This week in class we focused on mindfulness. In our live zoom the first thing we talked about was mindfulness. We began by discussing everyone’s different views on how they observe mindfulness. Some people talked about how going out into nature and say talking a walk helped them calm down and get grounded while others said just taking a break to breathe. Something interesting I found that someone said was that since it is hard to get out and about since corona, they bring the outside in with plants. Next in class, we observed some meditation of our own. During this meditation, I felt many things. As I focused on my breath and stopped the thoughts from flooding in, my body began to feel almost numb or like I was floating. I then began to try and focus on the colors on the backs of my eyelids. I noticed that when I took a breath in and out, I could see like a flower opening and closing, that helped me stay focused on my breathing and not think of anything else. I have used meditation before, say when I couldn’t sleep or felt anxious or was just purely bored. Meditation is definitely the way I go about mindfulness and I really see that it helps a lot. Mindfulness has been shown to be a great stress reliever and improves work, success, and happiness. The practice of mindfulness allows you to be more self-aware and helps you connect with the outside world. 

My interaction with the learning community this week also really helped shape my view of mindfulness. I heard how many other students practice mindfulness and can now try these for myself. A lot of students talked about how they practice mindfulness a lot when they are doing homework or studying. They said that when they are stressed about homework, they find ways to take a break and calm down. One girl even talked about how her dog realizes when she’s stressed or have been working for too long and bothers her until she takes it out. The dog knows that she needs to get outside and clear her head. 

I feel that mindfulness is a conversation and lesson that we really needed to have this year, so I am glad that we have weaved that into class. We are all stressed out and do not really know what to do in these unprecedented times. I need to realize that I do have time in the day to slow down, take a breath and recenter my focus and become more aware of the work I am doing. I might start trying to get out and maybe just take a walk around the block, clear my mind and take a break. I also think it would be beneficial to start going to an animal shelter or visiting the Pete’s Posse dogs as animals can be huge stress relievers for people. For my five minutes of mindfulness this week, I tried to take it a step further and I did 5 minutes each day. I meditated and found it very helpful.