spiritual practices drawn fromvarious Eastern religions. The word ‘meditation’ was never an exact translation of any term or concept (such as theSanskrit dhyana or samadhi) used to describe meditative practice in eastern religions. It is a term that needs definition.

Forms of meditative practices are to be found in religious and humanist traditions, Many religious traditions seemeditation as a way to access the divine ‘life force’ that lies within us as a source of energy and wisdom, connectingthe personal to the universal. Some see stilling is an end in itself, for others it is a preparation for worship and prayer,opening the mind to the spiritual and to the affirming of positive thoughts. It is no surprise that meditation is used inthe spiritual practice of many faith schools. Some research suggests that meditation is more effective when linked to aspiritual tradition (Pargament & Wachholtz, 2005).

The problem with the concept of ‘spiritual’ (as in ‘spiritual awareness’ or ‘spiritual education’) is that they are opento varied interpretations, an ‘over-abundance of meanings’ (Bailey, 1984). Spirituality generally refers to somethingbeyond the present and particular to something that transcends both—a sensibility that manifests itself in a heightenedawareness of human experience. Such experience might be religious, spiritual or aesthetic. The practice of focusedattention is common to forms of spiritual education in many philosophical, spiritual and religious traditions (Carr &Haldane, 2004).

We do not need recourse to religion or the spiritual to justify the value of meditation. It has long been used withoutany overt religious or spiritual purpose as an aid to attention and concentration. Meditation can simply be defined as arange of mental states relating to attention, including states of consciousness, concentratation and contemplation.

The problem of defining meditation is akin to the problems of defining ‘being’ or ‘consciousness’. To understand itwe need more than a definition in words, we need the personal subjective experience of the practices involved. As onechild put it: ‘Its hard to say what it is but you know it when you do it.’

Different types of meditative practice can be categorised as mindful, receptive, generative and reflective.

1.1. Mindful

Mindfulness always plays a part in meditation, in the sense of becoming aware of one’s conscious state. The mostcommon and basic object of ‘mindful’ meditation is to focus on the naturally calming physical process of breathing.In the ’mindfulness of breathing’, one stills the mind through attending to the sensations of breathing. In zazen or ‘justsitting’ practice from the Japanese Zen tradition, one sits calmly with a still mind, aware of what is happening in one’sexperience without judging or trying to change things (Austin, 1998). It is about not just doing things, but sitting thereand being aware.

1.2. Receptive

If you focus your attention on an object in stillness and silence your mind gradually becomes calmer and morereceptive. In principle, any object will do—a sound, a visual image such as a candle flame, or a physical sensation.Receptive meditation means having a point of focus, such as a picture, object, sound, word or image and being receptiveto whatever experience is arising. Some traditions use chants, mantras or prayers for this purpose. The aim is this practiceis to become more open and receptive, to achieve a heightened consciousness of experience.

1.3. Generative

Generative meditation is where the attention is consciously focused and guided. An example of a ‘generative’practice is visualising, where the mind is invited on an imaginative journey and guided towards a personal creative

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response. Contemplation in the form of guided imagination features in religious traditions such as Japanese ShingonBuddhism and the Christian St. Ignatius Loyola who proposed a series of imaginative visualisations as a means ofdeepening spiritual awareness.

1.4. Reflective

Reflective meditation involves contemplating and repeatedly turning your attention to a stimulus and being open towhatever arises from the experience, such as a thought, question or image. The focus could be on a word or concept orset of words (such as prayer or poem), or on a visual, sound or kinaesthetic experience, such as a walking meditation.Here the response is not controlled or guided but open.

These categories of practice are not hard and fast distinctions. A particular meditation practice usually includeselements of all these approaches but with the emphasis on one particular aspect. But what has experience of theseforms of attention and consciousness to do with education?

