UWM Students, Staff Take a Break in Day to Practice Meditation

Every Tuesday, a small group of UW-Milwaukee staff, students and faculty get together to practice a half hour of mindfulness and meditation to take a quiet break from the hectic work or school day.

After waking up early and spending hours at work or in class, it can be easy to fall into negative or stressful habits. When people move through days like this, it is important to take a step back and figure out a way to combat these destructive habits and ways of life.

UW-Milwaukee’s Tuesday Mindfulness Meditation Break has been a way to introduce students and staff to the topic of meditation and give them a safe, unobtrusive space to practice it. It also serves as a stress reliever during a busy work day.

“It’s very welcoming to people who are new to the idea of mindfulness,” said Adam Follmer, Clinical Supervisor at the Department of Communications, Sciences and Disorders at UWM.

Follmer is still a beginner with meditation and has been trying to implement it into his everyday life. He has been attending the mindfulness meditation break weekly.

Meditation and mindfulness is spreading throughout UWM and many other college campuses throughout the country. Mindfulness is defined as the human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us, according to Mindful.org. It is often used as a form of therapy, or to help handle challenging situations that come up day to day.

During each session, participants are introduced to a mindfulness topic, and then follow along with a 15-minute guided meditation. There are two 15-minute meditations per session. After the meditation, the participants are able to ask questions or express opinions about the session.

Some of the topics discussed include using mindfulness to cope with different negative emotions and situations, and using simple, mindful thinking to improve our everyday lives. An email is sent out to participators in advance to show what kind of topics will be the focus of that Tuesday’s meeting.

“I like the way [meditation] changes my perspective about how I feel about certain aspects of my life,” said Follmer. “It encourages me to think, not so much about what’s coming or what happened, but being aware of how I feel right now.”

The sessions are organized by Paul Dupont, Counseling Director with Counseling and Consultation Services at Norris Health Center. He is also the Co-chair of the Chancellor’s Advising Committee on Mental Health, which is the committee that started the weekly event.

When thinking of different ways to implement meditation into the lives of people at UWM, the committee asked students what they would think about having a set day to hold a mindfulness session.

“Students said they would be more than likely come to this setting as opposed to counseling,” said Dupont, “and I see it as a helpful tool within the mental health community.”

The event is held every Tuesday during the 2018 spring semester, from 12:15 to 12:30pm in Union Room 179. It is a free event and anyone can join. Depending on personal schedules and the topics being discussed, anywhere from five to 15 people on average come to participate, according to Dupont. That is more than double the amount of participants the average meeting had last semester.

“We try to get the information out in whatever way we can,” said Dupont. “There’s still a lot of people that don’t know about it though.”

Other than the Tuesday Meditation Break, UWM offers meditation and wellness classes to students for credit including Introduction to Meditation and Wellness, The Art of Sitting Still, and classes that demonstrate mindful behavior such as Mindful Eating.

If classes for credit are not an option for you, University Recreation offers free mind and body classes that focus on yoga practice with introductory meditation.

Students and staff can find the free mind and body classes here: http://uwm.edu/urec/fitness/mind-and-body/

“A couple of academic departments are looking at doing [meditation] with their students to see how the students react to that and collect some data on that,” said Dupont. “It’s seen as a pretty effective way of helping people deal with difficult situations.”

Mindfulness Meditation has been proven to reduce stress and anxiety, increase focus and memory, and calm reactive emotions in adults, according to research done by the American Psychological Association.

Many other studies have shown increased academic performance in students as a direct result of practicing mindfulness and meditation. Taking just a half hour out of a work or school day could improve mood and help boost grades and focus in class.