Alon Coret / Student Health Education Centre
The other day, I attended a yoga class for the first time in my life. I made this decision for a few reasons: a personal challenge for myself (escaping my comfort zone), the fact that my mother keeps telling me about how much she enjoys it, and curiosity. I had no idea what I was going into, but I can definitely say it was a worthwhile experience. This was essentially my first workout in months. Yes, a workout indeed. The class I went to was Dahn yoga, a Korean form of yoga that focuses on energizing the body. Dahn yoga sees the body as composition of chakras, or energy centers. The various stretching exercises are meant to tap into our bodies’ potential and strengthen our core (dahn jon).
We started by standing around in a circle and doing basic stretches and breathing exercises. Gradually, things became more intense. I found myself having to do sets of pushups and abdominal bicycle crunches. Embarrassingly enough, the lady beside me was doing everything far better than I was, even though she could easily be my grandmother. “I have been doing this for months,” she said. The class continued for an hour and a half, going through a series of stretches and moves for every muscle in the body. At the end, we all lied down in the “Sleeping Tiger” position, which is far less comfortable than it sounds (Suffering Tiger, I thought to myself). Marek, our instructor, told us to internalize our negative thoughts and self-judgement as we were doing this exercise. He then let us relax for a few minutes, and I nearly fell asleep from getting too comfortable.
Overall, I was not too surprised by the physical exercises – except that they were more difficult than anticipated. What I was surprised by was the immense focus on mental and spiritual well-being. Marek was smiling, and had a positive attitude for the duration of the session. He constantly reinforced the importance of happy, constructive thoughts and in making everyone feel like a part of something greater than themselves. He laughed with members of the class, complimented them and corrected their positions. He made us greet the people standing beside us both at the start and finish of the session with “Ban-gap seum-ni-da” (nice to meet you), and “Chun ha haseyo” (be the fulfillment of your soul). (I claim no expertise in Korean, so I apologize if my transliterations and translations are incorrect.)
One poster I noticed in the studio was called “Map of Consciousness.” It shows a ranking of different levels of consciousness, or brain energies, measured in LUX. I am not certain about the science behind the theory, but the main point is this: it takes far less effort to think negative thoughts, and have emotions of guilt, shame, and regret. Reaching happiness, peace, and joy is a higher level of consciousness we should (and can) all strive for. “Love yourself, and respect yourself,” said Marek. “Then you will be able to receive love and enjoy life.” This may not sound like anything new, but it is a life lesson we seldom keep in mind.
I would like to conclude with a verse from another poster I saw in the studio, called “Prayer for Peace.” This poetic prayer was written by Ilchi Lee, the originator of Dahn Yoga, and was read at the United Nations’ 2000 Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders.
“I offer this prayer of peace, with all my fellow earth people; For a lasting peace on earth”.
By: Amanda Watkins and Jamie Hillman
Whether it’s excessive stress and anxiety from school, a crush on your best friend, or personal insecurities, everyone has a secret.
In response to this reality, the Student Wellness Centre has developed the “MacSecret” program. Based on the online phenomenon “PostSecret,” the initiative is going into its third year.
The program is designed around the sharing of personal secrets via hand-written postcards revealing anonymous concerns or insecurities. As outlined on the MacSecret posters, the goal of the program is to “raise awareness about the many challenges students face, and to provide an outlet to share these concerns openly, yet anonymously.”
“Having the anonymity is helpful when dealing with things that are more challenging to address,” explained Pearl Mendonca, a Wellness Education Coordinator at the Student Wellness Centre.
By offering MacSecret as an outlet of expression, students are able to open up about issues and ideas that they may not otherwise be comfortable sharing. In an effort to create a safe and comfortable environment, the Student Wellness Centre strives to offer services that cater to a variety of concerns, such as stress and life issues, mental health, relationships, academic concerns and identity struggles.
In discussing the values of the MacSecret project, Khadeeja Sheikh, a Mental Health Team Leader, expressed the rewards of the program. “The fact that students can share [these secrets], helps relieve stress…We were surprised at how sincere the secrets were and [how the program] allowed them to write something really private.”
MacSecret has 10 locations around campus that provide blank postcards for students to fill out and boxes where they can be submitted. Currently, boxes are situated in Mills, Innis and Thode libraries, DBAC, SHEC, the north and west quad Residence Service Desks, the Student Success Centre, Student Accessibility Services and the SWC.
