Dr. Irene Wise at Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at Sonoma State University is holding a mindfulness workshop entitled: “The Struggle is Real, So How Do We Deal.” This workshop provides an opportunity for students to learn and experience mindfulness and self-compassion practices when dealing with intense or difficult emotions. It also gives students the tool to navigate challenging relationships and softening the hard critic inside students’ heads. The event will consist of six independent modules ranging from activities such as methods to calm down, meditations, and journaling exercises. 

There are six weeks starting Tues. at 11 a.m. from Oct. 13 to Nov 17. The weeks each have a corresponding theme ranging from a different personal issue that students may be facing during this pandemic. 

Some of these modules include Week 1’s Mindfulness: A Foundational Coping Skill (10/13/2020),  Week 2’s Loving-Kindness: Care for Ourselves and Others (10/20/2020), or Week 6’s, Navigate Challenging Relationships with Self-Compassion  (11/17/2020). 

Wise said, “Research has shown that practicing mindfulness and self-compassion has many benefits, including alleviation of symptoms of depression and anxiety, reduced perceived stress, and enhanced wellbeing. With a worldwide pandemic, taking remote classes, navigating relationships during social distancing orders, and social unrest, students have a lot to feel stressed over.” 

She believes that this was the perfect workshop to give students a better understanding of themselves in the current state of the world. The worldwide pandemic of COVID-19 has continued to increase in the state of California in the last seven days with 21,113 cases according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention date tracker for COVID-19. For now, the pandemic is raging on and the students at Sonoma State have dealt with multiple traumatic events since stepping on campus for the fall semester of 2020 including: the fires, the toxic air quality from the fires, and the pandemic. This workshop will be beneficial to learning methods to support the mental health of students so that they are able to finish out the semester strong and skills they will use for the rest of their lives. 

Shannon Clemons, a third year student said, “I have used the services at CAPS before and love how accommodating they are. I am ecstatic that they are holding this workshop over Zoom for me to access at home.”

Wise and CAPS at Sonoma State hope that “by attending one or more of these workshops, students will learn and experience helpful practices to help them deal with these difficult times. I hope that students who attend will feel more empowered, grounded, and excited to learn about themselves.” 

Asking a couple of students if they will attend the event, Kobe Manguil, a third-year student said, “The workshop seems extremely beneficial to me. I love that they included activities such as journaling because I love to write and learning how I can use to benefit me and my mental health is a plus.” 

CAPS at Sonoma State University is creating this workshop in hopes of giving guidance to students online because it cannot be in person. They are also offering several opportunities for students to learn more about mindfulness including a weekly drop-in group on Fridays at 1 p.m.