This is what Lerner looks like right?

By now everyone has heard of the newly required Sexual Respect and Community Citizenship Initiative. But how many have actually completed the requisite seminar, art project, movie screening, or “activity?” Bwog Internal Editor Britt Fossum managed to get a spot and reports back on the effectiveness of the session.

Sick of hearing classmates and friends complain about the Respect workshops they weren’t registering for, I decided to make my life easier and fulfill the requirement as far ahead of the March 13 deadline. The option that fit best into my schedule and seemed the most relevant for me was called a “Mindfulness Group” on Tuesday of this week. The description on the website was simply, ” For students interested in cultivating non-judgmental awareness and being more present for one’s experience,” which appealed to me. I didn’t want to sit through something as passive as a film screening and all the workshops had filled up within the first few days of availability, so this seemed the perfect choice.

The group was held in the Lerner CPS office conference room, and even though I thought I knew my way around I still got lost looking for the right room and was almost late to the 11:00 session. Thankfully I made it on time: a sign on the door said that the room would be locked starting right at 11 although the leader of our session let people in up to the ten minute mark. Attendees sat in chairs arranged in a rough circle around the wall. Most of the people attending the session seemed to be a bit older than college aged–mostly graduate or law students based on the conversations.

Our leader introduced herself as one of the psychiatrists at CPS and that she had chosen to lead several sessions of mindfulness workshops for survivors and those whose lives are effected by sexual violence. She assumed at first that our group was supposed to be made up of survivors as well–the group quickly corrected her saying that the description on the website was open to anyone who wanted to cultivate mindfulness. She was a bit surprised but then said that the meditation we were going to do would be useful for anyone. She asked the room if anyone knew what mindfulness was. Several people called out answers and she came to the conclusion that mindfulness is “intention, acceptance, and completely non-judgmental.” She then asked if anyone had a meditation or yoga practice. Several people, myself included, raised their hands. She smiled and said that we probably already knew what to do but that she was going to guide everyone through a meditation for the rest of the session.

Everyone closed eyes, breathed deeply, and tried not to fidget for the next 45 minutes as we went through the exercise of reciting the mantra “May your life be healthy, may your life be easy, may your life be good” at our imagined younger selves, an image of a mentor, an image of a neutral person (“like the person who gets you your coffee in the morning”), an imagined antagonist (“not your arch-enemy but someone you don’t like”), and finally to all of humankind. The session was restful and energizing and amazingly empowering. As someone who has a meditation practice that has been abandoned recently because of stress, it reminded me of how much I need to slow my brain down and give myself positive feedback instead of all negative all the time.

However, while the session was very helpful for me it was sabotaged a bit by the attitudes of other attendees. Several people admitted early on in response to an inquiry by the leader of the group that the reason they signed up at all was “just to fulfill a requirement.” When the majority of people in a room come in with that kind of attitude, the result is a less welcoming space. The group leader said that “this is a useful tool for everyone” and added that even though the meditation might have had an impact on only a small portion of the Columbia community, we could take our new insight and use it in other interactions during the day. There was visible eye-rolling during this wrap-up segment and I felt kind of bad for the psychiatrist because of how bored people acted. I made sure to make eye contact while thanking her on my way out. I see why most of these smaller group sessions are geared more towards those directly impacted by sexual violence: the general population of Columbia students have their give-a-shitter broken when it comes to these community respect groups. At least when there is eye-rolling during a movie screening it doesn’t stop others from being able to get insight from the movie.