Meditation Classes Should be Offered to Students, Faculty at MU
Emma Buuck
Meditation classes should be offered for free at Manchester University to promote better mental health and give students a way to practice mindfulness. You might have seen on television of an old man sitting Indian style on the floor and saying “om.” While this is the essence of what meditation is, it doesn’t give a full representation of how it calms the mind.
There are multiple ways to meditate, but the most common one is by focusing on your breathing. By sitting still and slowly breathing, the heart rate goes down, the body relaxes, and the mind avoids distractions such as school, work, social life, and it promotes mental peace.
Studies have shown that meditation benefits those with stress, anxiety, depression, and many more mental disorders. With homework, midterms, and COVID, students are facing more stress than in the past school years. Therefore, meditation practices should be offered at Manchester University.
MU is known for promoting mental health by providing counseling services, hotlines, and seminars, but why not take it a step further this school year by providing meditation classes. The classes can be online, with an instructor to walk everyone through their meditation, and can be recorded for students that can’t make it to the class. This could be as simple as setting up a zoom meeting with an instructor and sharing the link. This would be a place for students to be away from school, work, and other stressors, and allow them to be calm and relaxed.
According to multiple students, they would participate in the class if offered. Heather Binion said, “If it was free, and I could access it whenever I want, I would definitely use it whenever I felt like I needed to calm down.” With these classes taking place, students would be able to relieve stress while also practicing safe mental health habits. “I feel like school is taking its toll on everybody, not just students, and we need a way to burn off stress other than just talking about it” Ryan Nastav explained.
This program can be offered to all Manchester University students, faculty, and staff and accommodate COVID-19 restrictions by being online and recorded. This way, everybody can be happy and calm amidst all the stress and chaos and achieve their goals in a healthy and relaxing way.