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Dallas-area boy will be honored by Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards

Michael Thompson started Black Boys Meditate to teach kids about mindfulness.

When 9-year-old Michael Thompson feels overwhelmed, he listens to jazz or soft instrumental music.

His 7-year-old brother, Jordan, sits quietly and focuses on breathing, while his 4-year-old brother, Jalen, colors or draws. Meditation can look different for everybody, his mother, Helsa Thompson, explains to them.

Michael and his brothers started Black Boys Meditate to teach other kids, particularly from underserved communities, about mindfulness.

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Michael will be honored at the 2024 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards with a bronze Jefferson Award for public service. Hosted by SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star, the show will be broadcast at 7 p.m. Saturday.

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As a devout Nickelodeon fan — his favorite show is The Loud House — Michael is thrilled.

“Michael has that entrepreneurial spirit,” Helsa Thompson said. “We call him our director of strategy. He’s always thinking about business.”

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Black Boys Meditate grew out of Thompson’s yoga studio, Aura House, which opened in 2023 in Cedar Hill, where the family lives. Struggling with new motherhood, Thompson embraced yoga and meditation a decade ago. Yoga taught her how to regulate her own emotions.

“I was drowning,” she said. “Yoga and meditation allowed me to get back to myself.”

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Michael now teaches other kids how to meditate, and he and his mother teach a regular family yoga class at Aura House. Michael and his brothers created a mindfulness coloring book and an affirmation alphabet to help children build their self-esteem.

Eventually, Michael and his brothers want to apply for nonprofit status and expand the reach of Black Boys Meditate to help more kids.

Thompson, a former high school teacher, said meditation and mindfulness could help young people falsely labeled as bad or troubled kids because they lack emotional regulation.

“Kids, especially in underserved communities, are not 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 how to process them.”