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Roswell High students get zen with meditation classes

Roswell High School students enjoy weekly meditation sessions at the school. 

The lights are dim in classroom E105 at Roswell High School.

Inside, you can hear the beating of a drum.

“Sound helps give the mind something to focus on,” Joanne Newell, the Center for Energy Healing, said.

Newell is leading a group of students at the high school in guided meditation, a weekly 30-minute session for students to recharge.

“What happens with meditation is that the brainwaves actually do change,” Newell said. “It can feel like you're dreaming, but you’re really having these wonderful insights. Those creative centers of your mind are opening up. You're not asleep, you're awake but you're having these wonderful experiences that when you're focused on stress, you can't have them."

Teacher Valerie Pettit helped organize the class, which can provide students a chance to breathe in a non-stop world.

‘Students today really have a hard time pausing,” Pettit said. “They’re always connected, they’re on the phones. They’re worried about tests. They don’t know how to just be.”

Pettit said students start at the beginning of the year with barely being able to sit and meditate ten minutes. By the year’s end, she said they are sitting for 30.

Luke, a student at the high school, was initially doubtful meditation would work.

"I already had the expectation that it wasn't going to work, but I was just blown away that it actually did work,” he said.

"High school can be really stressful at times because we have tests and a lot of things going on,” 11th grader Ellie said. “So I think it's nice to hit the pause button. I got to a calm state so it’s really nice.”

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