South Bay students' free meditation classes help other kids cope with COVID-19 pandemic

CUPERTINO, Calif. (KGO) -- The coronavirus pandemic created mental health issues that so many have never faced before.

Now, with schools set to reopen soon, new stresses have presented themselves for students.

The Goel siblings want to help with that through mindfulness classes intended for students.

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When the pandemic began so did anxiety for many.

10th grader Aayush and 7th grade Riyana Goel from Cupertino turned to a special technique to help cope.

"We decided to start continuing our practice of mindfulness and we really did experience its benefits in the pandemic. We were thinking that how many kids can we spread these benefits to? How many kids are struggling and need help coping with anxiety?"

That's when they began their non-profit "Apart But Not Alone", a program that connects trained mindfulness and yoga instructors to people of all ages through free guided lessons on Zoom and Facebook live.

ABC7 News Reporter Dustin Dorsey even participated in a preview of their upcoming series called "mindfulness and movement".

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"Meditation is a practice and mindfulness is a quality that you can cultivate by practicing meditation."

*Now, Mindfulness is something everyone can practice through these six-week long online courses.

The upcoming program hopes to help students become mentally prepared for the return to in-person learning.

"Earlier, we were helping people cope from in-person to distance-learning. Now, we're helping them change from distance to in-person. We want to help kids make this change through the practice of mindfulness and prepare for whatever is going to happen and not be afraid of it."

You can view a sneak peek of a guided mindfulness and yoga class below.

For more information on Apart But Not Alone, visit their Facebook page here.