Tired
Unmotivated
Nervous
Unconfident
Depressed
Overwhelmed
Overworked
Angry
Impatient
Bullied
Pressured
Jealous
Unappreciated
Not Liked
Peaceful
Happy
We are a growing group of high school and college students who have seen our share of issues at school and at home and have found that meditation helps. Wherever we are, whether we meditate together or on our own, meditation unites us in our goal of becoming better at who we are and what we do. It helps us become more peaceful, happy, confident, and even get better grades with less effort. We found that meditation gives us the life skills to succeed.
Some of us had a powerful experience from our first meditation. Some of us needed a bit more practice to get to feel tangible change. One thing has become clear for all of us: the more you do it, the better it gets over time. Somehow, it just works. And it doesn’t take much time to do it. Best of all, it’s free. So all we want is to share everything we have discovered with everyone who wants to improve their lives and overcome the problems that we all face every day.
We invite you to give it a try, and hopefully you will feel a small improvement the first time you do it, just like we did. And if you keep on doing it regularly, you might find that the small improvement gradually becomes a big difference that you feel in your life. You might discover a sense of empowerment to help yourself and help others who are struggling. And that is a powerful feeling to have. It’s what makes us passionate about meditation and keeps us going, together, on this journey of self discovery and betterment.
The type of meditation we found works best and which we are sharing with you on this website is called Sahaja Meditation. Sahaja means spontaneous or effortless, literally "born with you". This system of meditation works by helping us stop our thinking and rise above our constant mental chatter, which is often a source of stress, fear, anger, fatigue and depression. Stopping our thoughts is triggered by the awakening of an inner energy which we all have inside ourselves. When activated, this energy helps us fulfill our potential and become peaceful, balanced, healthy, and emotionally and mentally strong.
This method of meditation was started in 1970 by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, a global personality from India who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and honored by the US Congress for her extraordinary humanitarian contributions. Shri Mataji never took money for sharing her teachings with others, and traveled the world for several decades helping hundreds of thousands become deeply changed by her message of love, peace and inner transformation achieved through meditation.
Today, Sahaja Meditation is practiced in more than 100 countries around the world, and in most large and mid-sized cities in America. It is also practiced in a number of high schools through our partnership with HealthCorps, an organization dedicated to improving the health and lives of students across America. The physical and mental benefits of this meditation system have been the subject of scientific and medical research in England, India, Australia, Italy and other countries over the past several decades. In the United States, the National Institutes of Health has hosted for many years programs offering this type of meditation to patients as an alternative form of treatment, and has organized two international symposiums dedicated to the health benefits of Sahaja Meditation.
Partnership with HealthCorps
HealthCorps is an organization created by Dr. Mehmet Oz for promoting healthy lifestyles in high school students all across America. Sahaja Meditation is a National Curriculum Partner and has been working with HealthCorps since 2007, introducing more than 25,000 students across the USA to meditation. We have seen significant positive behavioral changes in students, often even after only a short time of practicing Sahaja Meditation. Many found their grades improving, their attention getting stronger, their anxiety and depression decreasing, and their stress levels being reduced considerably.
For additional details on HealthCorps programs please visit HealthCorps University.
We'd love to hear from you!
Drop us a line with your thoughts and impressions, or any questions you may have.
We have received a lot of positive feedback from the tens of thousands of students who tried this method of meditation and found it surprisingly helpful and transforming in a positive way. We wrote some of them down and we're sharing a few with you below. Some are first impressions, and some are from students who have been meditating for a while.
"I'm getting higher grades since I started Sahaja Meditation", Wings Academy, Bronx, NY
"This is fantastic. This is SO right for me." Central High School, Newark, NJ
"What makes you think I don't know already [how to meditate]?" (after the meditation) "This is different to anything I've ever tried before. It's so simple and practical and effective. I definitely want to pursue this." Central High School, Newark, NJ
"Wow, that was really cool", JFK, Bronx, NY
"I feel like a Knight of the Jedi", Central High School, Newark, NJ
(before meditation) "Yesterday I was stressed because I didn't know what to wear, and [now] I'm stressed about my math test because I do not know how to memorize formulas." (after meditation) "This process was really an enjoyment. The things I worried about are not that big of a deal and I can always ace another assessment if I try to study a little more".