The coordinators find it interesting that “Depending on where the boxes are, the secrets are often geared towards those locations and who uses them,” said Melissa Fernandes, Wellness Education Assistant. For instance, the boxes in libraries often housed academic concerns, whereas boxes in residences usually held secrets about relationship struggles and identity crises.
The program was first run in the 2010-11 school year by the SWC. Despite the fact that the boxes and postcards were available for the entire school year, the program only received around 150 postcards.
This year, the coordinators are looking to change that and have more students submit messages about their concerns, fears and personal thoughts, as it is an effective way of expressing pent up emotions and stress-inducing secrets.
The boxes have been available since Nov. 1 and will be up and running until the end of the month. Already in this month alone, the SWC has gathered around 60 postcards and are hoping to increase that amount exponentially as the month nears its end.
Once the cards have been gathered, the coordinators will be posting scanned secrets online via the SWC’s Facebook page, and will be putting them up on their bulletin boards.
Similar to the initiative of PostSecret creator, Frank Warren, the Student Wellness Centre hopes that by displaying the secrets, students will be able to relate and connect to one or more of the secrets and help them understand that they are not alone in their struggle.
The organization also hopes to use the web, much like Warren, to make the postcards and ideas more accessible. The initial PostSecret website, www.postsecret.com, was developed in 2005 as “an ongoing community art project,” according to its webpage. But within two years, the site received over 2,500 postcards and became far bigger than initially anticipated. The site grew into a web-based community that allowed anonymous strangers to post secrets from all around the world without feeling judgment or alienation.
Initially, a comment section was enabled to allow viewers to connect to one another, but it was eventually removed as it defaced the original judgment-free mandate.
And even though many secrets are hard-hitting and stress-inducing, some deal with more trivial matters. As stated at his March 2012 presentation at Western University, Frank Warren revealed that the most common secret he receives is admitting to peeing in the shower.
The representatives from the SWC explained that many of the secrets they receive are usually related to mental health and academic concerns, but the project welcomes postcard messages of all natures.
So drop off your secret, and help yourself while helping others.
Dina Fanara
Assistant News Editor
November has been labeled ‘Stress Month’ by the newly formed Advocacy department of the McMaster Students Union (MSU).
Through the month, the Advocacy Street Team will be holding table days every Tuesday on the first floor of the student centre, where students can come to get tips and free swag to help them de-stress.
The headline events for Advocacy Stress Week are the de-stress rooms, which will be run each Wednesday for the rest of the month by the Advocacy Street Team.
At these events, students are welcome to drop in at any time to participate in the activities and pick up some swag, courtesy of Advocacy and their partners in organizing and running these events.
Some of the groups signed up to present or lead activities at these sessions are Moksha Yoga, organized through the Student Health Education Centre (SHEC), student lobby groups, the MSU Promotions and Advertising Committee and Diversity Services, as well as several motivational speakers, brought in by the club Motivation for McMaster.
The Advocacy department is new addition this year. It works as an informational and promotional tool that connects the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA), the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) and the MSU as a whole.
In addition to Advocacy Stress Month, Advocacy runs the OUSA Blue Chair campaign and promotion of MSU presidential elections in the second term.
“November [was chosen to be Stress Month] because it’s the time when students are realizing how busy school is and are hit by the big wave of midterms, essays and assignments,” said Shivani Persad, Advocacy Coordinator.
The kickoff session held on Nov. 16 gave students the opportunity to listen to and interact with motivational speaker Pamela Tracz
Tracz focused her discussion on the promotion of a healthy lifestyle, leaving those in attendance with this final message: being a student is the time of your life, and too many students are too busy stressing to fully appreciate it.
The thought provoking message explained that if you take proper care of yourself, you will be able to more thoroughly enjoy what is happening in the world around you.
An instructor from Moksha Yoga was also present to give an introductory yoga lesson to all in attendance, with focus on relaxation and self-awareness.
As Advocacy Stress Month is the largest event to be organized by Advocacy thus far, much pressure lies on the success of event to promote Advocacy and its sub-sections to as many students as possible.
This is the second year that the Stress Week program has run at McMaster. Alicia Ali, MSU VP (Education) and last year’s OUSA Coordinator for McMaster, launched the program last year with Chris Martin, former MSU VP (Education).
This year, Advocacy aims to de-stress students through these planned events primarily in terms of their educational concerns.
This can be achieved through activities that will allow them to take stress off other aspects of life, help them find the proper tools to be productive in all they do and get the most out of their time here at McMaster.
