http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/s... Since 2005 the David Lynch Foundation has shared Transcendental Meditation with our most stressed populations. If you are inspired by this video please make a donation using the Donate button on the right. The David Lynch Foundation runs entirely on donations and there is a long list of schools and organizations eager to participate. Change begins within!
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Norman Rosenthal, M.D. (Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Georgetown University Medical School): There's a tremendous amount of evidence that the children in our schools today are under a lot of stress. Whether you're talking about inner city school children who come to school through violent neighborhoods, or more affluent school children who are under academic stress, social pressures, 70% of distressed children are not getting the mental health care that they need. The bottom line is, a stressed child cannot learn.
Dr. William Stixrud (Clinical Neuropsychologist, Washington DC): When we talk about stress, what we're talking about is really things in life that trigger the fight-or-flight response. And traumatic stress is stuff that's overwhelming, it's overwhelming events like accidents. Or in many cases the kids we seek are kids who are abused, kids who spent time in orphanages where they're neglected and life gave them more than their nervous systems could handle.
Dr. Rosenthal: Say children are living in a very dangerous neighborhood, they may see violence on the way to school and on the way home day after day, they become terrified even though they're in the safety of the school. The effects of the violence that they've just seen lingers and prevents them from focusing and attending to their school work because they're so stressed and anxious.
Sarina Grosswald, Ed.D. (Cognitive Learning Specialist): After Katrina many of the families were relocated and about a year later they started talking about the difficulties they were having in the schools, that a lot of the children were having behavioral problems, that there was violence. And what they didn't recognize is that these children were experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Dr. Stixrud: The number one priority for kids in school is that they have to feel safe. Because if they don't feel safe, the parts of their brain that are protecting them will be constantly working and will shut down the parts of their brain that are supposed to focus and supposed to think and supposed to learn at a higher level.
Dr. Rosenthal: What we know about TM, is that it reduces stress. Not just because we see it, but because we can measure it. The brainwaves in the EEG change. There is more alpha wave strength which means a more calming effect, and there's more coherence which means that the brain is working more efficiently.
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