A Monday evening of mindfulness and meditation led by SKY Happiness and Miss Black and Gold Court.
Chinmaya Devaraj, the president of the SKY Club at UMD and an electrical and computer engineering doctoral candidate, and Chenna Amazu, a member of the Iota Zeta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., practice a breathing technique during the Peace of Mind workshop. (Victoria Daniels/Black Explosion)
Breath is an answer to our stress-related problems.
This answer echoed during the Peace of Mind mental health workshop held on Oct. 14 by Miss Black and Gold Court of the Iota Zeta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. in conjunction with SKY Happiness, a world-wide organization dedicated to mindfulness and stress-reducing techniques.
The intimate conversation-based workshop was the kickoff for Women’s Appreciation Week and served as a chance for students to “take a breath and really focus on mental health,” said Claire Asenso, the reigning Miss Gold.
“You’re not you when you’re stressed out,” said Chris Steer, a current employee for SKY Happiness and former member of the Iota Zeta Chapter, referencing the infamous Snickers commercial as he talked to attendees about the effects of stress in their lives.
Drinking, lack of sleep and smoking were among the negative ways students have seen people handle stress, yet that isn’t the worst part. Steer informed students that “people only share what they have,” saying that people who are stressed out tend to bring negative energy to situations in their environment, often affecting those around them.
Thankfully, breath is a free tool that can be used to alleviate stress, anger, and sadness. Steer described the importance of breath by saying it’s the first thing we did upon entering the world, and it is the last thing we will do before leaving.
Victory breath is a technique that can be used to bring the attention back to the present moment stopping the mind from racing between past and future.
Students were instructed to sit up straight, remove items from their hands and place a hand in front of their face, blowing their breath as if they were trying to fog a mirror. After they understood the force and noise to use when breathing, Steer demonstrated how to close the mouth and make the same sound from the back of the throat.
The sound is important as it is connected to a nerve in the back of the throat which is connected to a larger nervous system that is responsible for slowing down the heart rate and sending more oxygen through the body.
Steer says doing 10 victory breaths before bed is ideal and that most people fall asleep before finishing all 10.
Students were also led through a meditation session by Chinmaya Devaraj, the president of SKY Happiness at UMD and an electrical and computer engineering doctoral candidate. Devaraj instructed students to close their eyes and focus on breathing while paying attention to the location of their thoughts.
“When you’re silent, you can act,” said Devaraj, as he attributed his success in the doctoral program to meditation and mindfulness.
SKY Happiness wants to extend the same peacefulness to the rest of the campus. They will host a retreat in STAMP from Nov. 21-24, a space that Devaraj describes will “give yourself the gift of a peaceful mind.”
SKY Club’s current focus is to get funding from the student government association, the graduate office of diversity and inclusion and other outside funding sources in order to bring more workshops and mindfulness to the campus as course prices typically range in the hundreds.
Although it is the week before midterms and the workshop wrapped up around 8:30 p.m for students to get home and begin assignments, Steer added an extra assignment to their agendas.
It wasn’t complex and did not require much thought. He simply reminded students to smile and laugh throughout the day as it is the quickest way to turn a negative situation around.