College is a unique time where people must balance academics, work, extracurriculars and everything in between. The fast-paced nature of college life is enough to make anyone feel overwhelmed, and many college students have reported struggling with burn out, depression and anxiety. One way some Vols have tried to combat this has been by turning to the methods of mindfulness and meditation — cultivating a more relaxed, focused life.
Meditation and exercising mindfulness is largely rooted in South and East Asian religions that have been in practice for several thousands of years. However, this way of living has steadily grown in popularity across the world and throughout all demographics, including having its impact on the student population at the University of Tennessee.
From mindfulness sessions held at the TREC, to course study on its history and the Meditation and Mindfulness Club for students, Rocky Top is feeling the good vibrations, following the uptick in meditative habits – striving to not just clear one’s head but to understand what is going on within it.
Megan Bryson, associate professor and associate head in religious studies, regularly teaches a course called “Mindfulness.” Professors Andria Yates in psychology and David Patterson (now emeritus) in social work have also offered courses that deal with mindfulness.
Bryson’s course explores the history of mindfulness in Buddhist meditation practices and its gradual transformation from the 19thto 21stcenturies as Buddhism spread throughout the world.
“We consider different facets of mindfulness in the United States, including medicalization, commodification, corporatization and political engagement,” Bryson said.
The class also gives students the opportunity and freedom to deeply explore specific mindfulness traditions and different forms of secular and religious practices — a sentiment that is unique to her particular focus in religious studies. Bryson has seen first hand the way mindfulness has been able to relate to her students’ lives and careers.
“One student, who is now in physical therapy school, developed a program for incorporating mindfulness into physical therapy,” Bryson said. “Another student developed a mindfulness-based art curriculum for elementary school students. Other students completed three-week mindfulness programs to decide if it was something they wanted to continue.”
Bryson has seen the popularity of the tradition and religious practice increase, a trend she presumes to be related to the uncertain state of society at the moment.
“I think recent stresses such as the pandemic, economic uncertainty – especially for young people – and climate change, (as well as) less recent stresses, such as systemic oppression, have encouraged people to seek new ways of coping,” Bryson said. “Many forms of mindfulness are fairly accessible and don’t have to cost anything, making it an appealing practice.”
One group of students at UT have found peace in working toward mindfulness as a part of a community.
Meredith Froehlich, a senior studying psychology, currently serves as president of the Mindfulness and Meditation Club. A member of the club since her freshman year, her journey in meditation began in high school after reading a book on mindfulness when a therapist introduced her to some techniques.
A club meeting typically begins with a check-in period, a moment of reflection to review how their day, week and even every moment is going. Then, they will introduce the meditation for the week, giving a description and instruction.
Then comes the meditation. For roughly 15-20 minutes, students will practice what they have learned, and afterwards they will reflect on how the meditation felt — any thoughts or emotions that arose.
“I found it helped me understand my anxiety and my mind and cope better with the symptoms I faced due to my anxiety,” Froehlich said. “It also improved my overall view of the world, and I found myself … noticing nature and its beauty.”
However, despite adopting the practices of cultures long preceding them, in the Meditation and Mindfulness Club, the roots of their practices are never forgotten.
“Our club has a firm stance in always appreciating culture, and not appropriating,” Froehlich said. “We make sure we acknowledge where meditations and mindfulness practices originate… We incorporate these roots by always discussing the origins of each meditation we teach, where the specific religions, traditions and cultures of these meditations started.”
Bryson explained the history of how these practices began to spread, and its gradual Westernization, considering the way that it has been stripped from previous cultural and religious context, adapted to fit Western, secular interests.
She has seen this carried out by Western practitioners in several ways, including by claiming that Buddhism isn’t really religious, but philosophical, or by claiming that meditation is the core Buddhist practice and mindfulness the core form of meditation.
“This isn’t a problem in and of itself — the history of Buddhism is a history of cultural adaptation — but I think it becomes a problem when Western mindfulness practitioners look down on other kinds of Buddhist practice or claim the sole right to define Buddhism,” Bryson said.
Bryson’s advice for students interested in trying meditation is to understand that there are a lot of ways to meditate, and that sometimes it’s best to seek help along the way.
“For students with PTSD or other mental health issues, I would also recommend working with a therapist or other healthcare professional to develop a meditation program rather than trying to figure it all out on their own,” Bryson said. “We often associate meditation and mindfulness with calmness, but being alone with one’s thoughts can also be quite intense.”
