Counseling and Wellness Services
Monday’s Minutes of Mindfulness and Meditations
Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years. Today meditation is commonly used for engaging in a state of relaxation and relief from stress. Meditation allows us to focus our attention and take a step away from the stressors we are facing and the thoughts bouncing around our heads. It helps us to bring about a calm and peaceful state of mind that can benefit our emotional well-being and overall health.
“Jon Kabat-Zinn, a leader in the field of mindfulness, has described mindfulness as ‘paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment and nonjudgmentally.’
This means consciously paying attention to our senses and to our feelings, without further judgement. For example, mindfulness could be practiced by focusing on the sensation of water rushing over your hands as it falls from a faucet, or by feeling and accepting sadness without trying to push it away or to evaluate it.
Research has linked mindfulness meditation with reduced anxiety, more positive emotions and, with enough practice, permanent structural changes in the brain that sustain these benefits. Before beginning, know that meditation is a skill that requires practice. In the beginning it might seem as if unwanted thoughts constantly intrude your mind and the serenity associated with meditation might be brief. With time your ability to meditate and to control your focus will improve.” (therapistaid.com)
Every Monday throughout the semester, Counseling and Wellness Services will be offering virtual guided meditations, available in Student Announcements. The meditations are provided by The Honest Guys channel on YouTube. To learn more about The Honest Guys and their guided meditations, visualizations and guided sleep talk-downs, visit their website here.
We hope you enjoy Monday’s Minutes of Meditation as a way to relax and engage in a positive coping skill throughout the semester.
Deep Relaxation: The Cleansing Wind (22 minutes)
An extremely powerful deep relaxation guided meditation for cleansing, energizing, purifying, and healing. This guided meditation may be used as an exercise to clear away negativity and all mental and physical stress. It has a chime to signal the end of the meditation.
Stress-relief Guided Meditation (8 minutes)
This short guided meditation will help you to relax and relieve stress for just those few minutes and will end with a soft chime. It can be done whenever you have time.
Counseling and Wellness Services and the Dwight Marvin Library are pleased to offer an e-book, “The Mindful Twenty-Something: Life Skills to Handle Stress and Everything Else” by Holly B. Rogers, MD. A special thank you to Stephanie Ross, faculty librarian, for purchasing and sharing this wonderful resource with the campus community!
Click on this link to access The Mindful 20-Something: Life Skills to Handle Stress and Everything Else.
Wishing you a calm, relaxed and peaceful start to your week!
Counseling and Wellness Services
Siek Campus Center, Suite 270
(518) 629-7320
counseling@hvcc.edu
Published: Mon, 03 May 2021 11:25:57 +0000 by k.weeks