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I thought about writing a piece on the current nature of political discourse and my opinions on what may remedy the issues that seem to be eating away at our ability to have important conversations. But it seems to me that there are enough opinions out there to disorient our minds and drive ourselves insane —truly insane. Instead, I want to write about something that offers a method to counter the overwhelming feelings and emotions one may feel throughout their daily lives. I am talking about mindfulness. This seems relevant now more than ever. We are college students navigating situations that place immense amounts of stress on our mental and physical well-being. This stress takes a toll on us, and we each pay the price. Some deal with anxiety, crippling depression, feelings of isolation and loneliness, or denial about the current situation. Put simply, all of us are lost in thought one way or another at some point in our lives, and we all suffer from being trapped in the prisons that are often created by our own minds. Mindfulness and meditation are methods of training your mind to experience the thoughts that appear in front of you without judgement, and to notice that you have the ability to choose how these thoughts influence your emotions and subsequent actions. The more you practice mindfulness, the more you begin to recognize that feelings of being trapped, being helplessly lost in thought, can be an illusion.
Most of our lives are spent lost in thought: thoughts about the future (things we want to do) and thoughts about the past (things we really wish we hadn’t done). Most of us spend our lives searching for true happiness by trying to navigate this minefield of desire and regret, and we often fail to realize that we can only really be happy in the present moment. Now, I’m not saying that you should stem your desires to go out into the world and do meaningful things with your life and relegate your existence to sitting in silence. It’s important to educate yourself, connect with other people, and form meaningful relationships. But there is a difference between living a life full of love and opportunity and a life that feels like you’re constantly putting out fires just to get through on your way to put out the next one. Meditation is the most direct way of correcting for these issues. The simple act of paying attention to the nature and contents of your mind can result in profound realizations about the availability of human well-being in each moment, and this at its core is what it means to live an examined life.
Now, how does one begin this practice? What needs to be understood first is that at its simplest form, mindfulness is a practice. This isn’t something that you will acquire by performing activities that seemingly calm your mind such as folding laundry, listening to music, doing yoga, etc. It is in fact a skill that one can attain, and once you get it, you can never really lose it. You merely adjust and tune it as you continue. Mindfulness is the practice of training your mind to notice each moment as it arises as experiences in consciousness. There are similar methods used in many Eastern traditions. The concept of meditation in these traditions is often entangled with religious dogma, but you need not practice something on the claims of faith alone. Although what I have said thus far seems rather simple, I can assure you that it is not. I like to use an analogy that was given to me many years ago. Meditation is akin to training your body. One can be in an objectively horrible state of physical health and train to attain better physical well-being. These transformations may seem impossible from certain points of view, but they are actually possible. Who says the same can’t be said about your mind?
Meditation is a process with a lot more substance to it and this piece of writing simply does not have the space to cover it. Instead, I wrote this to introduce the subject to those who are unfamiliar with it or to help those who have a loose understanding of what it is to meditate to expand on their endeavors. Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you think you are in a position to benefit from this or simply wish to learn more about the practice of mindfulness and meditation and the logic behind it, please feel free to reach out at smewada@conncoll.edu, and we can start a conversation.
Wishing health and happiness to whoever is reading.
