Ways Meditation And Martial Arts Can Help Teens Focus

When a child becomes a teenager, new sides of them begin to show. They may end up discovering new passions and shedding old interests, or acting more distant from their parents or friends, or perhaps even begin having a harder time focusing on schoolwork. Unfortunately, their inability to focus can quickly take a toll on success in school and make them less productive and social around the house.

Martial arts and meditation can both be effective tools for helping teenagers focus. Several martial arts—such as tai chi, karate, and kung fu—often include a variety of breathing techniques considered to be forms of meditation.

Here’s a glimpse at a few ways meditation and martial arts can help teens revitalize their focus going forward.

Reduces Anxiety

Martial arts and meditation can help improve teens’ mental health. Specifically, practicing martial arts can reduce teens’ anxiety levels and equip them to better deal with the anxiety and stress that persists.

This unique benefit of martial arts and mediation is especially valuable for teenagers who struggle with ADHD – attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. That’s because young people with ADHD are extremely prone to anxiety and thus view many everyday life situations as overwhelming, which can slow a teen’s maturity to adulthood, and in more severe cases, could lead to depression or to them becoming emotionally stunted.

In many situations, children and teens who struggle with ADHD are medicated with psychostimulants, which can lead to some success, but these drugs can have negative long-term effects and often feature major side effects like decreased energy levels. Martial arts and meditation are more natural, holistic responses to ADHD.

Improves Concentration Directly

Through martial arts and meditation, teenagers can increase their focus and concentration capabilities by learning how to fix their mind on one thing at a time. A martial arts or meditation leader will often have their students perform structured, patterned routines without distractions, and the more these skills are put into practice, the easier it will become for teens to apply this skill to other parts of their lives.

This could drastically benefit their academic lives in particular – helping them to develop a more positive attitude toward learning as a whole.

Meditation and martial arts class environments are controlled ones, which can also act as temporary relief from the bustling world of young adults. The classrooms normally contain no external stimuli, pictures, or noises that can distract and over-stimulate students. As a teen develops their concentration ability in the classroom, they should be able to transfer this skill to their everyday lives as well.

Boosts Physical Fitness

Another way in which martial arts can help teens to focus is by helping them to deal with physical issues that may be distracting them from fully concentrating on everyday tasks.

Martial arts can be physically engaging which helps relieve teenagers’ anxiety and stress directly – plus the physical exercises involved increase their chances at maintaining a healthy physique. Martial arts students learn how to develop better posture, balance, spatial understanding, and dexterity, rather than just speed or strength, which is often concentrated on in competitive sports, by comparison.

The more that teenagers hone in on their physical abilities through martial arts, the healthier they will be, and that comes with an improved body image and, in turn, renewed self-confidence. The more confident a teenager is about their physical condition, the more capable they will be of focusing on other, more important aspects of their lives.

Increase Self-Esteem

A major perk of martial arts training is that it comes with a ranking and belt system. This will provide your teenager with tangible evidence of progress and thus a boosted self-esteem.

The reality is, some teens with ADHD don’t get much recognition for their efforts at school or at home due to their behavior, or they aren’t very good at recognizing positive feedback when they get it. Karate demonstrations and testing events can provide them with this important recognition, which can boost your child’s confidence and therefore make them feel less frustrated and better able to focus in everyday life. Plus, the recognition will show them that they are becoming more adept at controlling their behavior, self-regulating, and responding to stressors in a positive way. This will encourage them to continue to work on their focusing skills.

Decreased Aggression

A teen’s ability to focus can be improved by decreasing their aggression—something that martial arts and meditation are excellent at. Despite the common association between martial arts and fighting, a universal theme of most forms of martial arts is actually self-discipline. Violence is only used, in controlled ways, as a last resort.

With martial arts and meditation, teenagers can learn how to control their frustration and aggression, and instead, focus that energy on learning how to build a respectful, honorable, and non-violent character. With these improvements, teenagers can experience a greater sense of peace and control in their daily interactions and therefore be able to focus more on what matters most in their lives, whether it be school, household responsibilities, friendships, etc.

Put It Into Practice!

Struggling with a lack of focus is frustrating. By signing up for martial arts or meditation classes, a teenager is put back on a path to achieving greater levels of concentration and self-control in a healthy and encouraging setting.

Sign up for martial arts and meditation today so that you can personally experience the ways that these practices can help you focus and live a more controlled and fulfilling life long-term.