"I got my attention focused, it was great - I'm going to do it at home", Cathedral High School, Manhattan
"I've been doing Sahaja Meditation for three weeks now. It calms you down, it's relaxing, it gets you ready for class", Kurt Hahn, Brooklyn, NY
"I've become more relaxed and I get better sleep. I learned how to deal with stress and to forgive people for what they've done. I feel very relaxed, sometimes sleepy, but peaceful." Bronx, NY
"Meditation's changed me with my negative thoughts. I don't have as many negative thoughts as I had before and now when I do get a negative thought I know how to block it and take it out of my head." Bronx, NY
"After doing the exercise I felt that negative energy of the thoughts that were making me stressed was going away and now I feel full of positive thoughts", Franklin Lane, Brooklyn, NY
"I feel relaxed. I could feel in my hand my energy and like the energy all over my body. It was really cool", Franklin Lane, Brooklyn, NY
"My soul is clear. This will help me prioritize and balance", Franklin Lane, Brooklyn, NY
"I feel more relaxed and a bit more calm. Right now, I have no thoughts within me at the moment. My mind and body are feeling relaxed."
"I feel very calm now, not as hyper as before".
"My meditation experience was great. Everyone acts in a respectful manner, including myself. It felt relieving and calm. It helps my mind to get prepared for class."
"When I meditate I feel relaxed and calm because my mind clears and all my problems and thoughts go away for a moment."
"It helps me get my thoughts straight. Also, helps stop my class from being so loud."
"Meditation is a good way to calm myself. It's fun and relaxing. I like it and I recommend it to anybody who is having a rough time or just wants to relax."
"The girls I talked to about meditation thought it was very different and cool".
"Wow! That really worked! I just let go of all the strings pulling me down from my past and I realized that those times don't last. I was stressed, and when I said, "I forgive", it blocked it out."
"It felt like I was humming to myself."
"Wow! Oh wow! That was SO nice! Cool!!"
"I felt like I was sleeping but I know I was awake. I could hear everything. REALLY relaxing!!
"I felt like a huge load was taken off my shoulders"
"I felt like I was in another room"
"Wow! It felt like night!"
"I feel happy. Why was I smiling? I feel like laughing. Can I do it again?"
"I feel like I can see for the first time in my life".
"Everything is brighter all around me."
"I'm amazed at what I've seen here today. I want to learn to do this meditation myself." Teacher at Monroe HS. Bronx
"I am absolutely amazed. If you'd told me this morning that some of my students, who can't keep quiet for 30 seconds would sit here in deep meditation for 10 minutes, I'd have said you were crazy. I want to learn Sahaja Meditation too." Librarian at University Heights, Bronx.
"I ran a Sahaja Meditation class as part of a mind, body, spirit seminar. Later, I asked the class for a thumbs up, thumbs down on the meditation, and the vast majority raised their thumbs up. I definitely want to do more in the New Year. The meditation energy is essential to the success of these students! I am in deep gratitude for the work you do. Thank you!" Charlie M, Kurt Hahn, Brooklyn, NY.
"Some of the kids who've been coming to the meditation class are quite difficult, one has been on suspension, and one has learning difficulties. Other teachers, without knowing why, have commented on the change of behavior of theses students after just one meditation session. The first week we had 21 students attend, and the second week it was 27, so they've been telling their friends. I'm really surprised to see some of the students who've turned up." Dean and Vice Principal, Kurt Hahn, Brooklyn, NY.
"It has been beautiful to watch the students open up to the idea of meditation, and to actually start to meditate. It is your authenticity, positive energy, and commitment that have gained their trust. Now we are feeling/seeing the results as the students are starting to meditate so beautifully. I can not thank you enough for bringing this practice into my life and the lives of my students. As you know, this is truly life-changing work." Assistant Dean, WestSide HS, Manhattan, NY
"I want to thank you SO SO SO much. It was amazing how many students we were able to reach in just one short morning. I know a lot of kids really did enjoy it and got a lot out of it, and many teachers have been asking for you to come back and work with their students. So thank you so much for your work and dedication!" Annie D, Brooklyn Lab HS, NY
"Thank you so much for leading the meditation! Many teachers and social workers came up to me to tell me how much they enjoyed it and how they want to bring meditation into their own lives. As we work on our employee wellness programming, I'd love to talk about ideas you have for incorporating meditation." Sarah F, WestSide HS, Manhattan, NY
"I was sitting in the library and one of my students JoHan was also working on the computer next to me. JoHan was a student that admitted in front of his peers that meditation was helping him to do better in school due to the fact that he was better able to concentrate on his homework. So I proceeded to ask him how his practice was going, he said that it was going good and that he had led a meditation with a drama group. I asked him excitedly what happened!? He said that it was a group of 8 and the teacher had asked him if he knew how to lead it and he said yes. After he led the meditation one of the other students in the group said he felt the energy coming from the top of his head and he described how the shared a bonding moment because he had felt the same when he first done the meditation. I was happy to know that students are sharing their experience with others and bringing them this gift of thoughtless awareness." Erica M, Wings Academy, Bronx
"After speaking with students afterwards more and more keep coming up to me and telling me what a wonderful experience it was for them. Their minds were cleared of so many different things and they felt rejuvenated and revived! I will never forget the experience and think it is something that will live in my mind for quite some time. Who else can say that they got almost 60 teenage students to sit quietly with themselves and their thoughts (or absence of thoughts) for more than 30 minutes? THIS was POWERFUL!" Jessica A, Franklin Lane, Brooklyn, NY
"Even after trying the meditation in the summer, I was skeptical of its ability to reach the students that I teach. But just last Friday I watched a group of kids at the Lincoln HS fair get really into the meditation and I was really impressed by the facilitators.... at the health fair in my school, while some students weren't interested, most of them touched something deep inside themselves." Dan M, Grand Avenue Campus, Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY
"Sahaja Meditation has been a huge success and the Friday morning sessions are the highlight of the week." Sarah F, Kurt Hahn HS, Brooklyn, NY
"The vast majority of students who attended the meditation sessions said how much they'd enjoyed it. This could bring about a fundamental change in how students relate to the outside world." Ian F, Lower East Side Preparatory School, Manhattan, NY
"The seminar went so phenomenally that students are constantly asking when we are doing it again! There was one student that felt so inspired and [it] really improved her school work!" Brooklyn, NY
"Although my experience with Sahaja meditation has been a relatively brief 6 months, I have noticed a vast improvement in the subtleties of life. Before making a steady schedule of meditation every night before I went to sleep, I woke up in a hectic, unfulfilled state of mind (which I normally didn't notice until I experienced the opposite).
