This week kicks off Creighton’s third installment of the Mindfulness Group, a six-week meeting series established to address issues of anxiety and stress on campus.
Two therapists at CU’s Center for Health and Counseling began the program last fall out of their mutual interest for the issue and prior experiences of the many benefits mindfulness has to offer students.
Stephanie Stockham-Ronollo and Rebecka Tompkins work with many students experiencing stress, anxiety and a host of other mental, physical and emotional issues. They observe that students who begin practicing mindfulness often experience encouraging changes in mood and overall health. The women believed that it was time to extend the opportunity to be mindful to the entire student community.
When asked about what prompted the group’s formation, Stockham-Ronollo and Tompkins cited the pervasive stress of daily life:
“Being American is the problem!” Stockham-Ronollo said. “Part of Creighton culture is simply that anxiety is through the roof, and people often don’t have the tools to deal with it.”
She hopes that this group might provide students facing such issues with some of those tools and that mindfulness can equip people to fight back against everyday stressors even before they arise.
“People often come to us when there’s already a problem. What’s nice about mindfulness is that it’s preventative,” Stockham-Ronollo said.
According to Jon Kabat-Zinn, a world-renowned mindfulness pioneer and expert on the topic who specializes in stress-reduction, explained mindfulness as paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment and nonjudgmentally.
Tompkins elaborated, describing mindfulness as “slowing things down, taking a moment, knowing where I am, how I’m feeling and what’s going on with my body.”
The women pointed out the human tendency toward “future orientation,” the idea that we are constantly preoccupied by thoughts of the future, which creates all kinds of added stress in our lives. Mindfulness aims to reduce that stress by allowing its practitioners to refocus themselves on the present moment and to accept it no matter what.
Stockham-Ronollo and Tompkins greatly emphasized this final idea of mindfulness as a “nonjudgmental” examination. The idea is to recognize the current state of the mind, body, etc. for what it is and to move on, rather than dwelling on what may be yet another source of anxiety.
Mindfulness can take many practical forms, including yoga, meditation, visualization, breathing and relaxation practices and mindful eating. The effectiveness of these different approaches varies from person to person, which is why the group is largely centered on individual trial and error. The plan for the meetings is to introduce and briefly discuss certain topics related to mindfulness and then dive right into the experiential side with time for actual practice of mindfulness techniques.
Tompkins expressed her hope that such personal engagement in mindful activities will give students concrete ways to bring what they learn back with them and apply it to better their lives and alleviate stress.
“Hopefully they start to realize that they can manage their stress and gain a sense of control over it,”Tompkins said.
And indeed, research into the potential benefits of a mindful lifestyle aligns with Tompkins’s hope. Mindfulness is a proven and highly effective way to tackle everyday stress. It helps practitioners improve their ability to recognize and subsequently manage their feelings. General results observed by the counselors at the Creighton Center for Health and Counseling in particular include greater self-confidence and contentment, decreased stress and a better overall approach to self-care. Stockham-Ronollo also pointed out the success of mindfulness in alleviating insomnia and helping individuals increase concentration.
With its wide range of potential benefits for any student, Stockham-Ronollo and Tompkins hope that this session of the Mindfulness Group will be the most successful yet, as more and more students seek out a path to a healthier lifestyle. They invite anyone interested to attend group meetings on Wednesday evenings in the Lieben Center, located in the basement of McGloin. They also suggest that students, especially those who cannot make the meetings or are looking for ways to start practicing mindfulness on their own, check out the many links posted on the Center for Health and Counseling website. These can be accessed by following the “Student Counseling,” “Students,” and “Relaxation Resources” tabs, and they include guided meditations, breathing and relaxation exercises, as well as tips for stress management.
These women know firsthand the practical applications and positive outcomes of mindfulness and the simple changes it suggests for mental, emotional and physical health.
“People don’t realize what an impact even just five minutes a day can make,” Stockham-Ronollo said.