2. Why meditation with children?

There are good philosophical, practical and pedagogical reasons to support the practice of meditation. Philosophershave long argued that humans are by nature meditative beings. For them meditation was about serious and sustainedreflection on matters of importance. Descartes called his writings ‘Meditations’ (his greatest joy was to lie in bed allmorning—contemplating). Heidegger drew a distinction between ‘calculative’ and ‘meditative’ thinking. The calcu-lative frame of mind deals in exact descriptions, quantitative analysis the manipulation of data and the measurementof outcomes. It is an indispensable part of modern thinking, but not the only way of thinking. The ability to imagine,innovate, create, play with ideas, have intuitive ideas and poetic visions is equally important he argues and he warnsof the dangers of relying solely on ‘calculative’ thinking (Heddegger, 1966).

Practical reasons for engaging in meditative thinking relate to its contribution to human well-being. For manychildren childhood is not a carefree time. In a materialistic, competitive world they are subject to many of thesame stresses and strains as adults. They are bombarded by an information overload of words, images and noise.They are prey to the frustration and anger of others and often experience negative emotions more deeply andintensely than adults. They find it difficult to articulate their problems. No wonder so many find concentrating inclass difficult and are impulsive in their behaviour. Targets, tests and exams increases pressure, with many childrenreporting sleepless nights of worry as they prepare for SATs. Could meditation help answer these practical real-lifeproblems?

Much research has highlighted the positive practical effects of meditation (Murphy & Donovan, 1999). As in mostareas of the social sciences positive conclusions are not proved with scientific certainty and some research has provedinconclusive. Results vary. Since 1970 the Transcendental Meditation Program (TM) claim 500 studies have beenundertaken at universities and research institutions in more than 20 countries, and the positive results published in over100 scientific journals (see http://www.tm.org). The main findings related to education claim to show that meditationcan improve:

• Mental abilities. Including increases in intelligence, creativity, learning ability, memory and academic achievement.• Health. Including reductions in stress, anxiety, incidence of ill-health; improved cardiovascular health and increased

longevity.• Social behaviour. Including improved self-confidence, relationships with others, job performance and satisfaction.

The effects claimed by researchers of TM mirror effects claimed by those researching other forms of meditation.Research conducted in hospital settings report a range of health benefits, including reduced blood pressure and stress,improved immune function and better mood (Murphy & Donovan, 1999). Such research has focused almost exclusivelyon adults. But does the practice have similar effects on children?

There is evidence that meditative practices can be of specific benefit children, for example helping children whosuffer attention problems (Bray, Peck, Kehle, & Theodore, 2005). Teachers engaged in researching meditation withchildren report positive results (Creative Partnerships, 2005). More schools are using meditation techniques to treator prevent common emotional and psychological problems that block learning, such as anxiety and attention deficit

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disorders. Many parents, teachers and children engaged in meditation with children programmes are convinced oftheir benefits (Conis, 2005).

The evidence of research into the benefits of meditation is not unequivocal. A recent review of research evidenceon the effectiveness of yoga for the treatment of anxiety and anxiety disorders reported positive results in the eightstudies reviewed, but also highlighted many inadequacies in the methods of research. The authors concluded it was notpossible to say that yoga is effective in treating anxiety or anxiety disorders in general and that ‘further well conductedresearch is necessary’ (Kirkwood, Rampes, Tuffrey, Richardson, & Pilkington, 2005).

Those who engage in meditation regularly report that it can be deeply relaxing yet energising, it calms the mind,improves concentration, and boosts creativity. The benefits claimed by meditators include finding ‘inner peace’, greaterenergy, more productive solutions to problems, more restful sleep, reduced tension, stress and anxiety (Erricker &Erricker, 2001). There is evidence from small-scale research that meditation can enhance self esteem and the capacityto make decisions, and develops self awareness (Goleman, 1989). Much research supports the link between meditationand deep relaxation (Murphy & Donovan, 1999). But what of creativity?

