Mindfulness turns stress into resilience for college students
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The college years are turbulent times. Young people have so many demands on them; the expectations to perform well, get a job after graduation, and pressure to achieve. They also have the social and societal pressures that come with being in that age group amplified by living in the social media age. It’s an incredible but stressful time.
And even though those years are behind me, I can totally relate. A few years after I graduated from the University of Delaware, I moved to California and made a great number of major life transitions all at once: changed my career, got married, and bought a house. What was I thinking?
All this upheaval resulted in my having panic attacks. The symptoms were such an extreme version of the fight or flight response that I thought I was having a heart attack. This was a rock bottom time in my life where I felt I had no emotional resilience and no capacity to effectively deal with my stress.
Mindfulness to the Rescue
I was finally diagnosed with anxiety and the doctor gave me this advice: “Go to a mindfulness meditation class." So that’s what I did. I took the well-known MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Class), which was an eight-week intensive in mindfulness. It really helped! It got me back into a grounded and stable place. And it was self-empowering to know that I now had the ability to calm down my body and stress response with these practices.
Having a meditation practice had such a profound effect on me that I eventually trained to become a mindfulness meditation teacher.
College, Crisis and COVID
Fast forward to now, as a mindfulness instructor, I have an affinity for today’s young adults and the stress they are under. In addition to the usual college stressors, throw COVID into the mix, and anxiety levels increase exponentially. Extra stress caused by the effects of the pandemic and recent nationwide upheaval and unrest has left many students with high levels of anxiety and emotional exhaustion.
But this is exactly why I got into teaching mindfulness. After what I went through, I knew that I had to use my experience and knowledge to help today’s students. I get to meet with them at a time in their life when they most need to learn mindfulness techniques. In my course on mindfulness, as students dealt with the uncertainties and disruptions caused by the pandemic, their mindfulness practices became fundamental to easing their stress and creating resilience. Having a foundation in mindfulness will serve them throughout their life as they continue to navigate the increasing complexities of our world.
Turning Stress into Resilience
When I work with a person who has so many stressors that they can’t manage, and they start feeling resilient, empowered, happy, and confident, it is hugely gratifying. I always circle back to that miserable time in my life when I felt helpless and hopeless and alone. I’m so glad I can share the things I learned and the action steps I took that got me out of that place and into a more upward spiral. I find the students I work with are very open to it and tend to stick to their mindfulness practices even after they graduate!
“From helping me deal with insecurities to outward frustration, I now have tools that I never knew existed to help me cope with all the stresses that come ahead. The ways this class has helped me in real life cannot be understated. I will be taking these mindful practices with me into the future.”
If you are a college student struggling with anxiety and stress, consider practicing mindfulness. Well-being and resilience are a set of skills you can learn. See these studies conducted by Dr. Sara Lazar on how mindfulness changes the brain. The more you practice, the more you change your brain for the better, growing those neurons that make you more stress-resilient, calmer, happier, focused, and present. And I think that is very, very exciting.
If you’d like to learn more about how I can help you develop the habits of mind to skillfully manage your stressors and live your life with more balance, ease, and joy, please contact me at npmindfulcoach@gmail.com.
Join my Guided Meditation for College Students workshop beginning Sept 30.
