Jan Term Course Cultivates the Power of Awareness

With a worldwide pandemic, a new variant, a climate crisis, and the highest rates of anxiety and depression in teens yet, there is no doubt students have been stressed and overwhelmed. However, one of Saint Mary’s Jan Term classes, Cultivating Power of Awareness, created room for students to decompress, reflect, and focus on relaxing the mind. The course emphasized that, while we cannot control everything that happens externally, we can control how we react to life’s obstacles, and how we speak to ourselves. 

This course revolved around meditation and practices that help students disconnect from the worries of the outside world and reconnect with themselves and their body. Through yoga, Qigong, body scans, and meditation walks around the Lafayette Reservoir, the class took advantage of the resources of nature to find peace in the present moment.

Professor Jo Ann Heydenfeldt taught the class Qigong, a routine for stress, anxiety, and energy that greatly improves one’s mental and physical health. Integrating movement, posture, and breathing techniques into their focused intent, students did this healing practice by the Lafayette Reservoir every Friday. On Mondays, students brought their yoga mats to the gym and followed a grounding practice led by yoga instructor Nancy Anderson. Everyday throughout the week, Professor Heydenfeldt led the class through a guided meditation, easing the mind and calming the body. 

“I hope that through this structured practice, students have achieved inner awareness enough to experience, even for a short time, the calm well-being and goodwill toward self and others that a disciplined mind allows,” Heydenfeldt said. “Amidst an ever-changing and sometimes chaotic world,  I hope they will also retain the learned skills so that they can choose to return to this practice when need be until calm clarity is their resting state.” 

One of the students, junior Arissa Vallejo, said, “The class allowed me the time to realize the importance of pausing in life. Lately, I have been taking the time to breathe and focus on how I approach the different situations that may arise.”