The teenagers, among two dozen Fenway High School freshmen arrayed in a semicircle beneath a basketball hoop, breathed deeply as a stress-reduction trainer instructed them on how to relax. New Age music floated through the gymnasium.
“‘Allow intruding thoughts to pass like clouds in the sky,’ said the trainer, Rana Chudnofsky, her soothing voice rising just above a whisper. ‘Take a minivacation from your day.’
“Mind-body relaxation training, already popular among New England prep schools, is seeping into public high schools as principals and teachers worry about students’ ever-mounting stress. In the most widescale effort in the state, specialists from Massachusetts General Hospital have begun fanning out among urban and suburban high schools, including Boston, Needham, and Brookline, to help students cope.”
