Results from Relaxation Program for Schools
Mini-Title: Daily Peace Results
The following results are from a relaxation program that was introduced into various schools in a number of countries. Please read through the different program results and testimonials. Additional information on the relaxation program, called "Daily Peace", is provided at the bottom of this page.
Testimonials & Results of Schoolchildren and Teachers who Listened to Daily Peace (relaxation) Sessions for One Semester
The Academy of Potential Education set out to provide short 12 minute to 20 minute pre-recorded relaxation sessions to classrooms across the world from 2001 to 2006 to analyze the effects of energy relaxation in children and their superiors. The results of this program provided conclusive evidence into an effective component of Education for the Future.
Results for the "Daily Peace" relaxation once per day in the classroom were extremely positive, and the program became an instant success in many areas. Please review the teacher comments and testimonials below.
In the current society, the emotional body does not age much beyond childhood. Therefore, similar if not identical results have been demonstrated in corporate offices across the globe.
This will change in the future, as we begin to educate ourselves in more healthy and natural forms of living. These forms are being taught in the Academy's Life Technology Education Programs.
In the future, this education will become commonplace in the classroom and the office, as productivity and creativity skyrockets when a student or employee is relaxed and balanced.
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Principal of a New Zealand Health Camp School on the "Daily Peace" Program
Kids come for 5 weeks. Year 6 to 8 (10 to 12 year olds). They are in the top 10% of behavior problems, but not the worst 1%. They're disconnected kids, don't feel part of a group, hate school and are failing at school.
Comments:
"I really liked it. We did it every day at the beginning of the day."
"We'd leave here and they'd all be stretching and yawning but there was some kind of collective consciousness – I don't know exactly how to describe it – but they were all on the same page for a change."
"We had one kid who always said ‘I hate Daily Peace', but he was the one who lay down on the floor and after the session he was most clear about what it had been about."
"It's 15 minutes out of your day – that's the trade-off, but I made that commitment. It's good for kids of this age because they really tuned into the messages of each program. It's quite cool."
"We have an interactive whiteboard. There were some kids who weren't actually focusing so I used iTunes to put visuals on the board to help them focus on something. Some kids are more visual, some more auditory."
"I found you could refer to it all through the day. There were some sessions at the beginning of the program which were really good, like the one called ‘Create your day'. We referred to it throughout the 5 weeks. Also some good ones about being positive, because that's what we try to teach here as well. It supports the kinds of things we try to do here."
"The kids also often kept referring to it. They called it ‘Claire' (the name of one of the Daily Peace relaxation guides on the audio file). They would say "and Claire said…"
"It's another tool in your toolbox which has all kinds of positive spin-offs. I'm now going to pull out all the favorites into a collection that we can reuse to back up our values program."
"We had to practice doing nothing because it was hard for the kids at first. We used to do, for example, 2.7 minutes of doing nothing in the middle of a math lesson, or I would announce that we were going to do 15.4 minutes of relaxation at the beginning of the day. They didn't have a clue what 2.7 minutes was but they thought, "oh yes, cool, 2.7 minutes of doing nothing."
"It was almost more peaceful for me than for the kids. I found myself really relaxing with them."
"It's really good as a way to get the kids to tune into something. With these kinds of kids if they're not focused at the beginning of the day they're not focused all day. It's a way of getting the class into a group."
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Report on "Daily Peace" Relaxation Project in a London Primary School
Place: London primary school, London Borough of Tower Hamlets
From the middle of February 2001 to July 2001 we carried out a relaxation through story telling project at a Primary School in London docklands. The school has 120 children and we worked mainly with year 3 (7-8 year olds), then later on with two more classes year six (11-12) year olds and the reception class (4-5 year olds). It is a mixed race school. A large proportion of the children (50%) are from the Cylet region of Bangladesh. Storytelling was used to integrate relaxation into the children's everyday lives.
Children work and learn much more efficiently when they feel relaxed, they are able to express themselves, and are happy.
This report includes:
- Quotes from children
- Teacher's report before beginning of project
- Teacher's report at end of project
Quotes from children
"When I relaxing I feel comfortable. That time I had a bellyache then I felt much better." (Humphrey year 3)
"When I first started relaxing I got much calm and brave." (Sharmilla year 3)
"If you don't relax you can't think of anything to say." (Joshua year 3)
"Before it was all noisy and shouting but now it's calm. I like watching people." (Aysha)
"I like to watch other people say stories. Sometimes I'm shy, sometimes I'm not." (Georgia)
"When you're stiff it hurts your back and belly. It hurts your muscles. When you relax all your hurt things let go."
"When you're grumpy it kind of hurts you, and when you touch something it shakes. When you relax your muscles go down and you don't drop things."
