It’s a brand new yr and a brand new semester at Auburn College. You’ve obtained a few minutes to spare between lessons, and also you’d wish to spend that point on self-care. However you end up on the concourse, surrounded by meals vehicles, conversations and scooters zipping by.
The place are you able to go to seek out some peace?
The reply is the Zen Den, a devoted room for practising mindfulness and meditation at Auburn’s Scholar Counseling & Psychological Companies (SCPS). Located within the northwest nook of Haley Heart, with a separate ground-floor entrance subsequent to the Auburn Bookstore, SCPS affords extra than simply psychological well being counseling; the Zen Den and the middle’s different assets can be found for any college students who need to enhance their psychological well being.
Scholar Christian Lomack makes use of the Zen Den often to follow mindfulness. (contributed)
Christian Lomack, a junior learning rehabilitation and incapacity research within the School of Schooling, is an enormous fan of the Zen Den.
“I’m a frequent ‘Zen Denner,’” he mentioned. “The Zen Den is a particular place the place folks can discover a few minutes of quiet from the hustle and bustle of faculty life — simply sufficient to make a distinction. It’s very calming.”
Lomack is a member of Energetic Minds, a campus group that provides conferences and occasions to help pupil psychological well being. Among the finest methods to enhance psychological well being is to follow mindfulness — focusing consciousness on the current second and limiting distractions to advertise a way of calm and readability. Mindfulness practices embrace meditation, yoga and biofeedback, and college students can do all three of these on the Zen Den.
“The Zen Den is ready up for quite a lot of makes use of,” mentioned Priscilla Little, SCPS’ workplace supervisor. “We’ve every thing you’ll want to follow yoga, together with a light-weight remedy lamp for treating seasonal affective dysfunction and a therapeutic massage chair. We even have a pc for practising biofeedback.”
The Zen Den at Auburn’s Scholar Counseling & Psychological Companies contains a gentle remedy lamp for treating seasonal affective dysfunction. (contributed)
The pc contains a self-paced program that helps college students enhance their physique’s physiological response to emphasize and anxiousness. This system leads customers by way of a collection of video games that educate them to control respiratory and coronary heart charge with the assistance of audio and visible cues. College students who follow biofeedback often discover it useful.
“Because the biofeedback applications are self-directed, the time a pupil spends on them can fluctuate relying on their wants,” mentioned Joeleen Cooper-Bhatia, a licensed psychologist and the middle’s affiliate director. “College students can use biofeedback on their very own or throughout classes with their assigned therapist.”
Whereas SCPS doesn’t observe precisely what number of college students use biofeedback particularly, Cooper-Bhatia says that when it comes to Zen Den utilization total, 120 college students attended 270 appointments this previous fall.
The nap pod is a specialised capsule the place college students can seize a fast nap or guided meditation. (contributed)
Though it’s useful to make an appointment to make use of the Zen Den, it’s not required, and any pupil who has accomplished a Zen Den orientation session can use the middle’s different assets each weekday from 8 a.m. to five p.m. SCPS additionally has a nap pod, a specialised capsule the place customers can seize a fast nap or guided meditation, and the workers affords loads of workshops and remedy canine occasions open to all college students. Lomack says that as a result of psychological well being is such a precedence, Auburn college students are fortunate to have the Zen Den.
“It’s actually a blessing to have one thing like this out there to get pleasure from at nearly any hour of the day,” Lomack mentioned. “Certain, you are able to do meditation and discover peace anyplace, however having a delegated spot on campus the place you possibly can come any weekday is particular, as a result of not everyone has that.”
Ideas for practising mindfulness on Auburn’s campus
1. Get a therapeutic massage. College students can discover free therapeutic massage chairs on campus on the decrease degree of the Recreation and Wellness Heart and at SCPS (Haley 0326).
2. Take a category. Attend a free “Aware Mondays” class within the Recreation and Wellness Heart’s Thoughts/Physique studio on Mondays at 4:15 p.m. Begins the week of Jan. 13; no group health go required.
3. Stroll a canine. Get Movin’ with Moose is a three-mile stroll round campus with SCPS’s remedy canine on Mondays at 4 p.m. and Thursdays at 8 a.m. Meet on the Aubie statue outdoors the Melton Scholar Heart.
4. Get some cardio. Schedule in some train by registering for lessons like Bollywood dance or barre health by way of the Faculty of Kinesiology. College students from any main can register for these electives by trying to find PHED 1200.
This story initially appeared on Auburn College’s web site.
