Mindfulness was the key topic of this week’s Racer Life Revolution presentation.

The first session described mindfulness as paying attention to the present moment with acceptance.

During the class the students were taught about being grounded in thoughts of the present. The students learned to become mindful by using new skills.

Some of the skills the session covered included how to approach situations using one’s senses. It also taught students that there are greater ways to focus instead of being worried about the future and the past. Deep breathing exercises were cited as being useful for focusing on the moment.

Another key discussion the group had recognized was on the different states of mind, such as an emotional and reasonable state of mind. It also covered how to combine the two into live mind, which is the mixture of logic and emotion.

“Mindfulness is about awareness and awareness is the key to change, because if we’re not aware of a problem we can’t fix it,” said Allyson Taylor, counselor at Murray State. “The first session we talked about what mindfulness is and about anchoring the mind.”

Taylor said when someone gets caught in a thought stream it is what some people call the ‘monkey mind,’ where their thoughts swing from one tree to the next, and it is important to find a way to anchor their thoughts in the present moment.

“Sometimes we are feeling something we don’t even know what it is, once we are connected to our bodies we can figure out what’s going on,” Taylor said. “By recognizing that thoughts, feelings and experiences are impermanent, that person will find that feeling upset one moment doesn’t mean that later down the road they are going to be upset.”

The second session was about staying emotionally grounded while using lessons from past sessions.

During this session the group practiced coping skills. Some of these skills included labeling emotions, understanding examples of situations which lead to those emotions and whether those behaviors are helpful or unhelpful toward creating a coping skill.

Each week students are equipped with opportunities to better manage their lives.

Story by Brandon Cash, Staff writer