Wellness Council Hosts First-Ever Meditation Class

Students gathered in the third floor gymnastics room for the Stuyvesant Wellness Council’s first meditation class on Thursday, March 10 with Dr. Param Kulkarni. Dr. Param guided students through two meditation techniques, transcendental meditation and mantra recitation.

Dr. Param has worked with renowned institutions such as PerceptiMed, Inc., University of Houston, and the College of Optometry. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at NYU Langone Health, where he conducts applied research in machine learning, deep learning, neuroscience, signal/image processing, and software development, and teaches at Columbia University. Dr. Param also hosts meditation classes at local community centers in his free time.

Guidance Counselor Undine Guthrie introduced Dr. Param to the Wellness Council. Guthrie, who meditates often, believes that meditation has an important place in schools like Stuyvesant. “[Meditation is] one of the avenues or one of the tools that students can use to empower themselves and to kind of relax, give the mind a break,” Guthrie said. Wellness Council Event Coordinator Adam Oubaita was instrumental to making sure the meditation seminar ran smoothly, from arranging the meeting with and reserving a room for Dr. Param, to publicizing the event via Facebook and e-mail, to reaching out for student feedback and scheduling future seminars with Dr. Param.

The goal of the meditation class was to educate the student body on how to manage stress by learning relaxation techniques. The two main techniques that Dr. Param taught were transcendental meditation and Hare Krishna. Transcendental meditation involves the relaxation of the entire body to focus on breathing, whereas Hare Krishna is a sanskrit mantra, meant to be chanted repeatedly during meditation to promote consciousness and inner thoughts. “Both types of techniques have been found effective in relieving stress on small-scale studies.” Param said. The Wellness Council received largely positive student feedback and plans to continue hosting meditation sessions with Dr. Param every Thursday.

Students began by taking off their shoes, sitting in a comfortable position with their palms on their thighs and the soles of their feet touching the floor, and closing their eyes. They listened to Dr. Param’s voice as he directed them through relaxing every muscle in their bodies, from the bottom of their toes to each leg to their torsos, abdomen, chest, shoulders, neck, and head. Dr. Param then guided students through deep breathing, which involves breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth in counts of four, with a longer exhale than inhale. Both progressive muscle relaxation and guided breathing activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which reduces anxiety and promotes calmness. Dr. Param also encouraged students to pay attention to their surroundings by simply focusing on what they could hear.

In the latter half of the seminar, Dr. Param taught students how to meditate by reciting the Hare Krishna mantra to improve their focus. Each student received a piece of paper with the 16-word mantra, which read: “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna / Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama / Rama Rama Hare Hare.” Initially, students recited the mantra by reading off of the paper. When they memorized the mantra, some students closed their eyes while reciting with the rest of the group. At the conclusion of the session, Dr. Param invited the students to attend his next meditation seminar in the following week.

After attending the session, participants learned about using the meditation techniques as a coping mechanism for stress and anxiety. “[The session] helped dispel some of my misconceptions about [meditation]. I thought it’d be just sitting silently not saying anything, but it’s about specifics on what your conscience focuses and how one can control it,” senior Nathaniel Belysion said. Through Dr. Param’s detailed instruction on how to moderate the body and to focus one’s mental flow, students like Belysion had the opportunity to explore physiological self-regulation as an access point to mental relaxation. Besides relieving stress, meditation also decreases metabolism, lowers blood pressure, and improves heart rate, breathing, and brain waves.

Students attended the program for various reasons. “I was interested in learning more about meditation, especially from a neuroscientist,” junior Jocelyn Tang said. “I felt that it would be a very informative session and I could relax after school.” After learning about the class from his psychology and architecture teachers, senior Daniel Tam decided to attend. “[I gave] it a go because it could open my mind to something useful,” Tam said. Other students, such as Belysion and junior Joshua Weiner, attended the session for extra credit for their classes, though they still benefited from meditating since “I’m also a very stressed person,” Weiner said.

Students who participated in the class had positive reactions. “It was pretty effective. I felt that my heart rate was lower after the meeting. I'm kind of an anxious person, so I think I noticed quite a difference,” Tam said. “I learned that meditation doesn’t require anything special [...] it is possible to meditate on a regular basis,” Tang said. “This seminar also showed the importance of listening to your own body and taking care of yourself.”

The Wellness Council also received critique for the meditation session. Students’ main concern was the proximity of the larger gymnastics room to the third floor gymnasium, where a sports team held practice during the session. The noise from the gymnasium was distracting to some students, especially when they were trying to concentrate on meditation, but it also served as good test of concentration, until “it just felt like white noise,” Tam said.

In addition, Weiner commented on the sustainability of weekly meditation seminars with Dr. Param. “With enough experience, or even with teachers at Stuy like Ms. Guthrie, there’s people [here at Stuyvesant] who can be that resource [for meditation, which] I think a lot of people might value,” Weiner said.

For now, the Wellness Council, along with Dr. Param, are hoping to conduct more meditation classes in the future. Dr. Param is planning to lead additional meditation classes every week until Thursday.