Stressed out students will be glad to hear there’s a way to free the mind just by breathing.
Starting Jan. 23, the University Health Center will offer a six-week meditation course for any interested students.
“Stress is the number one health concern for students in the University, and meditation is a really good self-care technique for stress,” said Jude Kehoe, a health center nurse who will conduct the course.

The University offers two Meditation I classes this term, but the health center class costs a fraction of the regular classes’ $57 fee. Students can register for the new class for $12.
In the hour-long class, Kehoe will teach students meditation techniques that the students will practice while seated in a circle of chairs. She will also lead the class in a short session of Qigong, a Chinese practice involving breathing patterns intended to awaken the senses, and some easy yoga stretches “just to keep us awake halfway through the class.”
Kehoe, who has taught meditation classes in the community since 1999, said regular meditation – even if it’s only for 30 seconds to one minute a few times a day – will keep stress at bay and “teach your mind to relax quickly.”
The method of meditation Kehoe teaches is mindfulness, which one practices by “sitting and focusing on your breath – and if your mind wanders, gently bringing it back to your breath.”
Dai Tetsu Hull at the Great Vow Zen Monastery in Clatskanie, Ore., said meditating helps people physically and mentally because “it allows the body to rest, and it allows people to deal with situations that come forward.”
Meditation won’t just curb stress, though; it may also change the way people think. In a 2005 study, researchers at Harvard University, Yale University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found the first evidence that people who meditate grow bigger brains than those who don’t.
“When we looked at the brain structure, certain regions of the brain were actually thicker in people who meditate,” said Sarah Lazar, leader of the study and an instructor at Harvard Medical School.
Brain scans from the study revealed that meditators’ brains were especially thick in parts of the brain dealing with attention and processing sensory input. That means that students who meditate may find it easier to pay attention in long afternoon classes.
Lazar said in another study she conducted more recently, she found that people who meditate recover more quickly from stressful situations. A new study she hasn’t yet released showed that meditation can relieve depression and insomnia.
The key to meditation, Lazar said, is consistency.
“It can be as little as five minutes a day or 20 minutes three or four times a week,” she said. “It’s like physical exercise – if you practice it more, you get more benefit.”
Even a few minutes of meditation every day was beneficial for some who suffered from depression, insomnia and stress.
“It’s about observing yourself without responding to yourself,” said Kehoe. “It’s not analyzing what you’re thinking, not judging what you’re thinking.”
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