Day 5: Mindful Walking and Sand Mandals

Day 5 of our Getting Grounded by Training the Brain course, like every other day of the course thus far, was productive, insightful, and exciting!

Eleanor meditating on her yoga mat

Like every other day of this A-term course, we meditated. We engaged in a 20-minute meditation which was difficult for the majority of us, not only for its length but because it asked us to focus on hindrances. We as a group found that this was something our minds didn't always want to focus on since they in a way are negative and we like to avoid thinking about the negatives in our lives sometimes. While difficult at times, Friday's meditation was personally one of the best for me because I came out of it feeling very relaxed. 

Practicing restorative yoga poses


On Friday, we also practiced some restorative yoga! Many of us were feeling sore from the previous days of our yoga practice, so instead of continuing with poses such as downward dog and cobra, we took more relaxed poses such as supported fish. Supported fish pose was definitely a favorite for the class because it helped to open up our backs and relax our shoulders, I highly recommend it to anyone struggling with back pain or even just needs a good stretch.

Eleanor and Kenzie creating sand mandalas

We later practiced creating sand mandalas which was both incredibly fun and incredibly stressful! As a class, we watched a video together explaining the origin of sand mandalas, it showed how beautiful and intuit they could be but also how easily they could be destroyed. The entire process, both the creation and destruction of the sand mandala is so beautiful. 

Students practicing mindful walking


Our last and final activity of the day was mindful walking. It was honestly so difficult because we had to both walk slowly and recognize how we were walking which caused us at times to lose our balance and feel unsteady. For me, I had so much difficulty focusing on how I was walking but towards the end I found myself to really be enjoying this type of meditation. I felt that unlike some of the other meditations it allowed me to not only better connect with myself but to also better connect with nature

Overall day 5 of our A-term was great and thoroughly enjoyed!

Blog written by Emily, photos by Tyler

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