When 9-year-old Michael Thompson feels overwhelmed, he listens to jazz or soft instrumental music.
As their younger brother, Jordan, 7, sits quietly and focuses on his breathing while his younger brother, Jalen, 4, colors and draws, their mother, Hertha Thompson, explains to them that meditation is different for everyone.
Michael and his brothers started Black Boys Meditate to teach mindfulness to kids, especially those in underserved areas.
Michael will receive the Bronze Jefferson Award for Public Service at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards in 2024. The show, hosted by SpongeBob Squarepants and Patrick Star, airs Saturdays at 7 p.m.
He is an avid Nickelodeon fan and his favorite show is The Loud House — Michael is excited.
“Michael has an entrepreneurial spirit,” says Hertha Thompson. “We call him our director of strategy. He’s always thinking about the business.”
Black Boys Meditate was born out of Thompson’s yoga studio, Aura House, which opened in 2023 in Cedar Hill, where her family lives. Thompson discovered yoga and meditation 10 years ago while struggling with motherhood. Yoga taught her how to control her emotions.
“I was drowning,” she says. “Yoga and meditation helped me find myself again.”
Michael now teaches other children how to meditate and teaches regular family yoga classes with his mother at Aura House. Michael and his siblings have created a mindfulness colouring book and an alphabet of affirmations to help boost children’s self-esteem.
Eventually, Michael and his brothers hope to apply for nonprofit status and expand Black Boys Meditate’s reach to help more kids.
Thompson, a former high school teacher, said meditation and mindfulness could help young people who are wrongly labelled as bad or problematic because they can’t control their emotions.
“Kids, especially kids from disadvantaged communities, aren’t taught how to deal with their emotions. They’re not bad kids,” she said. “They just have really big emotions and they don’t know what to do with them.”
