Mindfulness-Based Wellness: Plans and Prep

The school year begins! Our campus has livened up with the presence of students: first the athletes, then the freshmen, and, this week, everyone else comes back to start classes on Wednesday. There’s a great feeling of anticipating in the air; everyone can see, hear, and feel the sense that Avila University has kicked into a new gear.

We’ve had a great response to the newly announced Mindfulness-Based Wellness program; 40 or 50 people have already signed up. We’ll have two sections, one meeting on Tuesday mornings, and another one Tuesday afternoons. Those who are not assigned to the Fall Semester will be assigned to Spring Semester; in the meantime, they will comprise our control group and undergo all the pre- and post-testing that the Fall Group will do. This will include weight, height (for body mass index), blood pressure, body fat percentage, and several paper-and-pencil inventories. We believe we will be able to demonstrate that, over the course of the Fall Semester, the Fall Group will show significant improvements on a variety of measures, over and above any improvements the Spring Group (those not yet participating in our program) may show.