Mindfulness is the mental state of being aware of present feelings, thoughts, and sensations. When engaging in mindfulness techniques, we focus our attention to our own experiences without any judgement. This practice has been proven to reduce symptoms of mental health issues, including anxiety and depression.
TCNJ's Center for Mindfulness and Compassion is offering 30 minute zoom sessions that include a guided meditation with time for sharing and questions.
There are many benefits of practicing mindfulness while at school. Engaging in mindfulness practices can increase academic performance, focus, and confidence. College students can easily get caught up in the college experience of constant stress and late nights and forget to take time for themselves and connect with their mind and body.
Mindfulness can be developed through the practice of meditation. Mindful meditation skills have been seen to reduce test anxiety and overall anxiety in students with academic anxiety. The practice of mindfulness in itself is the practice of experiencing thoughts, feelings, emotions, and mental processes in the present moment, not allowing one to be caught up or overwhelmed and it is easy to see how these skills can be highly valuable to a student experiencing disrupting levels of anxiety (Lothes & Mochrie, 2017).
Through the practice of yoga, one can exercise the body and the mind and hone meditation skills. Yoga and meditation has been found to be effective in reducing student stress and anxiety, have a positive impact on interpersonal relationships, adjustment in first-year students, enhanced sense of well-being, alertness and vigilance, better sleep quality, and breathing exercises in calming the sympathetic nervous system determined through measurement of heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory rate (Cieslak et al., 2016; Kanojia et al., 2018; Lemay et al., 2019).
Yoga is not the only way exercise can benefit students. Regular exercise in general has been proven to reduce stress and anxiety in students. Anxiety and self-esteem have been identified as the two most important psychological aspects, particularly in college students. Regular exercise has been seen to boost self-esteem and decrease anxiety. Regular exercise can be achieved through a variety of ways. At TCNJ, the gym is free and the pool can be utilized during open swim hours by students for free as well and this may be the case at other colleges as well. Group fitness classes and club sports are both ways to get regular exercise and can be a great way to spend time with friends or meet new friends. Having a few friends to walk around campus with a few times a week is a great way to exercise and can be utilized as a study break as well (Hamidah et al., 2015;
Sources for students to learn about practicing mindfulness and meditation:
Meditation & Mindfulness on Campus: A Student Guide to Going Zen
This is the cover of the book Yoga for Everyone: 50 Poses for Every Type of Body by Dianne Bondy. The book is a body-positive tool for anyone and everyone who wishes to practice yoga.
Meditation can help you focus, reflect, and connect with yourself!
Those who engage with arts and craft project report significant improvements in self‐esteem, self‐worth and self‐efficacy. When researching the benefits of doing arts and crafts one participant said “It's almost like time stands still, and whatever is bothering me, or on my mind, melts away while I am actually painting’(Caddy et al., 2012). Arts and Crafts are a great form of art therapy which can help people express themselves in great detail without having to use their words. It gives people a stress free and enjoyable way to work though any uncomfortable feeling they may be dealing with.
The best part about art therapy is that anyone can make art in any way that makes them happy and satisfied.
“Researchers observed how the participants became invested in their work as a means of feeling grounded and able to cope with the challenges of everyday life. A majority of respondents who knitted frequently (several times a week) reported higher cognitive functioning, increased levels of calmness and happiness and greater social contact and communication,”(Kaimel 2017).
"Crafting can be seen as a kind of natural anti-depressant.”(Kaimel 2017)
Below are some easy and fun crafting videos that people can do and follow along!
And below here are some fun color pages that people can print out and color or paint!