The KGSA would like to invite you to a new initiative for grad students called "Mindfulness Mondays". The purpose of this initiative is to provide space and time in our busy schedules early in the week to engage in the practice of mindfulness and mindfulness meditation. The format of the Mindfulness Mondays initiative is very open ended, in the hopes of respecting peoples' privacy and willingness to participate in person. Every Monday between 9am - 10am, we invite people wanting to actively participate in this initiative to gather in the reading room on the third floor of BMH (BMH 3035). This time can be used to engage in discussion of mindfulness but mainly to give those interested time and space to practice. We invite you to feel free to drop in for all or part of this time, whenever you feel compelled.
Mental health can suffer in our modern day to day lives due to the constant stresses of deadlines, projects, while striving to maintain a work / life balance. Yet, we rarely take time to address how we are dealing with these stresses and therefore are unable to thrive. Mindfulness practice is a valuable tool for those looking for ways to manage these stresses and interrupt the cycle of an unsatisfied mind. Should you not want to practice mindfulness publicly, you can still take advantage of this tool through the provided resources (below).
For those who do not want to participate in person but would like to receive more information and resources along the way please contact Robert Hicks (rahicks@uwaterloo.ca) to be put on a blinded mailing list for updates. There will also be regular updates here, on the KGSA website, as well as the Kin Graduate Student Community Group page on learn.
For those interested, we would like to provide you with a few resources to get started on learning about and practicing mindfulness and mindfulness meditation:
Completely free app - Smiling Mind
https://www.smilingmind.com.au/mindfulness
Freemium/Subscription app - Calm
Article by Dr. Norman Farb – UoT explaining mindfulness
https://www.fairobserver.com/culture/mindfulness-and-pursuit-happiness/
If you have any questions about this initiative, please feel free to reach out to any KGSA representative for more information!