“Wellness is a multidimensional state of being describing the existence of positive health in an individual as exemplified by quality of life and a sense of well-being.” That definition is found on the University of Wyoming’s Wellness Center website, and that is the reason that Lena Newlin is so passionate about her position as a UW faculty member and leader of the Drop-in Meditation class from 12:15 to 12:45 every Thursday in the Zen Den of the Wellness Center.
Newlin has been the assistant director for the Wellness and Campus Recreation in the Wellness Center for the past three years. She has her masters in public health and worked in the alcohol prevention program here at UW for the past ten years. In July of 2015, however, Newlin transferred to Half Acre when the starting plans of the Wellness Center surfaced. She wanted to ability to create healthy activities for the students and public to attend, and has enjoyed being a part of this program for the past three years.
“I don’t have the same day every day,” said Newlin in a recent interview. “I get a ton of variety. I get to work with students on a daily basis and see them develop and evolve in their development as far as them as students and human beings, and that’s really amazing.”
Meditation has been proven to lower blood pressure, reduce anxiety, and curb depression to those individuals who participate and develop a regular habit. The drop-in class in the Wellness Center, great for beginners and experienced meditators, focuses on being in the present moment without distractions to practice remaining cool and collected when life, especially life as a college student, becomes too stressful. This specific meditation class has guided professionals who rotate leading it each week. All of these individuals share the same goal: reduce stress in their peers’ lives.
“It’s a guided meditation,” says Newlin. “We are trying to focus on the present and sometimes all we do is focus on breathing; sometimes we do what’s called a body scan where we focus on different parts of our body. Our minds are very busy and frequently worrying about something in the past or future, and those are two stressful places to be.”
This is not the only wellness class that students or the public can attend, though. The Wellness Center has many classes where people can either drop-in or sign up for in advance online. For example, the Zen Den Relaxation Lounge has relaxing music, sunlight and mechanical foot massages open for everyone to drop-in on from 9 a.m to 5:30 p.m. every Monday through Friday. There are also kitten and puppy play dates scheduled, as well as a Big Sky Mindfulness Workshop. This workshop is a four week meditation class that individuals can sign up for. Participants meet for an hour and twenty minutes once a week and work on different strategies of mindfulness and meditation. This is an evaluation class where the instructors take notes on the individuals in order to help them progress.
The Wellness Center was a multi-million dollar renovation and expansion of Half Acre with the purpose to provide education, services and programs to address the health needs of college students and the Laramie community. Drop-in meditation is only one class offered to fulfill this purpose, and it is one class that Lena Newlin favors in the program as a whole.