The more I meditated, the more balanced I felt, the more energy I had, and I started to have more patience, which I think is the best new characteristic I have developed. The patience then leads to less stress and as a teacher, I allow my students to take in some of my positive energy as well. I can say positively that every effect of Sahaja meditation is contagious and will allow you to pick up the energies of other people. As I become more in tune, I can pick up my students energies who participate and actually feel how successful they are when they meditate. If there is doubt or insecurity in the air, you can sense it and vice versa. If everybody meditated for 10 minutes a day, there would undoubtedly be many more smiles on the subway. I'll try to initiate that and pay it forward." Brooklyn, NY
If you'd like to learn more, try out the following progression of simple meditation techniques that can help address the various challenges we face in life, by balancing the energies that affect our mood, our health, our focus, and our mental and emotional wellness.
The series is organized in groups of 6 sessions. Try the first group below which covers the basics, and when you are ready to move to Group 2 please create an account (you can rest assured that we won’t bombard you with emails or share your address with any other third parties). Creating an account will allow you to better monitor your progress and later on participate in group meditations if you wish.
Below you can select the series and video you would like to watch. We recommend you to watch them in order as this is a progression. We'll be adding more videos over time
Sometimes, we feel very tired and unmotivated even when we just wake up in the morning. We feel down for no reason. What can we do to feel better? How can we feel full of energy again? Sometimes we use caffeine to power through our tiredness, but then you can't sleep and it's a vicious circle.
According to the knowledge of meditation, this feeling comes from an imbalance in the energy that circulates in the left side of our body. There are simple but effective techniques to bring us back into balance and, with regular practice, help us get rid of our fatigue and feel more motivated.
Nervousness, fear and lack of confidence can be overcome through simple, natural breathing and meditation exercises that help open the heart, which according to the science of meditation is the center of security, fearlessness and confidence.
If you keep re-living things you did or said, or things other people did or said that made you feel sad, mad, small, there is a simple, quick way to help you put the past where it belongs - in the past, and come into the present. Meditation is a soothing exercise that can eliminate the imbalances in the left-side energy of our body which cause us to feel depressed, and find again the feeling of peace and joy that lie hidden deep in our heart.
Homework, exams, after school activities turning your life into a hectic mess? Maybe you can't drop everything, but you can feel more peaceful and balanced while you’re at it. Meditation also makes you more efficient, so you might just find a little more time to relax! Here's a simple way to take a few moments to balance yourself and become more calm and focused.
According to the knowledge of meditation, anger, frustration and impatience come from an overloading of the energy that circulates in the right side of our body. The video below demonstrates a simple technique to help alleviate these emotions by bringing ourselves back into balance.
Facing bullies and the various pressures in our lives can be among the greatest challenges we are up against. And while there is no silver bullet for dealing with these situations, meditation can always help to alleviate them by bringing us back to the axis of our being.
Jealousy. We all know the feeling. Everybody at some point in life feels jealous about something. It can be very painful to lose ourselves in these painful thoughts, wanting ourselves to be like other peoples, and not seeing what's good about our own lives.
It's important to realize that we need to be liked and appreciated, but the first step is always to love and appreciate ourselves. Meditation helps to spontaneously develop this feeling inside.
We all have our good moments where we feel peace and happiness. The trick is how to prolong them and be able to bring them back again and again. There is something deep inside that can do just that, and meditation helps us discover it and bring it back to the surface every day. Moreover, when we are in balance, we are automatically focused and get better grades.
