Promoting Wellness Through Meditation and Mindfulness
From offering a free workshop to providing a dedicated room on the third-floor of Lovejoy Library, Library and Information Services (LIS) is actively addressing the mental health needs of SIUE students. These efforts are funded by a grant from the Trust for the Meditation Process, a charitable foundation that promotes health and wholeness and brings silence and stillness to a hectic world.
LIS faculty Marlee Graser, metadata librarian and assistant professor, and Juliet Gray, interim assistant dean, interim director of research commons and health sciences librarian, applied for the grant after recognizing two separate groups of library users—international students and students dealing with anxiety and stress—who would benefit from a space for meditation, mindfulness and contemplative prayer.
International Students
A small team of library faculty developed a mixed-methods research study to investigate the needs of SIUE’s international students on campus, their unique experiences and challenges, and how the library might develop new initiatives to enrich the academic lives of this student population.
“One of the themes uncovered in the data was that students of specific religions found it challenging to find a quiet, private space to pray during long study hours in the library, which made balancing their spiritual and academic lives difficult,” Gray said.
Students Dealing with Anxiety and Stress
Recent research indicates troubling trends in the reported anxiety and stress levels of students in higher education. The World Health Organization reported in 2018 that more than one in three college students described symptoms consistent with at least one mental health disorder.
“While the stigma surrounding mental health is decreasing, the utilization rate of counseling resources at SIUE is increasing,” said Courtney Bodie, PhD, director of SIUE Counseling Services. “In fiscal year 2019, our top diagnoses were unspecified and generalized anxiety disorder, unspecified depressive disorder, and unspecified trauma-and-stressor-related disorder.”
Initiatives
According to Gray, the goal of these initiatives is to continue building an infrastructure of support for the ‘whole student’ in LIS and at SIUE by making it easier to implement mindfulness or religious practice in our their busy academic lives.
“Over the next two semesters, we will be collaborating with campus partners and interested students, staff and faculty to offer the Meditation Room for both drop-in and scheduled meditation/mindfulness, contemplation, and inclusive prayer practice sessions,” she said.
Efforts are also being made within the larger University community to support students’ mental health and wellness. Examples include the following:
- Counseling Services has made a dedicated effort to respond to the needs of students by hiring more counseling staff and offering a mindfulness and meditation series for students outside of regular counseling sessions.
- Faculty across campus have developed courses aimed at teaching both the historical context of meditation, as well as embedding the practice into the activities of class. For example, “Mindfulness as the Center of Human Experience: Mind, Body and Society” was taught by Gray, along with faculty in the Departments of Sociology and Teaching and Learning.
- The Office for Accessible Campus Community and Equitable Student Support (ACCESS) is expanding in order to accommodate the growing number of students requiring accommodations.
