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Like many students I am in the middle of revising for my summer exams. And earlier I was sitting revising when I realised that revision is not all that different from meditating itself. In this blog post I'll expand on that and then go onto a few general reasons why meditating is great for students.
When I am revising, what I want to focus on is learning the material. Distractions which come up for me include my phone going off, accidentally finding myself scrolling on Facebook, or thinking about my next meal.
Similarly, in meditation, we also have one thing we want to focus on. For instance, in a breathing meditation it is our breath. Distractions which come up include trails of thought, worries about how well the meditation is going and wondering how close to the end of the 20 minutes we are.
So given the similarities, it sounds fitting that someone who meditates is better able to focus on their work without succumbing to distractions. But here's some actual scientific evidence showing that students who meditate have been shown to learn better:
- More likely to study something they enjoy.
This is one of my own thoughts about meditation for students. When we meditate we learn a lot about ourselves - our feelings about things, our most common thought patterns, etc., and by getting to know ourselves we are more likely to know what we want to study.
Students who are studying a subject they enjoy are 'likely to perform better', according to Charlie Ball, editor of What Do Graduates Do?
. - More present.
According to a study (here), African American students who engaged in 15 minute meditations sessions at home and school every day for 4 months were less likely to show absenteeism than the control group. Studies show (here) that absenteeism leads to worse performance in studies.
. - Reduced testing stress.
Less stress on the day leads to a clearer head, and this study (here) showed that 64 medical students who participated in deep breathing meditation exercises experienced: - Decreased test anxiety
- Decreased self doubt
- Increased concentration
. - Helps you further down the line.
In the same sample of medical students, those who participated in the meditation exercises claimed that they felt meditation would help them in their future jobs as physicians.
Image from here
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