The American Academy of Pediatrics

Conducted a study linking DIGITAL MEDIA with

Anxiety and Depression in Children

SENSORY OVERLOAD,

 Contributing to behavioral struggles and distractions

*        Television programs promote violence, end of world doom, separation, division, and fear.

*        Tablet and phone games move quickly, the mind has to move exponentially faster to keep up, resulting in overstimulation.

*        Internet media contributes to self-comparison, judgement, lack of worth and lack of importance.

*        Social media feeds our children with a sense of unworthiness, not belonging, not good enough, competitiveness for perceived societal standards and self-judgement with the outside world.

 

These runways of sensory overload assist in keeping the nervous and sympathetic nervous systems in a fight or flight response.  This causes residual effects of stress, hormonal imbalance, depression, anxiety, anger, ADHD and suicide. 

 AAP Publications, Pediatrics (2017) 140 (Supplement_2): S76–S80. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-1758G

 

HELPING TO BRING BALANCE TO OUR STUDENTS

MORNING MEDS is a practice to benefit the student, teacher, staff, district and eventually, all of humanity, by teaching our minds to recognize our stressful thoughts without judgement. It helps us learn to relax and observe with discretion what we are experiencing, rather than REACTING.

With all our modern-day distractions it is important to take time to breathe, relax and be in touch with our thoughts.  Children are told all day how to think, act, talk and interact, combined with overstimulation.  It’s important for them to reconnect within their own powerful selves.  Their personal “toolbox” then fills with confidence, patience, empathy, self-control, kindness and acceptance through mindful practice.

Mindfulness helps to switch off the distractions and settle into the peaceful, quiet self.  We learn to deal with our emotional challenges more effectively.  The stresses of schoolwork, social pressures and home-life dysfunctions are more easily navigated with a peaceful state of mind.  We also learn innately to communicate with deeper empathy, patience, and compassion. 

We make better decisions with clarity.

A 2019 study by Biological Psychiatry shows that traumatic emotional and physical childhood experiences lead to ill developmental skills such as emotional regulation, cognitive processes (attention), problem-solving, learning, memory, and spatial relationships, to name a few.

(*2) Biological Psychiatry, Vol. 4, Issue 8, August 2019, pgs 734-742

 

Emily Fletcher, founder of Ziva Meditation states that, “Stress straps us with emotional blinders that block, and ultimately deplete, our power to tap into those reserves of energy and ability.”  Stress Less, Accomplish More, Emily Fletcher Pg. 25, para 1

 

 According to Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development, “In response to overwhelming stress in young children… These quite concerning consequences of overwhelming stress must be considered in a larger developmental context — including aspects of the child and the availability of supportive adults.”

Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development, Stress and the Developing Brain; tutorial 7.  Ecmhc.org/tutorials/trauma/mod2_3.html

MORNING MEDS AND MINDFULNESS