Soul Sustenance: Coping with Anxiety Using Meditation

The start of the school year can be full of emotions for children, but dealing with the stress of school on top of a pandemic is especially overwhelming. After a promising last couple of months following the country's vaccination rollout, there was hope that this school year would look somewhat normal, but now, there is a lot of uncertainty. Many schools are already shutting down as infections rates have surged in classrooms and communities, and panic is setting in among parents and children as they navigate yet another school year during the pandemic.

Fortunately, Lobsang Chunzom, Buddhist Nun and Founder of Limitless Health Institute has advice and tips on how to help children and parents cope with anxiety and stress around returning (or not returning) to classrooms. "Anything from breathing, to yoga, to meditation, can help kids deal with these stresses. There are also innovative ways to get them interested in these practices," Chunzom says. People of all ages can benefit from meditation practice, even if it's just for 5 minutes a day.

I had a chance to interview her to learn more.

Why is it so important to help kids learn to cope with anxiety and stress?

Coping mechanisms are temporary and usually don’t work well over time unless you get to the core of why those feelings, emotions and challenges arise and sustain. Emotions can interfere with daily physiological and mental functioning, and they impact how we relate to others. We maintain good mental and physical health by being proactive; being aware when we experience an overload of negative thoughts and strong emotions. This helps us to understand and handle our emotions and to help others in the same situation.

To develop necessary life skills, young people should be educated about the connection between emotions and actions; knowledge gives youth an understanding of how to create a sustainable path to combatting emotions like stress and anxiety. This helps them develop and grow to be innovative and productive members of society. 

You're a Creative Arts Therapist - can you share a little bit about how dance and movement can be so therapeutic?

In a therapeutic setting, the person’s emotional content can be experienced and understood by the therapist through kinesthetic empathy. This exchange between therapist and client involves sensing the qualities and characteristic of the client’s movement patterns, and through empathy, the therapist can respond to the client's emotional state. This non-verbal communication develops a sense of trust with the patient. The therapist can then intervene with methods that are appropriate to the emotional content of the patient's actions and help the patient through movement. 

What are some meditations that parents and caregivers can do with their kids to help ease the effects of stress?

Parents should find a teacher to guide them and their children to meditate step by step, according to the capacity of each person. For example, it is counterproductive and unsafe to meditate while you are stressed. In our YouthAware meditation program, the youth impacted by stress over a period of time are advised to take action in-between meditation sessions to help others be stress free. When the time comes to sit quietly, they begin by reflecting on the assistance they gave to the person when they were stressed and be happy about doing this. This contemplation prepares the mind to be able to focus in general and gives everyone something meaningful to focus upon.

Lobsang Chunzom Founder Limitless Health Institute   

Venerable Lobsang Chunzom is a Buddhist nun and worldwide teacher of meditation and philosophy in the Je Tsongkapa Tibetan tradition. She is the founder of Limitless Health Institute, a nonprofit organization that collaborates with other caring organizations in NYC to help people experience the link between their own health and happiness and how they care for others. The LHI workshops she designs and facilitates are used worldwide. Chunzom has been a licensed Creative Arts Therapist for 30 years, specializing in dance/movement therapy. She has extensive training in ancient meditation techniques, including a 3-year meditation retreat in silence and solitude. Chunzom has degrees in movement therapy from NYU and UCLA and has provided therapeutic services in hospital settings as well as created programs to help substance abusers, incarcerated youth, and families in crisis.