Take a drive to downtown Los Angeles, head over to Washington Square Park in the village, or walk down Polk Street in San Francisco and your heart will break. Why? Day-in and day-out thousands of children descend upon these places, as they do in cities all across the US, attempting to escape from broken homes and broken lives. Unfortunately, more often than not they’re met with further despair. Many of these children become involved in prostitution, drugs, and gangs just to survive. I don’t have to tell you, meditation is the furthest thing from their minds.
The bright side.
Checkout this recent Los Angeles Times post on David Lynch’s quest to save some of these children from total destruction by bringing Transcendental Meditation to an LA based children’s homeless shelter, Children of the Night (founded by Lois Lee). Lynch’s program has been in operation for the last 14 months and has been generating powerful results.
Lee said that all current residents – about 65 – are now in the TM program, which both she and Lynch pointed out is voluntary since, as he put it, “You can never force a person to meditate if they don’t want to.”Read more on using meditation to help give at-risk children a chance at a better life here.
The peaceful, focusing effect of the practice aids the kids in concentrating on the educational efforts – which includes high school proficiency and GED preparation – at the core of the nonprofit’s life-improving plan.
“I’ve done the meditation for a year,” said a 17-year-old resident who asked not to be identified. “It helps me realize the goals that I actually want to achieve.
“If I get scared or nervous or frustrated, I don’t leave right off the bat now. It’s just brought me a well of calmness that nothing else has been able to provide.”
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