LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A big part of one’s health is happiness and peace, though it can be hard to maintain these things when life gets busy.
Through the UAMS Mindfulness Program, people can learn to meditate from the comfort of their own homes.
Program Director Feliciano Yu said that while mindfulness, living in the present, and dealing with life's struggles can be hard for so many, meditation can help.
“The classes allow you to have a good, strong foundation for this lifetime of opportunity,” Yu explained.
The UAMS Mindfulness Program will offer online courses to the public during May and June that teach skills for meditation and mindfulness.
Three courses are being offered this spring, lasting four weeks, with one 75-minute class each week.
“Many of our offerings are online, but now we're also offering in-person like a hybrid opportunity,” Yu said.
At the minimum, mindfulness and meditation are a practice. Yu said that the result of that practice is the reward.
“It's a way to help modify our emotions, being able to find a way to restore homeostasis in your nervous system,” Yu explained. “So when there's challenging things that you encounter in life, you have a way to adjust and put things in a bigger perspective.’
The work is done with certified teachers through the Koru mindfulness app. While the Koru meditation courses are a part of the UAMS mindfulness program, participants will only need to pay $3.99 for access.
“Financing should not be the barrier for getting into this,” Yu said.
Yu added that these mindfulness skills can help people fully experience life in the moment with kindness and without judgment.
“Cultivate this inner peace and they also found that happiness is something that I can actually find inside and not just outside of me,” Yu described.
To learn more about UAMS's Mindfulness course, click here.
Dates for the one meditation courses are listed below:
May 16 – June 6 (Tuesdays) from 5:30 p.m. - 6:45 p.m. with Ellis Widner.
May 17 – June 7 (Wednesdays) from 6:00 p.m. - 7:15 p.m. with Shedelle Davis.
June 13 – July 6 (Tuesdays) from 5:30 p.m. - 6:45 p.m. with Shedelle Davis.
The May 17th course will be the UAMS Mindfulness Program’s first Koru Mindfulness Basic Course for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.
The curriculum is the same four-week 75-minute curriculum as the Koru Mindfulness Basic Course.