As anxiety and stress like mental health problems are taking more and more students in their grip, then educational institutions themselves have to explore solutions that lie in education. Young students don’t need sermons but solutions that work. And paying attention to a simple thing like breathing can be an effective solution. This was one of the broad messages conveyed by Spiritual Guru, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar while delivering a keynote on the issue of mental health in young at The International Education & Skill Summit (TIESS) of DIDAC India 2024 in New Delhi on Sep 18.
If violence, aggression, wielding gun or bloodied machismo are your role models and definition of heroism, then young boys also take it to their minds. Restless minds, identity assertion, peer and societal pressure everything has cost. And, its manifestation as anxiety, sleeplessness, stress and other mental health disorders is not now an adult thing but affecting young people in schools and colleges in epidemic proportion. It is not only the students but a large proportion of depressed teachers out there as well who need support. There is a need of techniques to calm the mind.
He said that while nutrition, proper sleep and mindfulness is being emphasized, breathing is not paid the sane attention. He said breathing plays an important role in energizing mind, calming the mind, bringing clarity and increasing attention. “Children don’t’ need sermons, but some ways that will take help them,” he added. The founder of the Art of Living foundation and lifetime president of Sri Sri Group of schools and university, while delivering a keynote on the issue shared that his foundation has evidence from New York schools where classroom violence has come down by routine breathing exercises.
According to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a baby from 3 months to three years, is an embodiment of body flexibility and a flexible body has a free mind, more receptive and curious. He further added that a baby who smiles 400 times a day smiles lesser and lesser to just 17 as he moves into the school. Education must ensure joy, peace, happiness and sense of belong to him and not the opposite.
He said that standardized class periods of 40 minutes set years ago were done on assumption that children have an attention span of that duration but now it has come down to seconds. Children are able to hold attention for long duration. There is a need to do something about it. Music, drama, games and yoga are some tested techniques to handle stress. Communication and social skills are important.
Talking about role of education in peace, the spiritual guru spoke of identities and their order. He said that identity is important for all of us and everybody is unique also. The top most identity is that we all are humans and therefore basic humanity and humanism. When we lose sight of this identity, fanaticism and radicalization rises. An educated person does have prejudices. If we accept food from all over the world, if we accept music from all places, we should also be prepared to receive wisdom from across the world. We need to learn from global culture to become citizens. If Japan is known for teamwork, Germany for precision, Britain for etiquettes, America for marketing, then India is also known for human values. Education for peace is very important. We need to work for a violence free society, disease free body, confusion free intellect to make this happen. Human interaction is needed, lack of it will lead to suffering of loneliness and loss of community sense.
Noting that environmental consciousness was increasing among young people, he said they need to develop high end skills and become entrepreneurial to lead the change.
