FROM YOGA MATS TO SMARTPHONE APPS

Eastern philosophies gain traction in a 2020 world

Story by Justin Vuong Illustrations by Bobby Ramirez

Lights o , incense burns and silence concluded that mindfulness-based therapy permeates the classroom. Several is e ective a er examining 209 studies. students sit comfortably with eyes “When we’re not being mindful, our closed and legs crossed on seat cushions in daily life is lled with a mind that’s always Multi-Use Building classroom 230, where rehashing the past, which is o en where the City College of San Francisco Mindful- depression comes from, or rehearsing the ness Meditation Club meets. future, which is o en where anxiety comes e students were in the middle of a from,” Marino says. meditation, a respite from stressful student Mindfulness trains the mind to be at ease. life that can cause overwhelming mental “When someone’s a butthole to you, mindchatter. “A lot of times we suppress, push fulness allows us to catch ourselves in the down or avoid it,” says City College alum- moment and respond instead of react,” says

“When we’re not being mindful, our daily life is flled with a mind that’s always rehashing the past, which is ofen where depression comes from, or rehearsing the future, which is ofen where anxiety comes from.” — Joani Marinof

nus Liam Azulay who founded the club in 2017. He wanted a safe place for students to learn about the practice of mindfulness.

Mindfulness is awareness. Becoming aware of that mental chatter can help a person to reduce stress and understand themselves better.

Meditation is one way to practice mindfulness. “It is about getting to know your mind and yourself, revealing who you are and how you want to be in the world,” says City College Health Education Department Instructor Joani Marino .

In addition to helping with stress, mindfulness is e ective for reducing anxiety and depression according to research published in the Clinical Psychology Review, which City College Employment and Training Specialist Arya Zarrinkelk, who meditates using a combination of breathing exercises and hand gestures called mudras.

It sounds very tranquil, but meditation is not always about having a peaceful experience. “If your mind is going crazy and you feel like you’re going to jump out of your skin, that’s not a bad meditation. Mindfulness is just learning how to be with what is — pleasant or unpleasant — and learning to roll with it. Like riding the waves of our experience,” Marino says.

A common impediment to practicing mindfulness is starting. In a society that promotes achievement, the rushed urry of day-to-day tasks leaves little space for students to sit still. “Western cultures are so conditioned to be results-oriented that we think if we’re not crushing a meditation session, we are doing it wrong when in reality it’s changing your life,” Zarrinkelk says.

It’s easy. “As long as you can breathe, you can do it,” Azulay says. He suggests a safe and quiet place or headphones.

Gently focus attention on the breath and notice its various qualities. Where in the body do you feel the breath? Notice the rising and falling of the chest. Is the breath long or short? Shallow or deep? ese are common prompts in the Headspace meditation app.

Azulay notices how mindfulness has helped his peers. Students would come up

to him and share how much more attuned Calm were created as avenues to improve individualistic approach serves to produce they were in the classroom a er practicing productivity, decrease stress and help better “capitalist drones,” a far cry from trawith him. with negative emotions like anxiety and ditional teachings. “All of that helped popu e City College Mindfulness Club depression. larize it, so that’s not a bad thing. Everyone kicked o it’s fourth year on Oct. 19. has to start somewhere,” she says. Members now meet online through Zoom e secular meditation boom, true to due to COVID-19. Buddhist tradition, was born out of e bene ts of meditation come compassion and benevolence. “I gradually with time and con- think a lot of the secular sistency. “Just like with mindfulness teachers anything, if it’s math are trying to make it or going to the gym, accessible because once a week doesn’t it’s something that really do justice really bene tfor the practice,” ed them,” says Azulay says. Buddhist med-

Meditation itation teachis a prac- er Scott tice that Tusa, who dates back teaches about 2,500 internayears to the tionally Buddha and was in ancient ordained India. Fast by His forward to Holiness today’s world the 14th of Youtube Dalai and quick- Lama. xes, and there “It’s great is an abundance that it’s so of secular mind- secularized fulness resources to and out in the get started with. world everywhere.

Marino recommends Healthcare institubeing selective. “People take tions use it, schools use it a weekend mindfulness-train- — it’s huge in K-12. It’s in the ing workshop and then think business world, the military, and they’re quali ed to teach it.” sports,” Marino says. Neatly commodi ed and sold as emo- A Zen practitioner with a PhD in molectional-regulation and productivity-enhanc- ular biology, John Kabat-Zinn developed ing techniques, many of today’s mindful- Kaiser Permanente provides members the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, ness resources are estranged from their free access to the Calm app, and the San MBSR, course at the University of deeper spiritual roots. Mateo Public Library o ers free six-month Massachusetts Medical Center in 1979. is

“It’s kind of a joke eight-week course is now. ere’s mindful- now taught at many ness everything,” says “White America needed it to be packaged in a academic institutions Dr. Vickie Chang, a psychologist with over certain way for it to be palatable.” across the country including University a decade of training in mindfulness med— Dr. Vickie Chang of California San Francisco. itation and mindful- Indeed, the ness-based stress reduction. “It has become Calm subscriptions on its website to Western world may not have adopted meda capitalist endeavor. ey’re teaching it at anyone with a library card. itation if it was perceived as a religious Google and Facebook,” Chang adds. Although not against secular teach- Buddhist practice. “White America needed

Meditation apps like Headspace and ings, Chang feels that their Western it to be packaged

in a certain way for it to be palatable,” Chang says.

“Trying to convert everyone to Buddhism is a pretty strange proposition as opposed to just saying ‘Hey! Come sit for 20 minutes and do this breathing practice called mindfulness,’” Tusa says.

But this secularized version, stripped of its spirituality, can be seen as appropriation. “I think of mindfulness as a Western colonized version of a basic human practice of awareness,” Chang says.

Spiritual mindfulness practices have a larger emphasis on the collective than secular practices do. “Buddhism is rooted in the understanding of interdependence,” Chang says. “You might write, somebody else might make music — whatever way you want to be serving the collective, that is the purpose of practice.” “ at’s very di erent from, ‘Let me make my mood better and feel calm so I can make more money,’” Chang adds. “Secular meditation, generally, is for emotional regulation … at’s super useful, but Buddhism doesn’t stop there. We generate the bodhicitta, a mind re ecting on altruism, compassion and loving kindness, so that the practice might have an interconnected e ect with others,” Tusa says.

However, the di erence between secular and spiritual mindfulness is not so black and white. “It’s more nuanced than that because there’s not one secular approach and there’s not one Buddhist approach,” Tusa says.

“When someone’s a buthole to you, mindfulness allows us to catch ourselves in the moment and respond instead of react.” — Arya Zarrinkelk

Actually, the secular and spiritual paths are connected. Tusa believes that once mindfulness has been fully realized, the spiritual elements of mindfulness become more apparent. People may nd both the Buddhist path and useful coping tools in mindfulness.

Gently opening their eyes, the City College Mindfulness Club students gradually return to their surroundings and re ect on their med- itation. It doesn’t matter if any- thing was solved. What matters is they practiced being aware and present. It all starts with clos- ing the eyes and taking a breath.