If You’ve Ever Doubted Whether Meditation Works, Listen to This Story | Ali Smith, Atman Smith, and Andres Gonzalez

10% Happier with Dan Harris

10% Media, LLC

Dan Harris, Health & Fitness, Mindfulness, Dharma, Mental Health, Meditation

4.6 • 12.2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2022

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You may remember hearing a massively viral story from a few years ago about a school in Baltimore that gave students meditation, instead of detention.

Ali Smith, Atman Smith, and Andres Gonzalez founded the Holistic Life Foundation and are the authors of Let Your Light Shine, which recounts the story of their work helping traumatized children in one of America’s most underserved cities, and how mindfulness tools can help children and communities not only survive, but thrive.

In this episode we talk about:

The story behind their meditation-instead-of-detention initiative
Their experience asking principals to give them the most challenging students
What it’s like working in one of the most violent cities in the world
The results from teaching students yoga and meditation
How we can apply the lessons they’ve learned to meditation and life

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the 10% happier podcast.
0:06.3	I'm Dan Harris.
0:08.1	Hey, everybody, remember a few years ago when there was that news story that went massively
0:15.2	viral about a school in Baltimore where instead of giving the kids detention, they gave
0:20.5	them meditation, whether you remember it or not, it was an incredible story.
0:25.0	And not only was it true, but the story behind the story is even more incredible.
0:30.3	The group behind that meditation instead of detention initiative has been doing all kinds
0:35.4	of heroic work in the city of Baltimore for years.
0:39.3	In essence, they've been going into some of the most troubled schools in some of the
0:42.7	most underserved neighborhoods in one of the most violent cities in the country and
0:47.9	asking the principals to give them the most challenging students.
0:51.9	And they teach those kids yoga and meditation.
0:54.3	And the results have been extraordinary and validated by study after study.
0:58.4	Today, the people behind this work are here to tell their story and to talk about how
1:03.1	you can apply the lessons they've learned in their work to your meditation and your life.
1:09.0	I have three guests today.
1:11.2	Ali Smith and Ottman Smith are brothers who grew up in Baltimore.
1:15.8	Together, they co-founded the holistic life foundation with their college friend, Andres
1:21.2	Gonzalez, who you're going to hear me address as Andy in the interview.
1:25.7	The three of them have just put out a book.
1:27.6	It's called Let Your Light Shine.
1:29.6	And in this interview, they're going to tell you a story that will, I suspect, obliterate
	...

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