Keshav Sota

Ms.Patterson/Mr.Silvestri
Dupont Essay

Teen Meditation, not Medication

Todays teens face various types of challenges in their lives. A few of the challenges are
universal and have been passed from generation to generation, such as peer pressure, family
conflicts, and adapting to body changes (Lifespan 1), while others are the result of evolution in
technology, such as the social pressure in the virtual world as seen through internet sites like
Facebook. A teenagers reaction to these ordeals creates stress. A certain level of stress is healthy
and can be motivating. However, if it exceeds a certain level, stress can become a problem and
have lasting long-term (Kids Teen) effects including low self-esteem, depression, increased
blood-pressure, and anxiety. Teenagers, whose minds are still developing, are not able to cope
with their stresses as well as adults. However, if teenagers could learn to reduce their stress in a
healthy way, they would not only perform better in high school and college, but also lead a
content and successful life. In todays world there are few medical options available to treat
stress, however, most of them only address symptoms, not the actual problem. However,
meditation is a simple and effective treatment, which helps in reducing stress by improving ones
emotional, mental and physical health.
Under stress, the body works harder than usual which forces the nervous system into
constant pressure. This in turn causes the CNS (Central Nervous System) to remain more active
thus pumping out extra stress hormones over an extended period, which makes mitochondria in
the cells become depleted and causing weakening in the bodys immune system resulting into

overall unhealthy body and mind. Most teenagers have problems identifying stress as the most
common signs of stress are not easily visible in them. Furthermore, as teenagers are going
through a period of changes, including physical, emotional, social, academic changes, many are
under more stress than any other time of life,(LifeSpan1) . Most times, teenagers are not treated
for stress until they turn to drugs and alcohol at which point they are treated with medical
alternatives.
There are two popular types of medications available in the market to help the victim
recover: Sedative (CNS depressants) and antidepressants. Sedative medications slows the central
nervous system making the user feel relaxed. However, they have the ability to cause
physiological and psychological addiction, (Mills). Antidepressant medicines work at the
neuronal level of the brain with a neurotransmitter, which controls susceptibility to depression
and anxiety conditions. Although anti-depressant are not addictive, the side-effects include
nausea, dizziness, and sleep disturbances. Both sedatives and anti-depressant are able to control
the stress levels but come with a heavy price tag of side-effects along with failure to address the
underlying cause of the problem; stress. As an alternative to these medications, there is one easy
and effective solution with no side effects: meditation
Meditation is an ancient self-healing technique which connects the mind and the body. A
few benefits of meditation include reduce stress, promote relaxation and increase personal wellbeing.

The process of meditation slows down the heart rate, decreases blood pressure and

increases alpha brain waves, which relaxes the body and brings it into a beta state; a wakeful rest
state. There are several types of mediation techniques available such as mindfulness, breath
watching, transcendental, empty mind mediation (Nauert). However, all of them are effective in

reducing stress. The key to all meditation is to bring your body into a state of deep rest, which is
opposite to stress.
Meditation has become very common among adults; however, one would rarely find a
teenage meditating. After conducting a brief survey in the Academy for Math, Science
Engineering freshman class, I found out that 79% in a class of 24 students responded that they
feel stress. Furthermore, none of the students had tried meditation as an alternative to cope with
stress. In order to test the benefits of meditation in teenagers, I coordinated two sessions of halfan-hour guided meditations, which were delivered by Dr. Somya Ramakhyani, a certified
meditation teacher and pediatrician. After the both meditation sessions, 21/24 students felt
relieved of their stress. In fact, the meditation helped the students so much that 23/24 said that
they would be interested in doing it again. In addition, the teacher of the class, Ms. Patterson,
who does meditation regularly, said that though she is usually very alert , meditating in the
classroom made her feel at home and very relaxed. In the same experiment, students were given
surprise tests before and after the meditation. The blood pressure and pulse rate were also taken
before and after the meditation. Though the blood pressure and pulse rate did not show any
significant improvement after meditation (mostly remain same or undulated very little); however
students performance in the test conducted after the meditation significantly improved by 30%.
Today almost every school has a program for physical fitness, bullying depression; but
what about all the stress building up inside teenagers heads. There are handful schools who are
adopting meditation program to help stressed kids. Dr. John M Kennedy, who has developed a 10
minute guided meditation program for students at St. Marys kids to help them calm themselves
and focus says "You can teach kids affective coping skills so they can stop stress in its tracks,"
(Dador). Research at University of Cambridge has shown that meditation created a better attitude

in male teenagers. Thus, introducing the technique in early teenage years will give immense
benefits. In this zenith of technology, teenagers have to face more stress than any other
generation has ever seen. They must learn to manage the tug of war between responsibilities,
social connections, and independence and find the balance in their life. Beyond daily nutrition,
physical exercise and academics teenager needs to learn to control the chatter in their mind so
they can control daily stress. Meditation is easiest and safest way that they can achieve this goal.
Teenagers who do meditation release their negative thoughts and behaviors which instead is
replaced by self-confidence and good morale. All in all, meditation (not medication) is the safe
and efficient way for teenagers to get rid of their daily stress and improve physical, emotional
and mental state.
Word Count: 1,000 (excluding work cited, and in-text citations)