Finding Calm in Times of COVID-19
Daily virtual meditation opened up to Trent community to provide moments of mindfulness in times of unprecedented global pandemic
For people feeling extra anxiety creeping up these days as communities around the world grapple with COVID-19, it is important to know that they are not alone. And members of the Trent community will be finding support to find balance, as they adapt to social distancing and virtual work and learning environments, through a daily guided mediation.
Pamela Rudolph is a mindfulness and meditation specialist who typically leads a weekly, drop-in class on Thursdays at the Trent Athletics Centre. With a dispersed campus community, Ms. Rudolph is now taking her classes online. Now, Trent students, faculty, staff, and their supporters, with a daily guided meditation to de-stress and bring mindfulness.
“With mindfulness, you can catch yourself and think, ‘in this moment, I am okay,’” explains Ms. Rudolph. “Mindfulness means paying attention, purposefully and non-judgmentally, to your experience in the present moment. It has a powerful effect on your brain, balancing your biochemistry and improving self-regulation, moods, sleep, as well as enhancing memory and cognitive function.”
Each session will begin with a 15 minute overview on the basics of meditation, followed by a 20 minute guided meditation. Following the session, Ms. Rudolph is holding “virtual office hours”, which will include sometime for group discussion. These secular, science-based sessions are grounded in Ms. Rudolph’s therapeutic background with a focus on neuroscience. Meditation can strengthen interpersonal relations and enhance one’s ability to learn.
In reflecting on the importance of mindfulness in challenging times, Ms. Rudolph notes, “When you have all this extra time alone, it’s easy to ruminate. Meditation teaches us to let go of that and work with negative thoughts and how we react to stress. We learn new patterns of responding and that’s where we begin to see transformation.”
These sessions will begin to take place daily on Zoom Meetings at 10:30 a.m. starting March 25. All members of the Trent community are invited to participate.