The link between creativity and relaxation has long been recognised. The Greeks realised that the psyche, the innerperson, was a source of creativity and that spiritual practices could help open one to the creative muse. The Romansthought that genius, the life spirit within, was the mysterious source of creativity. The genius enabled access to sourcesof knowledge inaccessible to the conscious mind. The challenge was to find ways to tune in to one’s inner genius.In medieval times a distinction was drawn between ‘rumination’ (cogitatio) and ‘concentration’ (intentio). Intentioinvolves concentrating on a single train of thought, such as a prayer, mantra or object of contemplation. Cogitato is arelaxed state of mind, which allows different strands of memory to be woven together in new connections. Both requirekinds of relaxation that can be enhanced by meditation.

There are strong pedagogical reasons for including meditation as part of the daily experience of pupils of all agesand abilities. The optimum psychological state for learning is one of relaxed attention (Claxton, 1997). If relaxationis one benefit of meditation attention is another. Any good learning conversation requires a balance of attention andarticulation. If we simply focus in education on the articulation of ideas we miss the other important element in theinteraction of minds—that of focused attention. Dialogue requires attentive listening as well as fluent use of words.Meditation is the practice of attention, including attention to thoughts, words and experiences.

Meditation can help expand ‘me-cognition’ and other aspects of metacognitive awareness. ‘Me-cognition’ refersto what I know and think about myself in the private theatre of my thoughts (Fisher, 2006). Meditation is about mestilling my body-mind. Meditative experience provides useful groundwork for discussing with children body/mindconcepts such as consciousness, thinking and imagination. Guided relaxation has been found to be an ideal preparationfor philosophical discussion (Haynes, 2002).

Meditation also engages the mind beyond the use of words. The conscious mind is caught up in and dependentupon language. Human thinking can be trapped in a web of words. If knowledge is limited to that which the brain’slinguistic structures can express this restricts the scope of human knowing. Conscious thinking need not depend onwords. Meditation can offer a non-linguistic experience of the world. It can help us tap into subconscious and intuitivelevels of thought, what Claxton (2002) calls the ‘undermind’ and Gladwell the ‘adaptive subconscious’ (2005). Intuitiveexperience requires a quiet, relaxed mind that is focused upon the present moment and free of distracting fears anddesires. Meditation can help create the state of mind needed for intuitive flow (Czikszentmihalyi, 1992).

Meditation can help us become aware of the ever-shifting nature of our consciousness. It can help to still ourflickering minds and sustain our focus on what really matters. As Josh, aged 10 said: ‘It helps me remember who Iam.’ ‘Stilling’ and silent meditation provide practical and valuable ways of enabling pupils to develop personal andspiritual awareness, and to value the spiritual aspects of their being (Beesley, 2004).

Meditation aims at ‘promoting health and wellbeing in schools’ (DfES, 2005). But more than that it helps to ‘openthe brain’ and prepare the mind by focusing and energising it ready for the challenge of creative learning. Researchshows that the benefits of meditation accrue over time (Ljobomir & Semen, 2005). It is a discipline that needs practice.

What then are successful approaches to meditation with children?

3. How is meditation with children practised?

The use of meditation in education includes a wide range of practice that includes mindful, receptive, generativeand reflective techniques. The most common techniques involve:

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• posture;• breathing;• attention;• visualization.

3.1. Posture

Meditation is about developing control and awareness of body and mind. Posture is an important element in mostforms of meditation in creating the physical conditions for relaxed concentration. A primary teacher asks her class toimagine an invisible thread pulling them up straight. A secondary teacher tells his pupils to adopt the ‘concentrationposition’ they have learnt—sitting up, with head up, straight back and open chest to allow deep regular breathing,relaxed and fully attentive.

3.2. Breathing

Receptive meditation through breathe awareness – ‘following the breath’ – helps to still the mind. Common tobreathing techniques is the practice of conscious breath control. This includes inhaling fully and slowly and exhal-ing fully and quickly, then reversing this breathe in fully and quickly and breathe out slowly. Breathing shouldbe through the nose. One teacher reported a child as saying, ‘But Miss I’ve never breathed through my nosebefore!’

