Zen Meditation: a description of the behavior changes observed in middle education students in Manta, 2019

Investigation article

Abstract

It is known that meditation is a technique that is native to Buddhism more than 2000 years ago and has had an impact on psychology and medicine, because its practice has an automatic and immediate response in behavior in the human body, reducing the cortisol levels in the blood in stressed people, as well as lowering the heart rate. The objective of the investigation was to make a description of the behavioral changes observed in students of the San Mateo de Manta Fiscal Education Unit, Ecuador in the school year corresponding to 2019. The meditation procedure was applied over a period of five weeks, developing the Zen meditation practice in a group with sessions of 15 minutes daily during the 5 weeks. This quantitative descriptive research applies the technique of Zen meditation in a group of 41 students of high school with an age between 16 and 18 years. The changes observed during the meditation process in the students were recorded, highlighting aspects such as: improvement of behavior, improvement of the level of attention, active participation in classes, behaviors and attitudes are positive, fulfills tasks and activities and relaxed attitude.

Keywords: Zen meditation; behavioral changes; teenagers; stress.