MUNCIE, Ind. (NewsLink) – The David Owsley Museum of Art has been working with the Ball State University Counseling Center to produce a program meant to reduce stress among students and community members.
Meditation in the Museum is led by George Wolfe and other members of faculty. Wolfe, a trained meditator and retired Ball State Professor, emphasized the difference between guided meditation and the classes which students typically took part in.
“Rather than taking knowledge and bringing it in, like we do in most classes, we allow ourselves to be receptive to that knowledge which is already in us through meditation,” said Wolfe.
The museum program is meant to increase physical and mental relaxation among its participants, and it aims to do so through a variety of methods beyond meditation.
The University Counseling Center is offering a variety of activities meant to relieve stress over the academic year, including lessons about mindfulness, stress relief and relationships with the self.
Through a series of discussions, guided activities and meditation, the Counseling Center is hoping to combat the increasing levels of stress on college campuses.
The health benefits of this meditation have not been lost on Professor Wolfe.
“If you have a goodnight’s sleep you wake up and you feel better. If you compliment that with meditation, which allows you to have a deeper state of relaxation and greater clarity of mind, then you’ll find great benefits to that,” Wolfe instructed his students.
Meditation in the Museum occurs every Friday of the academic year at 3 p.m. in the Asian Art Gallery of the David Owsley Art Museum.
This Friday the program will be hosting “coloring your stress away” in order to promote stress reduction.