How can breathing help thinking and creativity? Breath meditation is an excellent preparation for brainstorming andfreewriting—two techniques that help students deepen their reflections on a text and develop their ideas. Meditationcan expand the range and depth of mental associations by dissolving blocks and relaxing conventional connectionsand logical linkages. Meditative awareness allows increased access to the forgotten details of past experiences that arestored in the brain/body and to unnoticed details of current experiences that are registered subliminally. Students canuse breath meditation to aid study, to help them sleep or to calm themselves whenever they feel stress such as beforetests or exams. Teachers often find that students who have meditated tend to listen more attentively and deeply and soremember and experience more in a learning situation.

3.3. Attention

The practice of controlling the mind, so that wayward, negative or distracting thoughts are stilled is what sometraditions call ‘centreing’—becoming fully conscious of one’s total being, not just ‘in the head’ trapped in a maze ofthoughts and feelings. The teacher helps pupils become aware of and connect with each part of their body, and to theirwhole body, to feel fully alive in the here and now. But sustaining full attention is not easy. Even Buddha is said tohave had trouble stilling the mind.

Buddhists call this concentration on a single focus: ‘tranquil abiding’. This focus of attention might be an objectsuch as a leaf, candle or stone, or a word, sound or picture. For the human mind, used to flitting hither and thitherconcentration is hard to maintain. Some people have found that the practice of meditation helps improves short-termmemory and strengthens the attention-system needed for registering and storing memories. One way to link meditationto memory is to play concentration games such as Kim’s Game (Fisher, 1997). Place various objects on a tray, orpictures on a board, and ask children to look and meditate carefully on them. Remove the tray or pictures, then try torecall as many objects as possible.

3.4. Visualisation

Visualising is a generative technique to focus the mind. It uses in ‘the inner eye’ to create and explore special placesin the mind. The guided use of the imagination helps to attune children to the intuitive, creative and affective aspects ofthinking. Many successful writers, scientists, artists and composers have claimed that their best work comes through‘playing around’ with ideas in guided use of the imagination. Guided visualisation is a technique for creating ‘wakingdreams’. These can be tightly controlled or offer freedom for the imagination to range around the subject suggestedby the guide. A focus such as a candle flame, picture or word stimulus can be used not only to focus the mind but also

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exercise the imagination by being led to a special place in the mind—for example a circular pool of water, utterly still,without a single ripple to disturb the surface.

4. Conclusion

I began experimenting with meditation for children more than 30 years ago when, as a new teacher, I was strugglingwith a tough inner-city class of ten year olds. To help them gain more control over their minds and bodies I started eachsession with a period of meditation. At first I aimed for half a minute of absolute stillness and silence, and got themto ‘listen to distant sounds’. I wanted the children to develop the ability to still their minds and focus with absoluteconcentration whenever they needed or wanted to. In time we established a regular minute’s-worth of absolute stillnessand silence, then longer. For many of those children it was the first time they had heard absolute silence. One childdescribed the silence as ‘spooky’. But this small investment of time I found had a marked effect in calming the classand focusing them ready for learning.

Many years later I met an ex-pupil from this class, now a successful executive. I asked what he remembered of histime in my class. After a pause he said: ‘I always remember those times we sat there and did nothing.’ After a while Irealised that what had stayed in his memory were our experiments in meditation.

Stilling children’s minds does not require a course in meditation (though this may help). It requires teachers toexperiment and to research their own practice in the classroom. The benefits of meditation are not hard to demonstratewith any group of children or adults. What ultimately matters are not the effects of meditation reported by others,though such information is of value, but the effect on ourselves as individuals, on our children, our class and ourcommunity. Experiment to find out what works best for you and your children. We can all benefit from the practice of‘still thinking’. As Jamie, aged 10 put it: ‘It’s like a shower. It cleans your mind, so you can do your best thinking.’

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