Imagine growing up in a town where people’s number one priority is meditation. And everyone in the community drops everything before 5:00 pm so that they can attend their evening meditation service. Welcome to Fairfield, Iowa.

As a child, my moods ranged from utter boredom to intense anxiety. It was primarily because I was a sensitive child who went to a strict private school. I remember wishing the weather report was true and we’d really get that tsunami they kept warning us about, just for excitement sake. At the same time, I had stomaches from scolding teachers who found my use of a red pen disgusting or my inability to solve division repulsive.

After watching Oprah’s Next Chapter on Fairfield, Iowa, a small community that has embraced their nickname TM (or Transcendental Meditation) town, I wondered what it would have been like to grow up practicing meditation. Knowing its impact on me as an adult, I imagined having that kind of practice early on could have saved me a lifetime of physical and mental health issues.

The Benefits of Practicing Meditation

The physical and emotional benefits of meditation are widely known and include everything from reducing stress to improving cognitive function and emotionally stability. And now towns like Fairfield are bringing meditation practice in schools to teach mindfulness and awareness to kids. In today’s constant barrage of technological distractions, don’t you find this practice of pause refreshing and even necessary to our future?

{video from Oprah.com}