{"id":76848,"date":"2017-06-02T10:36:17","date_gmt":"2017-06-02T08:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/?p=71703\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:49","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:49","slug":"how-mindfulness-is-helping-this-student-to-confront-her-deepest-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2017\/06\/02\/how-mindfulness-is-helping-this-student-to-confront-her-deepest-thoughts\/","title":{"rendered":"Mindfulness meditation is helping this student confront her biggest fears"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mindfulness student Jia Li takes a moment to relax.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAnna Mazur<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like torture,\u201d said Jia Li. <\/em><\/p>\n

The word \u2018torture\u2019 may not commonly find itself within a conversation about mindfulness meditation, but the two are not mutually exclusive. After all, mindfulness is all about maintaining a moment-to-moment awareness of one\u2019s bodily sensations, feelings, and thoughts. And sometimes, the thoughts of a person can be rather dark.<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018The aim of mindfulness is not to get rid of difficult emotions and feelings, but rather, to help you relate differently to those emotions\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Clouded by periodic bouts of sadness and stress, Strategic Management student Jia Li was in search of a way to cope. She recognized within herself an ineptitude to deal with her darker internal sentiments, turning rather to more negative coping methods like stress eating or distraction via social media. After learning that the Erasmus University was offering its first course in mindfulness meditation taught in English, Li decided to give it a chance.<\/p>\n

Awareness is Key\r\n<\/h3>

In a typical session of mindfulness training, student psychologist Sachlan Apil eases his class of a dozen students into the practice by instructing them to recognize the various thoughts that surface in their mind and then retract their focus back to their breath. This process is repeated over and over again as a way to establish awareness of the mind\u2019s wandering tendencies. Once aware, the mind becomes better equipped to confront a sole issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hoping to, I guess you could say, find my inner-peace through mindfulness,\u201d said Li. \u201cBut later on I found out it\u2019s not about finding inner-peace or calming yourself down. It\u2019s more about awareness, understanding why you feel the way you do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe aim of mindfulness is not to get rid of difficult emotions and feelings, but rather, to help you relate differently to those emotions,\u201d Apil told EM. \u201cStudents tell me that they don\u2019t want to feel depressive symptoms or feelings of anxiety, but these emotions are very important because they tell us a lot about how we see things in our world. With mindfulness, you can approach these emotions differently so that you don\u2019t struggle with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The body-mind connection<\/h3>
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Sitting up or lying down, Mindfulness can be practiced in any position.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAnna Mazur<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

Legs crossed, hands facing upwards resting on the sides of the knee caps. This is the sitting position so commonly associated with mindfulness, yet this isn\u2019t the only way it can be practiced. In one of Li\u2019s favorite exercises, the body scan, she lays down and centers her focus on a particular body part, like the big left toe. Then she shifts her focus up to her shins, then to her knees, and upward throughout the whole body, connecting her mind with the sensations felt in the body.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust by doing the body scan, I feel like I\u2019m shutting off my autopilot,\u201d Li said. \u201cI emerge relaxed from it. I can think clearly about everything I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attention to negativity
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Though exercises like the body scan have led Li to moments of bliss, others have brought her frantic anxiety. In one of more advanced exercises practiced during the late stages of the course, Apil has his students focus intensely on their current thoughts and feelings whether they be cheerful or painful. For Li, it was the latter. She explained that such exercises were by no means easy, which could be the reason why half of the students had dropped out before the eighth and final session of the course.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like torture,\u201d Li said of the exercise. \u201cEverybody in the room could feel how angry I was. The thing is, normally when I have negative thoughts I avoid them and focus on something else. Now I\u2019m starting to come face to face with my biggest fears, learning to embrace them in one way, and coming to peace with them in another.\u201d<\/p>\n

The present<\/h3>

Part of what mindfulness attempts to do is bring awareness to self-induced stress. Us humans spend the better half of our days trying to find solutions to different issues, and according to Apil, we\u2019re so good at this that we try to apply our problem-solving abilities to things in the future or the past that we have no control over, which creates unneeded stress.<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018I\u2019ve become more rational and objective towards my feelings, and that helps me a lot.\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

With mindfulness, you can direct your ability to solve issues to the present moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I just feel stressed or a bit sad without knowing the reason why,\u201d said Li. \u201cThrough mindfulness, I\u2019ve learned to focus on the underlying thoughts to uncover what\u2019s bothering me. I\u2019ve become more rational and objective towards my feelings, and that helps me a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Erasmus mindfulness course may have come to a close in April, but Li is still using it in her everyday life. As for students who want to learn the practice, an eye should be kept on SIN-online for messages about the next round of mindfulness.<\/p>\n\n\t

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De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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