Guest, Cassandra Justine, came to the Saint Xavier University campus on five different days to host a community healing series called Mindfulness Meditation + Sound and Journey.
Her events took place on Thursday, March 28, Wednesday, April 3, Monday, April 8, and Friday, April 12. The last one is on Wednesday, April 24, at 7 through 8 p.m. in the Smith-Morris Quad/Patio. If it rains it, will be in the Butler Reception Room.
Cassandra Justine began each of her sessions by providing a handout about how to incorporate mindfulness into a person’s everyday life, a discussion on mindfulness practices to deal with stress, and the utilization of the calming sounds of quartz crystal singing bowls, Himalayan singing bowls, the Chao gong and Koshi chimes.
The participants were invited come as the were, to sit or lay down for the sound journey, and the sessions were open to all SXU students, staff, and faculty.
In order to break the ice between the participants Justine handed around a metal bowl for people to hold and hit with a special tool and then introduce themselves and share something they like to do to unwind and relax.
She then went into describing what mindfulness, meditation, plus sound journey does to the body and went over the classes course overview.
Justine described mindfulness as a lifestyle, meditation as a tool, and emphasised that healing is a personal path.
Life is overbearing at times which leads to stress, which can lead people to have symptoms of anxiety and depression.
She talked about how people need activities that help them to relax, slow down, and see things more clearly.
This course is used to help people experience mindfulness meditation and a sound journey through the utilization of the calming sounds of quartz crystal singing bowls, Himalayan singing bowls, the Chao gong and Koshi chimes.
Through meditation and sound therapy the parasympathetic nervous systems are activated. This triggers a person’s rest and digest response, which allows people the receive the rest their minds and bodies need.
A safe space was held for participants to share the stresses in their everyday lives. Justine then taught the participants how to incorporate the six ways of mindfulness into their everyday lives.
The six ways to incorporate mindfulness into everyday life are self love comes first, a simple meditation, set intentions, the present is a gift, mental habitat, and rest and digest.
She then discussed how the benefits of sound therapy include stress reduction, anxiety relief, mental and emotional clarity, soothing muscle aches and arthritis, activation of the parasympathetic nervous system, normalization of blood pressure, improved sleep, and increased creativity.
When interviewed after the session ended, Justine said, “I am very energetic being. I have so much energy and so my mom got me into yoga when I was five years old.”
She then discussed how she played numerous sports and danced as a child. In high school they had yoga Friday and after high school she really missed it.
When asked how she decided that she would teach yoga as a career, Justine said, “I ended up going on the college campus to a yoga class and I remember laying there in shavasana and I was like ‘This is like incredible and that was so profound, I really want to teach this.’ That was at eighteen that I decided I was going to become a yoga educator.”.
Many students came together to this event on all of the different days to clear their minds and find healthy ways to deal with the stresses of daily life.
To find out more information on meditation, mindfulness, and sound journey go to Cassandra Justine’s website at www.cassandrajustine.com.
Kylee Rus
News Editor