“When you enter a place of stillness, you awaken the divinity within you.”
– Peggy Sealfon
This past semester, I had the opportunity to teach a freshman seminar called “How to Live a Fulfilling Life” in which students read excerpts from philosophers, poets, essayists, researchers and religious figures. As we learned from readings ranging from ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus to positive psychology and flow researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, humans have been after the same things for centuries: happiness, joy, peace and fulfillment.
Most of my students express stress and anxiety about their demanding workloads and doubt themselves about their choices of a major or career. Toward the end of the term, I asked them to explore two personal practices from a list of options including meditation, tai chi, yoga nidra, shinrin-yoku (Japanese forest walking), journaling and prayer. I thought I’d get push back about this assignment, afraid they would view it as a waste of their time, but they embraced the exercise. “My mind wasn’t being bombarded by the constructions noises of the future I’m building,” wrote one student about his meditation experience. He said he could see how regular meditation can help “shed off the negative coating that covers our positive attitudes.”
Most of my students express stress and anxiety about their demanding workloads and doubt themselves about their choices of a major or career. Toward the end of the term, I asked them to explore two personal practices from a list of options including meditation, tai chi, yoga nidra, shinrin-yoku (Japanese forest walking), journaling and prayer. I thought I’d get push back about this assignment, afraid they would view it as a waste of their time, but they embraced the exercise. “My mind wasn’t being bombarded by the constructions noises of the future I’m building,” wrote one student about his meditation experience. He said he could see how regular meditation can help “shed off the negative coating that covers our positive attitudes.”
How can you shed off the negative coating and awaken the divinity within you?
No comments:
Post a Comment