Written By: Tania Tarafdar | Updated : September 15, 2017 4:27 PM IST
The Blue Whale Challenge is a fatal underground computer internet game that reportedly has claimed over 150 young lives until late August this year all over the world. In this online suicide game, each day participants are assigned daily tasks by administrators that must be completed in 50 days. The only way one can win this game is by killing oneself. Beyond a certain point in the game, the participant cannot quit the game. The participants are threatened with dire consequences on leaving the game, like stalking and death of parents, or harm to other family members. The game thrives on vulnerability, peer pressure and need for validation among teens, where the participants are provoked to dare to watch psychic or horror movies, cut themselves and eventually suicide. But the fact that teens all over the world are taking up such a dangerous game of suicide is a sign of a problem that runs much deeper. Can simply banning the game and arresting the makers of this evil game be the exclusive solution? Not really. Shreya Chugh, Director, of Kids and Teen Programs at The Art of Living shares tips for parents to make sure that children do not even touch the game or any other suicide challenge like this with a barge pole.
Raise the prana or life force in children
When the prana or energy level in the body is high, we feel more enthusiastic, happy, creative, positive, and confident. When the prana is high, it is impossible to fall into the trap of negative emotions. Even if the negative thoughts and emotions do crop up, they won t stick around for a long time. So, it is very important to increase the energy level in the body. Various breathing and yogic exercises can help improve the energy challenge in the body. Breathing correctly improves the lung capacity which in turn increases the inflow of oxygen in the body, thus energizing the body and mind. So, children will have less negative thoughts. Negative thoughts can trigger attention or interest towards dangerous virtual games like the Blue Whale Challenge. Here's why teenagers fall for Blue Whale Challenge and other violent online games.
Channelize their energy
Children have a lot of energy. If this energy is not channelized properly, it can lead to aggression, violence, restlessness or hyper activity. To begin with, some breathing exercises can help channelize their energies in the right direction:
A) Humming bee breath (Bhramari pranayama)
B) Alternate nostril breathing technique (Nadi shodhan pranayama)
You can practice 9 such rounds. Importantly, do not forget to breathe in from the same nostril from which you exhaled. Make sure your eyes are closed throughout the practice.
C) Victory Breath (Ujjayi breath)
Ujjayi breathing is also extremely beneficial to channel the prana or life force upwards.
Make them perform yoga
Some of the asanas that children can practice at home are:
Make children meditate to break the cycle of addiction
Just like the addiction with social media that drives most of the younger generation to check on their phones the first thing in the morning, Blue Whale is an addiction. It affects children at different levels of their consciousness such as environment, body, thoughts, emotions and the self. It hampers the awareness of the child. There is no discretion between right and wrong for the mind of a child. Special meditative practices designed for children can help break this addictive pattern. These meditative practices, like pragya yoga, help children harness their intuition and sense of right and wrong, which is otherwise never recognized and channelised.
Get them out of nuclear thinking
Challenges like Blue Whale are a result of nuclear thinking where children are used to thinking exclusively about themselves, their interests and social stimuli. They soon start compartmentalizing themselves and are restricted to their own little world. When children practice meditation, there is an expansion in their mind and consciousness. They feel more relaxed and happy. They start opening themselves to the outer world, have healthy relationships and more importantly have higher self-esteem. It is critical to building self-esteem in children because it has been seen that most of the children and teens who have taken this game up are ones reeling under low self-esteem or extreme peer pressure.
Make them participate in extra-curricular activities
At all costs, make sure that children are engaged in activities like music, dance, painting, sports, yoga or some creative art form. Physical activity along with spiritual engagement burns the rajas (restless attribute) in children. This leaves them feeling calmer and more focused. At the end of the day, parents have the most telling influence on how children spend their time. After Blue Whale challenge, teens take Snapchat Slap-Bet challenge: where are we going wrong?
Keep the channels of communication open with your children
Scientific research says that children listen to lakhs of denials by the time they become teenagers. So, they start hiding things from you as they grow up. Driven by their curiosity, it is not that they will not do what they have set their minds to but rather they will simply stop telling you about their actions. So, as a parent, it is important to be positive, aware of what your children are up to and be supportive towards them. Make them feel comfortable so that they can open up to you. Do not force your opinion on them and listen to them when they need you. They look up to you as their role model. Also, when you are supportive and friendly, children are more willing to confess earlier in the process than later.
Inform intelligently
It falls upon parents to make children stand up to peer pressure. When children know the right from wrong and the cost of engaging in the wrong, it is likely that children will not fall into the trap of peer pressure. In doing this, yoga and meditation can help train children in listening to their inner voice rather than the give into peer pressure.
Image source: Shutterstock Images
