Peace Practices

Folksinger Joan Baez was once asked how she practiced non-violence and she replied that one can do so by becoming a peace activist. There are many individual and group practices that can promote peace within us and among us.

Classroom Meditation Practice

Try meditating with your students. It takes no more than five minutes and is well worth the time it takes from the lesson as it contributes to concentration and attention. You will find that after a while students will be asking to meditate, and it will be one of the things they will never forget from their high school experience.

Below is a script you may choose to use:

Today we are going to meditate. This may be the most important thing I teach you all year. Meditation is not a religious practice but rather a health practice. One of the greatest causes of illness in our world today is stress. Meditation allows us to let go of our stress.

Now, sit straight up in your seats. Don’t slump. Rather plant your pelvis—your sitz bones, the center of gravity of your body and it’s heaviest bone—firmly in your seat. Let your spine just float on top of your pelvis.

Then, plant your feet firmly on the ground, shoulder length apart. If you have any book bags or purses or anything on your laps, take them off. This is a time of no stress, no responsibilities, no worries. Free time. Now, take the first one or two fingers of each hand, whichever feels better, and touch them to your thumbs, and then place your hands on your desk or your lap. Rotate your neck in three small circles in one direction and three small circles in the other direction. Large circles can strain the neck, so be sure to keep the circles small. Then shake your shoulders, loosen yourself up like jelly. People say teenagers are relaxed, but look at you, you are shaking back and forth like boards. Loosen up, be like a jelly fish, shake out all that tension.

We will do a three-minute meditation. Before we meditate, we will take three deep breaths, breathing in through the nose because the nose has cilia, small hairs, that cleanse the air. And then we will breathe out through the mouth. To begin our breath we will push our bellies out to lower our diaphragm and expand our lungs, breathing in to our lower lungs, our middle lungs and our upper lungs.

First deep breath. Push out your tummy, lower your diaphragm, breathe into your lower lungs, middle lungs, upper lungs, out through your mouth. Second breath. Push out your tummy, lower your diaphragm, breathe into your lower lungs, middle lungs, upper lungs, out through your mouth. Third breath. Push out your tummy, lower your diaphragm, breathe into your lower lungs, middle lungs, upper lungs, out through your mouth.

Now we will begin. Three minutes starting now.

Clear your minds of thoughts.
If a thought comes to you, honor that thought and let it go.
This is free time, no problems, no worries, no responsibilities.

This is time just for you.
A luxury money can’t buy.

Again, when a thought comes to you, put it on a cloud and let it fly away.

Bring your attention back to your breath.
Look, you don’t even have to breathe.
The world breathes you.

Three minutes are up. Are you more relaxed?