Primal screams, yoga, journaling among mindfulness techniques being taught across district

Late last spring, a group of Collin College students and employees stood at the south end of the Plano Campus and screamed for about a minute. Typically drowned out by monthly tornado siren testing by the city of Plano, the screams were loud enough for a homeowner nearby to poke her head out and see what was happening.  

Siren testing had been canceled that day, but sometimes screaming helps, and that was the point. 

The screaming event was the second offered as a mindfulness exercise by Josh Arduengo, a Psychology professor at the Plano Campus. He explained at the event that a primal scream is a way to release emotional energy in a physical way. 

“What you really want to do is focus on your body,” Arduengo told the group. “Sometimes I have way too much negative energy, and I can feel it in my body somewhere. Some of you wear your anxiety here [pointing to his abdomen]. I carry my anxiety in my hands and my feet. 

“The key is, ‘How do I feel now?,’ ‘How do I feel during?,’ and ‘How do I feel after?’ Notice that there is a significant shift in emotion.” 

And judging by the looks on the participants’ faces, he was right. 

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The Mindfulness Committee of Collin College is planning several events this year to open people up to self-reflection as a path to self-improvement. In addition to the return of Aduengo’s “Scream-Fests” at the Plano Campus at noon on the first Wednesday of every month, the committee will offer events at campuses throughout the district focusing on mindful breathing, yoga, pranayama breathing techniques, mindful journaling, and HeartMath®. Upcoming events are listed on Cougar Connect and a Canvas course is available at  https://collin.instructure.com/enroll/AGADYP.

“Mindfulness is a useful skill to cultivate because you will be better able to understand, respond to, and manage your constantly changing emotions,” Arduengo said. “Emotions will not control you as much as they did before you cultivated mindfulness.”

Dr. Khimen Cooper, an English professor at the Plano Campus and member of the Mindfulness Committee, said that mindfulness is like “returning to the self” and learning to tune out the outside noise – work emails, family errands, cellphone alerts, the newest streaming shows, or whatever form the noise takes.

“That is the goal of mindfulness for me, but the journey to that awareness is different depending on my situation and need,” she said, using examples like relaxation through purposeful breathing, enjoying good music or a cup of tea, and physical activity like yoga as routes to centering herself. "Sometimes, just closing my eyes, taking a deep breath, and exhaling all the noise away is the perfect act of mindfulness. In the end, I'm just taking precious moments to check in with the self that is always present underneath the many layers of life that constantly clamor for my attention and energy and making the space to remember that I am still there."

Dr. Jennifer Matranga, a professor of Nursing at the McKinney Campus, said the college has come a long way when it comes to an understanding of mindfulness. 

"It's not about setting up a battery-powered candle in a corner of your room, and then you are done," she said. "I think that now people understand that you try to bring it to every moment of your day." 

She said it benefits not only the people performing mindfulness practices but can also affect others around them. 

“If a student comes to me very upset, rather than taking that anxiety on myself, I can help them calm down by being calm myself,” she said. 

Dr. Matranga leads head-to-toe relaxations before tests in her classrooms and hopes to expand those relaxation techniques with more public sessions as the semester continues. 

Dr. J.D. Isip, also an English professor and committee member, prefers mindful journaling. He says gratitude is one of the easiest and most popular mindful journaling prompts. At the start or end of your day, or both, you grab your journal and write down five or ten things you are thankful for. 

"Mindful journaling is intentional. It's not magical thinking, but being focus," Dr. Isip said. "You want to refocus your mind on what is working because our default is to focus on what is not working. If you think of students – always worried about grades, balance, home life, finances, making friends, losing friends, becoming full-blown adults – you can see how just doing this can really be helpful."

In addition to regularly scheduled events throughout the semester, the Mindfulness Committee will welcome author Asha Nayaswami as a distinguished speaker on Oct. 20, from 6-7:30 p.m., at the Collin Higher Education Center. Her talk, "Hope for a Better World: The Map for the Journey," will explore living fearlessly in a world programmed to induce stress and anxiety and using personal challenges to achieve personal growth.