Meditating in class? Some professors say it helps students focus

Professor Bernard McGrane leads students through a five-minute meditation exercise before each class to increase focus. Photo by Cassidy Keola

When Chapman sociology professor Bernard McGrane went through both familial and romantic relationship struggles over thirty years ago, he discovered the Karme Choling meditation center in Vermont and started practicing meditation. After reading The Heart Sutra, a classic text of Buddhism, McGrane went through a profound internal experience. 

“Something very, very deep in me (clicked) and I started shedding tears left and right,” McGrane said. 

Now, he incorporates meditation at Chapman. He starts each class off with three to five minutes of sitting meditation and guides his students to think about relaxing each part of their body. He ends the session by instructing students to follow the sound of a small gold, bowl-shaped gong. After these moments of stillness, he said the class is ready to learn.

“When you forget about yourself and you think about someone else, it’s very healing for the person doing it,” McGrane said. “It somehow, psychologically, is very nourishing for us.”

Gail Stearns, dean of the Wallace All-Faiths Chapel, said meditation can help students manage anxiety and identify stress inducers. 

“It is important that mindfulness is introduced on our campus by people who practice it regularly and understand its benefits and limitations,” Stearns said.

Meghan O’Connell, a junior sociology major, is one of McGrane’s students who feels inspired when meditating. 

“When I enter a classroom, I’m already thinking about all the things that need to be done or that need to be turned in,” O’Connell said. “When I enter Professor McGrane’s class, those thoughts still come, but then I get that minute of mindfulness and then I’m able to reflect and say, ‘OK, I can get this done.’”

Like McGrane, communication studies professor Sophie Janicke-Bowles also incorporates mindfulness and yoga into her classes. When her students seem hyperactive and energetic, she guides them through meditation. When the students are feeling lethargic, she takes them through a few yoga exercises like the tree pose.

“We know from research that when people are hyper-stimulated, these are states where we cannot learn well,” Janicke-Bowles said.

McGrane has practiced meditation in his class since the late 1990s, when he first launched a single-credit course in mindfulness and meditation. He’s received positive feedback in his course evaluations that discuss how the class’s unique strength lies in the few minutes offered to relieve stress.

“A lot of people don’t know healthy ways to deal with (stress), and a minute of mindfulness is much better than taking a shot of tequila to calm you down,” O’Connell said. 

Another effective, yet commonly overlooked, way to deal with stress is to get enough sleep, said Jeanne Walker, director of Chapman’s Student Psychological Counseling Services.

“If there is one thing that will make a difference, it is sleep,” Walker said. “Our brains don’t function well without adequate sleep, but most students do just the opposite by staying up late and doing all-nighters.” 

O’Connell believes that the small moments of calm reflection go a long way. 

“It really just doesn’t take a lot to recognize all the emotions that you’re feeling,” she said. “Just take that moment for yourself to decompress and refresh your mind.”