Mindful Practices

On Wednesday October 11th, English Professor Karolyn Kinane will be hosting “Quiet the Mind; Embody the Moment Workshop.” Professor Kinane seeks to help students learn how to reduce stress and develop a sense of purpose.

This one hour workshop will be held in the Center of Transformation, located in Lamson Library 003, right next to the Writing Center, from 3pm to 4pm. It is open to any student who wishes to participate. Lunch will be served at the event after an hour of learning what mindfulness is, what it can be used for, and running through some mindfulness practices.

Professor Kinane hopes to not only teach students about mindfulness practice but to also give them experience through some mindfulness and meditation exercises so they may learn and feel how to reduce stress on their minds.

This is the first time a workshop like this has been offered to students, and it is all part of a larger project that Professor Kinane and the Center of Transformation staff have been working on for the past year. This event and ones like it also tie into some General Education courses offered to students around campus.

In fact when questioned on it, Professor Kinane claims students from four directions came together through the cluster program and discussed ideas for events like this. “Quiet the Mind; Embody the Moment Workshop” also ties in with the Center of Transformations theme this year; Find Your Why.

Professor Kinane will not be the only one working on the workshop. There was also mention of some students from the Contemplative Action, Purposeful Expression (CAPE) group coming to help in the meditation exercises for the event. Among the not yet finalized list was Joseph Scala, Grace Brookes and Clay Harbert. The later of whom is interested specifically in mindfulness for law enforcement.

As mentioned above, this entire workshop and CAPE are part of a larger community on the PSU campus through the clusters program that was launched last year. Professor Kinane informed us of Contemplative Communities, comprised of students, faculty and staff seeking to engage their community in, “Purposeful living to reduce suffering and increase joy through use of contemplative practices.”

Jessica Dutille, Center of Transformation staff, who has been working closely with Professor Kinane, had this to say about the workshop, “I reached out to Dr. Kinane about this workshop with the goal of exposing students to contemplative practices and ways of being and moving through the world. My hope is that as a campus community we honor both individual uniqueness, as well as our interconnected nature. I believe that contemplative practices help us embody our humanity by quieting the mind and bringing our attention into the present moment.”

Kinane and Dutille expressed great respect to their counterpart, truly embracing the attitude they wish to breed among their community. It’s clear to see how PSU has fostered great minds to come together in an organized attempt to build each other up. Dutille wished for her gratitude towards Professor Kinane to be expressed in this article, saying, “She is an incredibly bright light on campus, and I truly appreciate her work!”

The underlying goal of this event and others like it within the clusters program is to breed better communication and understanding among students who can then bring what they’ve learned into the greater local or global communities. For more information on Contemplative Communities or the clusters program, visit: www.collegecontemplative.wordpress.com. For more information on the series of workshops that the Center for Transformation is hosting, visit: www.campus.plymouth.edu/center-for-transformation/.