A quick shout-out to our classmate, Claire, who penned a crisp and comprehensive article for the UW Daily about mindfulness in the classroom. A talented journalist, Claire interviews a few experts on campus while weaving in her own findings from the quarter in Honors 392. She calls attention to three alliterative components within mindfulness: “presence, personhood, and perspective.” When outlined as such, we can see how this non-traditional teaching method is really crucial to a college setting.
Why’s that? Well, for one, I’d rather not spend four years’ tuition only to discover, upon graduation, that I haven’t been following my heart. By checking it with myself often, via meditation, I can gauge whether I’m sincerely pursuing my passions (two more P words for you!) Fifteen minutes of meditation today may save us a quarter- or mid-life crisis down the line.
As for our “increasingly distracted” state, mindfulness is the breather we need (for sanity’s sake!) Meditation takes us offline, away from Twitter’s covfefe cacophony–and helps us tune into the neural network and the “voice” inside. Here, a regeneration, a moment to heal. Here, some time to re-focus and refine one’s attention. How else will we counteract cognitive burnout? Refuel with some easy breaths, sigh out obligations, and then return to your studies revived.
Learning doesn’t occur in a vacuum, and we are certainly not “empty vessels,” as Claire notes. To better familiarize one’s self of personal biases, moods, memories, stress levels, is a main goal of mindfulness. Once aware of those “peripheral details,” one has a better grasp on why incoming information is felt or filed a certain way. [Also, as tangent: Herein lies the importance of a diverse student body: your classmates’ aren’t “empty vessels” either. We each come to class with a different major, quirk, purpose for being there. A syllabus will not land the same with each pupil. For example, I found Active Hope to be an elucidating and inspirational book; maybe my classmate Tim doesn’t feel the same way. It’s important to hear why–to recognize the validity and utility of another’s ideas.]
Thank you, Claire, for bringing this topic to the Daily. I do hope the dawg pack takes a mindful moment to consider your words and the opinions of Professors Levy and Browning. In the words of the latter: “Research is showing us this is the way to go.” It isn’t a mere trend: it may prove to be the next revolution in academia. Ohm on!