This past year, as people spend more time at home and in close quarters with family, friends, or roommates, they have been exploring ways to better themselves and their way of life. Meditation and mindfulness are two approaches that have become popular practices for many.
Mindful living is being fully present in the moment, accepting your surroundings, and living without judgement, says Texas A&M University Extension Program Specialist Dr. Sumathi Venkatesh. Dr. Venkatesh helped develop the supplemental material for the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Mindful Living Program.
“The Mindful Living Program and a few other programs that we have developed for Texas A&M AgriLife Extension are based on having healthy relationships,” Vankatesh says. “We have information on parenting and increasing productivity. Some focus on being more digitally aware and focus on learning how to minimize your use of digital products.”
There is a good understanding that mindful living connects to meditation, Vankatesh says.
“It’s not necessary, however; you can still practice mindfulness with or without meditation,” says Vankatesh.“You can journal to incorporate mindfulness; if you’re religious, you can use a prayer; or if you are into the arts, you can use creative work to practice. Meditation is a huge aspect, but you can also practice mindfulness in other ways as well.”
Meditation gives you the opportunity to be more authentic and natural wherever you are, says SKY@TAMU President Rishabh Singla. SKY@TAMU offers the SKY Campus Happiness Retreat where participants develop a daily evidence-based breathwork and meditation practice, gain stress-management and leadership skills, develop strategies for social connection, and engage in peer-driven service initiatives.
“SKY rhythmic breathing leads to meditation easily,” Singla says. “Some people may say meditation is focusing on something, but what I feel meditation is—is totally letting go and being in the moment. I will say, however, concentration, focus, and clarity of the mind are the outcomes of meditation.”
To improve mental health and wellbeing, SKY breathing practice is one of the tools to go deeper in meditation, says Singla.
“A well-ventilated room [and] cleaner surroundings are suggested,” he says. “To go deeper into experience, have a sense of sacredness when you are practicing breathwork and meditation. Don’t feel shy letting your friends, family, or roommates know when you meditate, and request them not to disturb you because this is a person’s time to relax and rejuvenate.”
No matter how busy you are in your life, if you set a time once a day for meditation practices, it allows you to have deeper relationship with yourself and the world around you, Singla says.
“When energy is low in our system, depression, anxiety, and many negative emotions arise in us, so if we learn how to keep our energy high and sustain it, we can effectively reduce these negative emotions,” Singla says.“Here, breathing exercises can become powerful and [the] easiest tool to energize; reduce stress, anxiety, and depression; and boost immunity.”
Linda Didsbury, a local instructor for Heartfulness meditation, says virtual meditation classes have pros and cons.
“One of the cons, of course, is as people are starting to meditate, they found it’s more helpful to have other people that they can see and be with,” Didsbury says. “But if they close their eyes then there’s really just our minds to work with, and so it’s the only con that maybe people new to meditation might struggle with a little more.”
Virtual classes may allow you to not be as easily distracted and have the convenience of giving you space where perhaps you are the most comfortable, says Didsbury.
“Meditation is a skill, and it develops over time,” Didsbury says. “The key to mastering it is repetition, so as we continue a daily practice, we see the benefits."
