Ravi Bhanot, co-owner of Clayhall Nursery in Ilford, said he hopes toextend the scheme to other local nurseries, running subsidised trainingsessions for practitioners.
The group of three- and four-year-olds have been meditating for a fewminutes each day after lunch for the past week.
Mr Bhanot is director of the Ayurveda Institute of Europe. Ayurvedicmedicine, which originated in India around 5,000 years ago, includesmeditation.
Mr Bhanot believes that teaching young children how to manage theirstress could be the key to helping prevent anti-social behaviour andcrime as they get older.
'Evidence shows that meditation has positive health benefits and reducesstress,' he said. 'Nursery is a logical starting point so that childrenlearn the habit from a young age.'
Nursery manager Claire Bond told Nursery World, 'We've tried out a fewdifferent techniques and talked to the children about them. In one weask them to picture a scene, for example, a holiday or the park. Inanother the children focus on an object - it could be a toy or a plant.The one the children like doing best is chanting a mantra.'
She said one of the children suggested the word 'school' and they reallyliked saying it over and over again.
'I would say to other nurseries. try it out,' Ms Bond added. 'You doassociate meditation with adults, but you can adapt it for youngchildren.
'If you can do it with nursery-age children, then maybe schools canstart doing it and in the long term it could reduce stress andaggressive behaviour.'
For more information
E-mail Ravi Bhanot at info@ayurvedainstitute.org.
