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Comment by beretguy | Hacker News Reader

> students have learned mindfulness techniques like breath awareness, thought observation, and emotional monitoring as part of their regular curriculum

Children are full of energy - they need to be let loose and run around. It’s like trying to teach peaceful and quite a 6 months old dog - you can’t. You need to let them burn all that energy.

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I find this continues to be true in my adulthood. With the blessing of remote work (or failing that, an office culture that doesn't mind), I'm very happy to take a midday walk and enjoy the outdoors. I'm very certain that if I had compatriots with me now like I did during school recess that we'd definitely find some sticks and swordfight with them, or climb rocks and trees, age be damned.

I've never seen an office culture that minded people taking a walk (unless the team was in war room or something). A lot of workers go out to buy lunch anyway.

For hourly production workers that have to clock in/out and may only get a fixed 30 lunch break then it is more difficult.

The problem is no sword fights or basketball courts :/ it also feels strange to randomly do something like a few pushups at the office whereas at home I do it all the time.

A 30 minute walk around most parts of downtown San Francisco is not exactly the kind of 30 minute walk OP likely has in mind.

“Children” is likely the wrong word here. As humans develop, they change incredibly fast. The needs of a 6 year old are surprisingly different from those of an 8 year old.

This study focuses on 14 year olds (on average). This is way past the age of “needing to burn energy like a dog”. Sure, they have more energy than adults, but you’re still likely describing much younger humans.

The second meta-analysis specifically separated older kids from younger kids and found that the intervention had less impact on the older kids.

This is also the way you get sleep at night (tire them out so they sleep through the night). It also sets them up for healthy habits as adults.

The "mindfulness" techniques and breathing techniques ultimately come from the Hindu/Buddhist school of thought and is much bigger than the cargo cult way the western society seem to have picked up from them.

> Children are full of energy - they need to be let loose and run around.

The masters of the original mindfulness techniques would agree.

That’s why you do yoga asanas prior to meditation.

And the emotional systems of the brain are some of the last to develop. It's good to teach youth that there are these things called emotions (for the most inept) and they do matter. But don't expect too much from it.

Yes! We need more of that rather then trying to embrace brutal eastern religions and push secularized supersitions dressed in a layer of pseudoscience

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