To ensure that students have a range of resources for achieving balance in their daily lives, Penn turns to Michael Baime.
Baime directs the Penn Program for Stress Management within the University of Pennsylvania Health System, and he gave advice yesterday to help reduce the stresses of Ivy League life.
Baime led a "mindful meditation stress management discussion" for about a dozen students at the Fox Leadership Hall.
Baime underscored the need for these programs with a disturbing picture of the realities of a career in the fast lane.
"Your risk of having a heart attack is three and a half [times as great] if your work is within the top 20 percent of stressful jobs in the market," he said.
Far from offering a cure-all, Baime gave the group a lesson in simple relaxation techniques, a chance for all involved to learn firsthand the benefits of "mindful meditation" -- the process of learning to focus and relax in short increments.
"When we have a moment where there's nothing to do, it's as if an impulse, the momentum of our daily life, causes us to find something else to do, to find a way to continue moving and thinking," Baime said.
But though she is experienced with meditation, College senior Sara Jaggi said that "it was hard at first -- I still have problems sitting for more than three minutes, but now I feel I can alter my reaction to everything happening around me."
Anxiety, excessive demand and deadlines are all things Baime seeks to address.
"Mindfulness is your capacity to bring your attention into your present moment in life and deal with stress and emotion in a realistic way," he said.
For some who aspire to the top, this stress is a fact of life.
"I feel anxiety and a tense feeling when I start worrying about my schoolwork, and I'm always afraid I'll let someone down," said David Winchell, an Engineering freshman.
