{"id":13584,"date":"2022-01-13T19:40:33","date_gmt":"2022-01-13T19:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golive.clarku.edu\/news\/2022\/01\/13\/making-time-for-meditation-during-covid-a-clark-mindfulness-expert-weighs-in\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T09:32:37","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T13:32:37","slug":"making-time-for-meditation-during-covid","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2022\/01\/13\/making-time-for-meditation-during-covid\/","title":{"rendered":"Making time for meditation during COVID: A Clark mindfulness expert weighs in"},"content":{"rendered":"\n            \n            <p class=\"intro news-subhead\">In The Conversation, instructor Jessica Bane Robert writes about \u2018clearing the mind\u2019<\/p>\n            <p><html><body><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve&nbsp;taught a course&nbsp;called&nbsp;Mindful Choices&nbsp;at Clark University for eight years, so one might think I would have had a consistent meditation practice before now.&rdquo;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www2.clarku.edu\/faculty\/facultybio.cfm?id=728\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" aria-label=\"Read about Jessica Bane Robert on the Clark University website\">Jessica Bane Robert<\/a>, director of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/offices\/scholarships-fellowships\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" aria-label=\"visit the prestigious fellowships and scholarships website\">prestigious fellowships and scholarships<\/a>, makes this admission at the start of her contribution to &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/the-covid-19-pandemic-has-inspired-new-health-habits-for-these-4-scholars-heres-what-they-put-into-practice-and-why-173049\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" aria-label='Read \"The COVID-19 pandemic has inspired new health habits for these 4 scholars &mdash; here&rsquo;s what they put into practice and why\" on The Conversation website'>The COVID-19 pandemic has inspired new health habits for these 4 scholars &mdash; here&rsquo;s what they put into practice and why<\/a>,&rdquo; published this week on the online news site <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" aria-label=\"Visit The Conversation website\">The Conversation<\/a>. The article also includes short essays from scholars at Purdue University, the University of Virginia, and Iowa State University.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17026\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17026\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17026 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019-Jessica-Bane-Robert-3-300x200-2.jpg\" alt=\"Jessica Bane Robert\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17026\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jessica Bane Robert<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Bane Robert writes about her new commitment to daily meditation and the positive results of her 10-minute sessions: lower blood pressure, less focus on negative thoughts, and improved focus and &ldquo;working memory.&rdquo; She also shares research about the impact meditation can have on prejudice and bias, and suggests mobile apps that can help people stick to their meditation goals.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/catalog.clarku.edu\/preview_course_nopop.php?catoid=25&amp;coid=83651\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" aria-label='Read course description for \"Mindful Choices\"'>Mindful Choices<\/a>, a half-semester course, students examine and reflect on a number of questions, including &ldquo;What holds my attention, and calls for me to explore it further? What do I enjoy, and what do I care most about? Where do I find a sense of meaning and purpose? How do my interests and concerns relate to the choices I am making in my education?&rdquo; The students engage in visual arts, music, and creative writing as they consider their paths of study and consciously commit to the direction of their academic journeys. Learn more in &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/clarknow.clarku.edu\/2018\/03\/26\/clark-campus-embraces-mindfulness-and-meditation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" aria-label='Read \"Clark campus embraces mindfulness and meditation\" on ClarkNow'>Clark campus embraces mindfulness and meditation<\/a>&rdquo; on ClarkNow.<\/body><\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In The Conversation, instructor Jessica Bane Robert writes about \u2018clearing the mind\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13585,"template":"","meta":{"story_color":"#525250","story_headerImg":13585,"section_label":"In The Conversation","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[223,246],"displayed_author":[324],"featured":[],"topic":[150,384,316,373],"class_list":["post-13584","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clark-community","category-health-wellbeing","displayed_author-clark-news-and-media-relations","topic-faculty","topic-featured-in-the-news","topic-mental-health","topic-the-conversation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Making time for meditation during COVID: A Clark mindfulness expert weighs in | ClarkU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2022\/01\/13\/making-time-for-meditation-during-covid\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Making time for meditation during COVID: A Clark mindfulness expert weighs in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In The Conversation, instructor Jessica Bane Robert writes about \u2018clearing the mind\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2022\/01\/13\/making-time-for-meditation-during-covid\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ClarkU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-19T13:32:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Meditation-yoga-Clark-University.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/13\\\/making-time-for-meditation-during-covid\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/13\\\/making-time-for-meditation-during-covid\\\/\",\"name\":\"Making time for meditation during COVID: A Clark mindfulness expert weighs in | ClarkU News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/13\\\/making-time-for-meditation-during-covid\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/13\\\/making-time-for-meditation-during-covid\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/37\\\/Meditation-yoga-Clark-University.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-13T19:40:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-19T13:32:37+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/13\\\/making-time-for-meditation-during-covid\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/13\\\/making-time-for-meditation-during-covid\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/37\\\/Meditation-yoga-Clark-University.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/37\\\/Meditation-yoga-Clark-University.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":683,\"caption\":\"Yogi black woman practicing yoga lesson, breathing, meditating, doing Ardha Padmasana exercise, Half Lotus pose with mudra gesture, working out, indoor close up. 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