Featured Photo by Shamani Salahuddin
Story by Shamani Salahuddin
Late-night study sessions, overflowing cups of coffee and frazzled students rushing across campus. It must be midterm week.
Professor Denise Shackleford – also known as “Professor Shack”– guided students through “Mid-term Meditations” from Oct. 9 to Oct. 12.
She hoped to give students time to relax, focus and reduce the test anxiety some feel.
The event was located in the Center for Innovative Media (CIM) and hosted by the Recording Industry department, but was open to all students.
She offered three ten-minute meditation practices: gratitude, breathing and body scan, which each presented something different.
Whether they were experienced meditators or never tried it before, she hoped students would simply come in and try it.
“You don’t have to know how. You don’t have to wear certain clothes. You don’t have to sit a certain way. You just have to come in,” Shackleford said.
So, what is meditation? Shackleford first explained what meditation is not.
“It is not the idea of sitting cross-legged for hours at a time and just making some sound or mantra or whatever. That’s not the typical meditation,” said Shackleford. “Meditation is just focusing yourself and being in the present moment.”
Some of the physiological and psychological benefits she shared are:
- Easing anxiety
- Aiding with difficulty sleeping
- Improving heart health
Each session began with an introduction where Shackleford opened a discussion to get to know the students’ experience with meditation.
Two participants shared how they learned to meditate through their sports as athletes, but many had never done it before.
Shackleford instructed students to sit in their chairs with their backs straight, shoulders relaxed and hands lying in their lap. She pulled an imaginary string from the crown of her head to demonstrate the correct posture.
With a soft voice, she welcomed students to close their eyes if they felt comfortable and to begin breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth.
Shackleford began all her morning sessions with the gratitude meditation.
“I always think it’s just important to wake up and realize that there’s so much to be grateful for, even if things aren’t going as you planned,” she said.
She led students to think about what they were grateful for that day, giving examples like a great cup of morning coffee, the beautiful weather and an encouraging person.
“It was actually really peaceful, especially the gratitude one; Just thinking about people I’m grateful for,” said Jordan West, one of Shackleford’s students.
She had a midterm before attending the meditation practice and found it a “nice relaxation” afterward.
Following the gratitude practice, Shackleford guided a breathing meditation using a box breathing technique.
“One of the best anchors for meditation is just breathing. Following your breath as it flows into your body and as it flows back out,” said Shackleford.
In this session, she instructed students to inhale for seven seconds and exhale for seven seconds. She repeated the cycle four times to emulate the sides of a box.
Shackleford invited students from her Entertainment IP and Survey of Recording Industry classes, many of whom never meditated before. So, meditating in a group for the first time – with your peers –could be uncomfortable for many.
When the professor began to speak softly and guide them into the practice, some of the students couldn’t help but smile and laugh.
Carter Elwell, a freshman who has meditated before, said, “It was kind of funny. A little awkward because you’re in a group, and usually I do it by myself, but it was good. I feel centered.”
While meditation is often a quiet activity requiring focus, business in the CIM carried on as usual.
Participants sat peacefully in their chairs organized in a semi-circle with their eyes closed, hearing the ringing click of the door hinge as passersby walked in and out.
But Shackleford expected this.
She said, “You should be able to meditate even when there’s things going on in your environment.” Out in the world, it’s challenging to get to a distraction-free place.
This translates to when students are in class before a midterm begins and want a moment to relax, but things are happening around them.
Most college students know the feeling of getting to a question on a test and thinking, “I’ve never seen this question before in my life. I have no idea what it is talking about.”
“Well, in that moment, if you can just kind of calm yourself by turning inward for just a few seconds, taking a few deep breaths and then reengage with the question,” said Shackleford.
What Shackleford wanted students to take away from these sessions is a tool they could use inside and outside class.
Through meditation, students can learn to notice when their attention moves from the “here-and-now” and “gently bring it back to center,” said Shackleford.
The “Mid-term Meditations” event provided students a space to come and slow down during a busy week and unwind before taking a midterm.
To contact Lifestyles Editor Destiny Mizell, email lifestyles@mtsusidelines.com. For more news, visit www.mtsusidelines.com, or follow us on Facebook at MTSU Sidelines or on X at @MTSUSidelines.
