“Earlier I was a little bit agitated, I was not able to absorb easily the information I was receiving at school, my grades were not the best ones, but after I have started practicing Transcendental Meditation (TM) I am feeling calmer, much more focused, I like very much the practice and I would invite all students to practice the TM.”
student Joana from Alberto Iria school in Portugal told during the seminar on “Social Inclusion and Tolerance. The psychological and social benefits of the Quiet Time with Transcendental Meditation Programme for schools”.
A seminar took place on the 19th of October 2018 at the University of Algarve, Faculty of Human and Social Sciences in Faro, Portugal and was attended by the EUROPE project team, principals, teachers and students who have experienced or are willing to explore the Quiet Time based on Transcendental Meditation Programme approach.
The seminar presented the results and impact of the EUROPE project (Ensuring Unity and Respect as Outcomes for the People of Europe) that introduced an innovative approach to improve social inclusion, reduce violence, suspensions and drop-out rates of students and burn-out of teachers. The approach was implemented in the schools across Portugal, Sweden and the Netherlands.
Teachers were trained in the framework of the project and the Quiet Time/TM approach was included into the school curricula. Students were engaged in Quiet Time moments for 15 minutes at the beginning and 15 minutes at the end of the school day. EUROPE project partners (University of Algarve and Utrecht University of Applied Sciences) have implemented the qualitative and quantitative research evaluation with the students, teachers and parents to understand the effects of the Quiet Time/TM approach.
So if you are wondering what are the preliminary findings of the research, we can say that it shows that for those students who have been practicing Quiet Time/TM there is:
- Increase in cooperation skills and peers’ connection and higher flexibility in relationships
- Higher ability to express feelings and needs
- Significant higher satisfaction
- Significant decrease in negative feelings
- Less anxiousness to be humiliated by others in social settings
- Trend towards higher satisfaction with school
- Trend towards more positive feelings
- Trend towards more positive school climate, a safer environment and better wellness and resilience
The analysis of the results will be continued looking deeper into such aspects as the school climate, grades and suspension rates. We will update you on what will be discovered!
“Meditation helped me to have more control over myself. I believe everyone should try it!” – student Nuria expressed during the seminar on social inclusion and tolerance, so why don’t we try simple solutions to respond to great problems and start with a change within ourselves?
About the project
The EUROPE Project – Ensuring Unity and Respect as Outcomes for the People of Europe – aims to foster social inclusion, tolerance and other factors that prevent violence in schools and seeks to establish the effectiveness of the Quiet Time/Transcendental Meditation Programme (QT/TMP) in different European countries.
The project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme Key Action 3 – Initiatives for policy innovation – Social inclusion through education, training and youth.
Partners
The project partnership is composed by 12 partner organizations which strongly believe that the Quiet Time/TM helps to reach the peace:
- Fondazione Hallgarten Franchetti – Centro Studi Villa Montesca (Italy) – coordinator,
- Stichting Hogeschool Utrecht [Utrecht University of Applied Sciences] (The Netherlands),
- Stichting Maharishi Vedisch Instituut (The Netherlands),
- Stichting Maharishi Onderwijs Nederland (The Netherlands),
- Universidade do Algarve (Portugal),
- Agrupamento de Escolas João de Deus [Teacher Training Centre] (Portugal),
- APEJAA – Associação de Pais e Encarregados de Educação da Escola João Afonso De Aveiro (Portugal),
- Cooperativa Cultural Ciencia Tecnologia Vedica Maharishi, CCCT (Portugal),
- Maharishi School Trust Limited (United Kingdom),
- Maharishi Foundation England (United Kingdom),
- MIKI – SVERIGE [Maharishi Institut for Kreativ Intelligen] (Sweden),
- CESIE (Italy).
For further information
Look at the EUROPE website (europe-project.org) and follow us on EUROPE Facebook to get first-hand updates and news about the EUROPE project and the Quiet Time/TM programme and activities in different schools across Europe. Also you can send an email to Ruta Grigaliunaite to learn more about the project.
