Madison College’s employee health and wellness program has launched mindfulness practice groups in three college locations this semester. The group meetings are free and open to anyone who would like to attend.

Mindfulness meditation is the practice of bringing awareness to the experience of the present moment and away from past or future worry. During meditation, thoughts are not judged but acknowledged and released.

These meditative techniques are no new fad.  They have been practiced for thousands of years in the East, particularly in Buddhist and Hindu traditions. They are now becoming increasingly popular in the West.

Doctors throughout the country are urging their patients to experiment with these techniques to reduce anxiety, pain, stress, depression and high cholesterol. The U.S. Marine Corps learn mindful meditation techniques
“to keep the mind in the present” and battle stress.

The most successful corporate elite agree on the benefits that mindfulness meditation has brought to their lives. Oprah Winfrey is an avid advocate for meditation, claiming to sit in stillness for 20 minutes twice daily.

After attending a meditation in Iowa Oprah said, “I walked away feeling fuller than when I’d come in. Full of hope, a sense of contentment, and deep joy. Knowing for sure that even in the daily craziness that bombards us from every direction, there is, still, the constancy of stillness. Only from that space can you create your best work and your best life.”

Researchers are studying the scientific validity of these claims and are yielding surprising results. At Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Harvard-affiliated researchers found that an average of 27 minutes per day of mindfulness meditation was linked to positive changes in the subjects’ gray matter density in the brain.

Gray matter density was found to be increased in the hippocampus, the region associated with memory, emotion and learning, and reduced in the amygdala, the region responsible for fear and aggression.

In the words of the paper’s first author and research fellow at MGH and Giessen University in Germany, Britta Hölzel says, “It is fascinating to see the brain’s plasticity and that, by practicing meditation, we can play an active role in changing the brain and can increase our well-being and quality of life.”

No experience is required to begin meditating. Chairs and cushions are provided at the free practice groups. Just bring yourself.

If you chose a guided session, an instructor will lead the group through vocal cues. Once seated or reclined in a comfortable position, practioners are asked to draw their awareness to the breath and to the connecting points of their body to the ground. Rather than turning away from pain or discomfort, meditation asks for gentle awareness
of sensations whether they feel “good” or “bad.”

After a guided meditation practice on Feb. 16, participants were asked to reflect on the experience.

“It was very relaxing.” said one
meditator. The benefits of meditation include a calmer state of mind and the physical relaxation that follows.

It has been practiced for over a millennia. Doctors prescribe it, our military teaches it, and the world’s elite advocates it.

Check out Madison College’s first weekly-organized mindfulness practices, and get in touch with your full potential and campus community.