Good Karma: NGO Mind Alive Brings Power of Meditation to Public Schools

In this month’s Good Karma, we feature NGO Mind Alive, a non-profit organization with the goal of encouraging a “culture of peace” through meditation among children in public schools. The initiative, co-founded by Dr. Mariela Silveira, medical director at Brazil’s Kurotel – Longevity Medical Center and Spa, made its official debut in May 2014 with 20 local schools participating in the meditation project; the organization held its first simultaneous collective meditation in Brazil in late 2014, with almost 5,000 children nationwide. The current number of schools is up to 245, encompassing approximately 40,000 students and teachers in Brazil, Peru, Portugal, and Spain, and two major events on simultaneous collective meditation will take place this year, Kurotel tells us.

NGO Mind Alive research resulted in the following findings:

• Increase wellbeing among children and teens
• Increase wellbeing among teachers in classrooms
• Improve cognitive skills such as memory and attention
• Improve attention deficit and hyperactivity symptoms
• Improve learning abilities and academics
• Decrease grade repetition
• Reduce the consumption of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs
• Decrease violence levels in schools and their communities
• Decrease hospital admissions
• Improve systemic hypertension levels
• Improve family relations

Additional comprehensive research has been conducted in partnership with the Neuropsychology Department at the Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), the destination spa shares with us. Results will be published next month.

As well, NGO Mind Alive was recently recognized for its work, winning the Kokhmaha Award.