Each year, meditation becomes more of a trend. Celebrities like Jerry Seinfeldand Goldie Hawn, businessmen like Bill George of Goldman Sachs and Exxon obil, and !ews Cor" chairman #u"ert urdoch, ha$e "ublicly discussed "racticing it. %echies and others in the cor"orate world ha$e begun usingmindfulness, a ty"e of meditation, to combat the stress and o$erstimulation of their &obs. E$en the arines ha$e used it to 'im"ro$e mental "erformance under the stress and strain from war.()t the same time, more and more studies are showing direct links between meditation and health benefits. ) study led by researchers at John Ho"kins found that &ust eight weeks of meditation training was as effecti$e as medication in treating de"ression, anxiety, and "ain. )t Har$ard, scientists using neuro*imaging technology showed how meditation "ositi$ely affected the brain acti$ity of the chronically stressed, a condition that the Benson*Henry +nstitute re"orts is related to more than ,- "ercent of all doctor.s $isits. Schools ha$e also begun ex"erimenting with the "ractice and disco$ering that its techni/ues can hel" its students. 0hen a school in !ew Ha$en, Connecticut, re/uired yoga and meditation classes three times a week for its incoming freshman, studies found that after each class, studentshad significantly reduced le$els of cortisol, a stress hormone, in their bodies. +n San 1rancisco, schools that "artici"ated in 2uiet %ime, a %ranscendental editation "rogram, had twice as manystudents score "roficient in English on the California )chie$ement %est than in similar schools where the "rogram didn.t exist. 3isitacion 3alley iddle School s"ecifically reduced sus"ensions by 45 "ercent during the "rogram.s first year. )ttendance rates climbed to 67 "ercent, grade "oint a$erages im"ro$ed, and the school recorded the highest ha""iness le$els in San 1rancisco on the annual California Healthy 8ids Sur$ey. 9ther studies ha$e shown that mindfulness education "rograms im"ro$ed students. self*control, attenti$eness and res"ect for other classmates, enhanced the school climate, and im"ro$ed teachers. moods. %hese results did not sur"rise me. )s a former teacher who now "ractices meditation myself, +.$eoften wondered how + could ha$e used the "ractice in my own classroom. %he stress le$el of teaching seemed to bring out my already*existing anxiety in the worst kind of ways. + sle"t "oorly, unable to sto" rehearsing my lessons in my head. + got irritable with lo$ed ones. + felt obsessed with sa$ing time when there was so much to do and so much to teach to students who + feared were behind. y students noticed, too. 9n a sur$ey, one wrote, '+t seems like you.re really tense(: another, ';ou can get easily frustrated with yourself.(eanwhile, my students seemed &ust as anxious as + was. y ad$isory grou" com"lained of the immense "ressure of balancing school with their li$es at home. Students constantly booked a""ointments with the school counselor to talk through their "ersonal struggles with a "rofessional. ) common res"onse from students on their semester reflections was '+.m o$erwhelmed.(onths after lea$ing the "rofession #$S%? affiliated schools in the city and students appreciate the move by the #entre to introduce yoga in the curriculum from this academic session! Hoever, most schools said, they have been practicing yoga as part of their physical education! -&o doubt yoga in school curriculum is a elcome step! =e have been practicing yoga in ourschool once every ee( during the mass /hysical %ducation 'raining >/%'? session! Hoever, yoga as very much a part of @endriya Vidyalayas, but became a dying cadre due to lac( of appointment and shortage of trained teachers,- said principal of @endriya Vidyalaya