| October 16, 2019 | Jamie Bennett | reporter |
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With upcoming midterms, faculty at NW Campus wanted to provide a way for students to de-stress and prepare by practicing meditation.
“Midterm Mindfulness and Meditation” was sponsored by the Employee Mind, Body and Health committee. Certified yoga teacher and English instructor LeeAnn Olivier was on hand to teach students and faculty ways that meditation is helpful for the mind and body.
Meditation is known to help reduce stress, pain and anxiety. With daily practice, it becomes habitual. According to Olivier, it starts with noticing your breathing.
“I know when I do daily practice it helps me in life and with sleep,” Olivier said.
Meditation can help with physical pain. By practicing for as little as five minutes a day and by focusing on concentrated breathing, a person can increase their psychological sense of well-being and may aid in pain relief.
“I put my brain into the pain when I burned my hand while cooking,” Olivier said. “I like to say I breathed into the pain.” At times Olivier even noticed that meditation worked better than prescribed drugs.
For ordinary people, the mindfulness technique is a simple and easy way to get into meditation. By looking at your palms and asking yourself “what do I feel, think, smell and hear” can help a person become aware of their surrounding environment.
“Our world produces people with scattered thoughts,” Olivier said. “Our high-tech phones and way of life doesn’t give us time to complete a single task.”
Monkey brain is what Olivier likes to call it, and she says mindfulness can help.
“You know meditation is working when you are focused and you get the feeling that ‘time flies by,’ she said. “You are in the moment.”
If people don’t currently have stress or anxiety, meditation can boost creativeness. Many creative types “swear by meditation,” she said.
Administrative assistant in the kinesiology department April Miske participated in the workshop. She had a recommendation for students wanting to know more about meditation.
“If students want to take a yoga/relaxation class like the one demonstrated here, they need to sign up for Kinesiology 1134,” Miske said.
Faculty and students were invited to practice the techniques on yoga mats.
“We wanted to host an event to provide an opportunity to relax,” said Melissa Perry, co-chair of the committee.
While meditation can reduce stress and anxiety, the practice also increases a person’s psychological sense of well being and helps create empathy toward others. This results in getting along better with others, Oliver said.
