Mindfulness has been gaining a strong reputation in many different disciplines. For those of you who are not too familiar with the practice, mindfulness is maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of surroundings, thoughts and sensations. Mindfulness has been backed up by tons of great recent research studies. Practicing for long periods of time has been known to perform all kinds of scientific miracles, such as changing brain chemistry, reducing anxiety and depression, and even reducing physical pain. Mindfulness can seem a bit like foreign magic to the untrained eye, so let's break it down into pieces.
A core value of the mindfulness practice is monitoring thoughts. I find that as a college student dealing with all types of obligations and stressors, this is the hardest component for me. On any given day, my stream of consciousness looks something like this:
Oh look, there's the science building. I wonder what would happen if I was biology major. I wonder if my old roommate is still a biology major. Speaking of major, I don't want to take that big test in two weeks. It's going to be torture, and if I fail I probably won't get into grad school. Wait, where even do I want to go to grad school? What kind of job should I have?
My thoughts tend to dominate my feelings on a regular basis, which can be horrible sometimes! This is where mindfulness comes in. Instead of hooking onto these feelings or letting them determine how I am that day, I simply observe that they are there. So instead of thinking: Ugh that commercial reminded me of this really awful fight I had with my friend a year ago, now I'm angry, you start to think: Wow, I'm aware of these thoughts I'm having, but I'm not going to attach. This way, we don't become the face of our thoughts.
Mindfulness also teaches us to redirect our thoughts by staying in the present moment. A good way to do this is to observe all of your senses and describe them to yourself. So when walking to class, instead of thinking all those crazy thoughts, think something like: I'm feeling the pavement beneath my feet, I can hear the wind blowing through the trees, I can hear someone skateboarding behind me, I smell and feel the warm coffee in my hand. The more details you use, the better. You will find that instead of dwelling on that crazy test you have tomorrow, you are more in the present moment. When you're practicing mindfulness, being aware of your breath also helps to get you to that optimum relaxed state. One of my professors suggested saying the words "in breath" and "out breath" while we breathe.
While mindfulness can be hard to practice and stick with, I think that we as college students could benefit from it in so many ways. Our minds are constantly challenged to deal with many things at once. If we practice mindfulness during these times of transition when the stress tends to sneak up, our overall level of health could improve.
Mindfulness is more than a practice, it is a component of self-care that can improve the quality of life.
