We live in a world where, unfortunately, chaos seems to be a common theme. People are often so busy with jobs, school, and extracurricular activities that it can be difficult to slow down and focus on ourselves. Rachel
Wixey, founder and owner of Wixey Center for Wellness, has found that meditation can provide adults and children with skills to live a happier and healthier life.
The power of meditation
Wixey Center for Wellness came to be when Rachel Wixey discovered meditation around 2008. She dedicated her time to a daily meditation practice and soon discovered that there was a direct correlation between meditating and her physical health, happiness, and peace.
Wixey explained, “As I continued my practice and experienced the effects of meditation, I wondered, ‘Why didn’t I have this as a kid?’ Why didn’t I have this in my youth? This sent me looking.” What she found was that there were organizations in the area that were teaching educators how to deliver Mindfulness Curriculum to K-12 youth.
Wixey decided to take the prerequisite coursework for a year-long teacher certification in meditation, and through her coursework she found a strong interest in the neuroscience behind meditation and in being trauma-informed. She completed her training as a Certified Workplace Mindfulness Facilitator, and she also underwent additional training in trauma awareness.
Now she is using her knowledge and expertise to serve our community through the Wixey Center for Wellness, where she offers private client services for individuals, couples, and families. These private sessions focus on how people relate to themselves and to others, along with the practices to support positive and balanced relationships.
Additionally, she offers classes through the center such as her five-week series called Introduction to Meditation, which teaches participants the neuroscience of what is happening in the brain and to the nervous system when stressed, as well as meditation practices that help with self-regulation.
Meditation for children and teens
Wixey also provides wellness services for schools and businesses. She is certified to work with youth K-12 and enjoys working with teenagers and young adults. Often when working with schools, she holds professional development and training for the adults in the school because, as she explained, “there are two ways we are able to bring the benefits of meditation to youth in the classroom. One is through explicit mindfulness curriculum, and the other is through the embodied, regulated adult teaching them. Children require a regulated adult to attune to their own regulation, so this becomes priority-one in my mind as I approach my work in schools.”
Wixey has found self-regulation to be one of the biggest benefits of meditation for young people. “One of the biggest reasons I do what I do now is because no one told me in my youth how to self-regulate,” she recalls. “Brain development in kids and teenagers is not complete for them to fully self-regulate on their own; however, these practices support them in developing this part of the brain in a healthy way.”
Along with self-regulation, Wixey explained that the benefits of meditation also include improved nervous system health to balance the other systems of the body. Strengthening relationships is another benefit. Impulse-control is also improved with regular meditation, as well as emotional regulation. Wixey stated that with regular meditation, “We experience less agitation, and less being carried away by the intense emotions of judgment, anger, fear, doubt, worry, and so on.”
Learning meditation opportunities
When asked if she had any additional information she wanted readers to know, Wixey explained, “For anyone reading, if the material speaks to you here, then engaging in this type of practice would probably be supportive for you. A lot of times I hear one of two things: ‘I’ve tried to meditate and it doesn’t work for me’ and ‘I believe there are benefits to meditation. I just don’t know where to begin.’ My Intro series answers both.”
The registration for her last class of this year is open now, and the Intro series begins on November 22.
“I envision a world with more and more people who are self-aware and self-regulated. It’s possible, and I believe that it’s in our future.”
For more information about Wixey Center for Wellness, please visit www.rachel-wixey.com, or wixeycenter on Facebook and Instagram.