"I'm Lauren and I'm a junior. In the morning, I was soooo tired, I couldn't even get out of bed! It took me until like my 3rd class to wake up and think straight. On the weekend, I was in bed until noon sometimes.
I just started to learn to meditate, and things have changed so much. I meditate in the morning, and I feel my mind clears right away. No more fog! I stopped using my computer and phone before bed and I do the footsoak technique before bed and everything is back on track. I'm really happy I found out about this. I'm doing better in school too cause I can focus on what's going on, before I just always felt sleepy."
"I feel like meditation is very relaxing and takes stress away from the body."
"My name is Sophie and I'm 16. I go to Berkeley High. I was so nervous before I sang at the Spring Dance Productions show. But I just closed my eyes and raised my energy and kept my attention at the top of my head. Every time I started thinking about the show and got nervous, I just kept doing the meditation exercise. When it was time for me to sing, I was confident and I was strong, even on the high notes. I would say the performance went much better than I expected, and the second night was even better! The meditation really helped."
"The exercise we did basically helped me forget all the negative things that were in my mind. I feel more relaxed and more comfortable"
"I think meditation is a really good thing. It helps you to find yourself when you are lost".
"I kept smiling because I felt happy. I felt loved inside".
"Last night I had to assist HealthCorps with their big gala in the city and I had to stay up the rest of the night when I got home because I had to study for an exam. In the morning I had a meditation. I was completely exhausted before and now I feel fine".
"I felt as if I was back in my mother’s womb, calm, secure and protected".
"What I experienced was unreal. I was stressed and now it is completely gone."
A teacher, Mrs. Brown, said to Jose, one of the students she considered "difficult" in her class, "Jose, you've really changed a lot since meditating". Jose responded, "Yeah, I meditate at home every day. This meditation helps me more than anger management ever did. They taught me to breathe deep. Its impossible to argue when you are taking deep breaths. When I meditate, as soon as I take those three breaths you tell us to do, then meditate, I don't feel like arguing with anybody!"
"Meditation relieves stress from my body. It makes me feel extremely calm".
"Meditation keeps me calm. I meditate when I’m upset. It helps me clear my mind".
"I suppose this [meditation] is good. I don’t have to party with the people that I have grudges against or bring them presents, but surely I can forgive them, coz it helps me get rid of them in my mind at least and therefore this will do good to me."
"I felt upset before I started to meditate. Felt sad and mad at the same time. Now I feel OK and good".
"I’ve gained a lot - a new character, new ways to keep my mind neutral."
"My name is Marc, I'm 22 and I used to feel jealous about other guys cars, or clothes, money, friends, all kinds of things. I thought somebody was doing better than me at school and was the center of attention, and it would drive me crazy! Obviously those feelings start to make you think all the time about how other people have it so much better.
I would spend a lot of time fantasizing about the way my life would be if I had everything the way I wanted it. I noticed I was getting so negative, and hating people because their life was going better than mine. It wasn't making me happy at all, and I was blaming everyone else.
When I learned to meditate, my thoughts were not on all these fantasies any more, and my attention started to move back to what was important in my own life, like my friends and my family.
Actually, I have a lot to be grateful for."
"When you strengthen your self-esteem, there is no room for jealousy."
"There were two situations that made me feel unappreciated: home and school. At home, my parents acted like I wasn't even important to them. I felt invisible, unless I was doing something wrong, then they noticed me and got mad at me for making mistakes. I did a lot of chores and kept my grades up, but they never acknowledged it when I was being responsible. I don't know, our family seems disconnected.
Then at school, I felt like the teachers were just as overwhelmed as everyone else, and they don't really see us as unique individuals, with feelings. Kids only seemed to get attention when they were causing trouble. Also, school seems like one big popularity contest, and if you're not "in" no one notices you.
When I started meditating, I began to really appreciate myself as I am and I started getting detached about what everyone else was thinking about me. I also began to see how my parents and teachers are just overworked and can't always express appreciation. I don't really care about the popular kids at school, they seem insecure as everyone else and need attention too. I focus more on my friends who like me for who I am, not because I'm popular or cool."
A thirteen-year-old approached a meditation table at a fair and said loudly, "What is this all about?" Then he sat down and meditated for almost ten minutes. When he opened his eyes he said, "I’ve just entered a whole new world. I feel like a different person."
"I have had wonderful experiences with the meditation so far. It's very soothing and relaxing. Lately I have been taking ten to fifteen minutes either before dinner or after dinner to meditate, and it's really helped. It helps me breathe easily, calm my nerves, and empty my mind. And in doing so I am able to block out distractions relax my being. This is especially helpful now, considering I have had a lot of schoolwork that needed to be done. It has really helped me relax and gain focus on what's important and not be distracted."
"Meditation is something very calming. It makes me feel peaceful. Also, it helps me to focus."