About Wellbeing at UMass RecWell
Mindfulness is a powerful tool to help you stay calm, focused, and on track for academic success. Benefits of mindfulness include:
- Feeling more calm, happy, and relaxed
- Reduced anxiety and depression
- Improved concentration, focus, and academic performance
- Better sleep
- Stronger immune system
You can get started practicing mindfulness with a free four-session workshop or with UMass Meditates, featuring on-demand contemplative sessions. Try some mindfulness practices on your own using mindfulness apps or online resources.
Other campus resources to check out include mind-body and yoga classes and meditation groups.
Wellbeing Courses
CLAW offers two innovative, for-credit courses designed to empower you with tools for building and sustaining your own wellbeing.
Vipassana Meditation Center (VMC)
The Vipassana Meditation Center (VMC) of Shelburne, MA offers twice-monthly, 10-day residential, silent meditation retreat courses, including food and lodging, at no charge on a voluntary generosity basis. VMC, in partnership with UMass Amherst, reserves retreat spaces for UMass students, faculty, and staff to bypass the normal waiting list. Identify yourself as a UMass student, staff, or faculty member in the application. Applicants identifying as socially underrepresented are also given preference.
Choosing to spend even a few minutes to slow down and contemplate may benefit your health in many ways. Perhaps this is between classes, during lunchtime, or whenever a free moment opens up.
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is the practice of intentionally focusing on the present moment – to thoughts, physical sensations, and the environment with an attitude of kindness and compassion to our-selves and others.
Mindfulness is now being examined scientifically and has been found to be a key element in happiness.