Fourth Estate/Tiffany Boggs

Ask the Mind

BY TIFFANY BOGGS, STAFF WRITER 

There’s no doubt that college can be one of the most overwhelming times for students because they have personal lives happening outside of the classrooms too. 

“The stress of not having friends near you or family that’s beside you to help, you’re here solely by yourself…it’s hard being by yourself and I feel when students get into the mindset that they are alone that’s where the negativity starts to prosper,” said Azriele Harris, Well-being Program Coordinator of Center for the Advancement of Well-being. 

For young adults, leaving for college for the first time is where they are on their own discovering themselves, but eventually, the anxiety begins to have its toll on the mindset. 

Working a job, doing homework, studying, and even family are aspects of life that we juggle day to day. 

College students need to realize the impact negativity has on their well-being, might that be “Through personal, familial or academic sources, we get lost in the negativity that occurs and not see the positivity within us and that we can overcome obstacles” said Harris.  

Sometimes we just need to take a step back from workloads to help ease ourselves. No matter what life happens, and we are going to stumble and fall, we can get back up and be the better version of what we can be, Harris indicated. In Student Union Building One,  Mason students are welcomed into Room 3332 to unwind for twenty minutes and recharge back to their day.        

Mindfulness Mason Moments is an organization by the Center for the Advancement of Well-being offered Monday through Friday, online as well as in-person meetings. Students, faculty, and staff join into mindful moments for a session of self-connect.

Yajie Mu, Program Operations Coordinator Office of International Enrollment Partnerships, says she joins to work on her mental health because she tends to get wrapped up in worrying about what she wants to do with her life and wants to build a habit taking the day to work on taking care of herself. 

Lisa O’Hara, Manager of International Enrollment Partnerships, has been coming to the mindful moments to destress and believes meditating is good spiritually and physiologically in one’s life. 

There are a wide variety of practices offered in the well-being center and the mindful moments are just one of the practices of the Center for the Advancement of Well-being. 

Though mediation and mindfulness are not the center piece of the organization, it’s a strategy people use to contribute to their well-being, according to Katie Clare, Associate Director for Resilience Programs University Life.

“It’s really difficult to have a high level of well-being without having a high level of self-awareness for it to be meaningful,” said Clare. If someone is not self-aware then it’s going to be difficult to know what sorts of things are going to benefit their well-being, what’s going take care of their well-being, and what are going to be obstacles, she explained.

Lastly, Clare’s life lesson on well-being: “Well-being is a practice, to take care of your well-being you need to have practices that are going to support that. Aligning yourself with individuals with similar goals and values that also feel well-being is an important thing to take care of in their life, then it’s going to be easier to stick to those practices for yourself.”