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Teacher's report before the project starts:
Participants: Year 3 class aged 7-8 years
"At the beginning of the Story-telling and relaxation project, Year 3 was a particularly difficult class. Every lunchtime there would be a catalog of complaints from lunchtime staff about various incidents that occurred both at the dinner table and in the playground, ranging from physical fights to verbal ones between the children. This would often take an inordinate amount of time to sort out in the classroom afterwords, taking the form primarily of discussions between myself and the class, ensuring that everyone with a grievance got their say, trying to establish reasons why the incidents occurred and what steps we as a class could take to try and stop the incidents from happening again. This would help for a couple of days but then things would inevitably blow up again.
Academically, there is quite a spread of abilities in the class (see appendix). The class itself does, and has for some years, consisted of several more difficult members. The nature of their behavior and the amount of teacher time dedicated to it meant that the behavior of other members deteriorated and the class could not build up any sense of collective pride or responsibility. Class members did tolerate each other but there was a lack of respect, caring and trust. In addition to this, two members of the class had left in September, which actually upset them quite a lot, and despite discussing these issues, individuals in the class seemed to feel let down.
As the children's teacher, I have found the class a challenge to say the least! I have worked very hard since September trying to build up confidence and self-esteem with individuals and to provide an atmosphere of respect, tolerance and caring, tempered with a sense of humor. Some days this worked well but on others, particularly the afternoon sessions, high levels of noise and arguments would shatter the atmosphere over trivial matters (sometimes larger ones also), and children showing a complete lack of care or understanding of each other. Days like these were very draining on my abilities as a teacher and stressful for me as a person. It was then that the Academy of Potential Education came forward looking for a school that would like to participate in story telling and relaxation sessions. I volunteered my class and myself as in need of both!
The project ran for 30 minutes on a daily basis for a fortnight and for 45 minutes twice a week thereafter up to the present day. I have kept a "diary" style record of each visit as well as comments and observations on the class generally."
Extracts from teacher's project notes
After a few weeks
"The children are becoming more attentive during sessions. Some are beginning to relax more. Outside the sessions, the children are actually beginning to listen to each other in circle time and discussions. They are starting to act more as a community and are much more open with each other. There was a big problem between a group of girls who were fighting with each other for a couple of days and they were becoming very upset. I got all those girls together and asked what was going on. They then talked about their problems with each other and came up with a plan of action on how to improve the situation. My involvement was not necessary and after that the girls got along fine. This ability to listen to each other and take on responsibility for their own behavior has been a radical change in the class since the project started."
After 6 weeks
"Approaching the end of the Easter term I can see many changes in the class. They are working together as a class now, thinking more about their effects on other people. They are calmer and more settled. They are more confident and responsible. Their speaking and listening skills have improved immensely and all the children are now able to listen in circle time and discussion times, appreciate what others are saying, and those children who found it very difficult to participate in speaking are now more able to do so. It is interesting to note that now when children are ' in a mood' with each other or generally, the others have a much more tolerant and accepting attitude and will now try to take them out of the mood or leave them to get over it on their own. The main thing is that they are not getting annoyed with each other or complaining. This means there is less disruption to my teaching time. And the children are happier and more settled. There are hardly any incidents in the playground now and while the afternoons are still prone to be noisy from time to time, they chat more contentedly, with fewer moans and giggles. They are more prone to chat about work related topics."
After 9 weeks
Since the beginning of the summer term, there has been another change in the children's development, particularly with regards to their work.
In their day-to-day work, the children are now able to concentrate for longer periods of time. They are producing a larger quantity of work in almost all lessons.
Their stories, both written and verbal, are more imaginative and rarely now does someone sit there not knowing what to write or where to go next.
In literacy, children are much more imaginative when discussing ideas, poems and styles of writing. During discussions, children are more able to listen to each other and do not try as often to interrupt each other. They are more appreciative of the value of what others have to say. Shyer children are more confident and self assured and they are now more able to participate in whole class sessions. This is also true of circle time, in which children now really sit silently and listen to each other and more children speak out than they did previous to the project.
In a recent art session, we looked at how we actually felt on the inside. We represented these through objects and colors on the inside and outside of ''wardrobes''. It was very interesting to find that most of the children chose a calm color to represent how they felt inside and they found it relatively simple to think about themselves and their feelings."
End of project – after 18 weeks
One of the main things about the project is the emphasis on developing the child as a person, helping them to find out about themselves. This has been missing from the curriculum for a while, but hopefully with the new emphasis on citizenship and development of the child, along with projects like these, children will begin to realise that life is not just all about testing and that they are not failures if they do not reach national norms.
The sessions have also made me feel much more relaxed. I feel a lot less stressed than I have for a very long time. I seem to feel more in control of myself and what is going on around me. I also seem to have a lot more energy. The project has made me put things back in perspective and remember that I am important just for being myself."
Below is a letter from a participating school describing their results to The Academy of Potential Education:
