During the week of February 7th, Maggie Walker’s Honor Council and Bring Change 2 Mind Club (BC2M) worked together to host Mindfulness Week, a fun, low-stress week filled with a variety of activities. “The purpose of Mindfulness Week was to allow students to learn about how to manage and recognize stress, as well as give them opportunities to step back from the hustle and bustle of everyday life,” said junior Katie Hollister, secretary of the Honor Council. 

These activities included mindfulness workshops, arts and crafts activities, yoga, pajama day, and candy grams. Senior Alan Watts, Honor Council chair, said that “participation varied depending on the grade level and the activity during the week.” He noted that “many lunchtime activities and events such as the Mindfulness Workshops and the arts and crafts day tended to be very popular among the underclassmen,” while he heard the most positive feedback about the Take a Dragon Breath (no homework night) from the upperclassmen. Watts also added that the most popular activities during the week were the candy grams and tea station on the last day. 

“Our main goal [for Mindfulness Week] was to be able to provide students with moments during the week to take a breath and relax through one of our activities or workshops,” Watts said. Adding to this statement, Hollister mentioned that through hosting Mindfulness Week, the Honor Council wanted to allow students to learn about how to manage and recognize stress. “We wanted to try and decrease the need for committing Honor Code violations,” Hollister said, as violations and instances of cheating typically occur in urgent or stressful situations, which many students had been experiencing with the first semester coming to an end. 

“By addressing the main cause of honor infractions—stress—we were able to act proactively and prevent honor infractions from being committed in the first place,” said Hollister. “We were able to achieve our goal of reminding students that it’s necessary to take a step back and focus on your mental health in desperate situations. Many people who participated were able to find happiness during at least one point in the week.”

The idea for Mindfulness Week can be credited to senior Anandita Sharma, a member of both the Honor Council and BC2M, who coordinated the activities each group would be leading to ensure that everything was set up for each of them. “It was so incredible to see everyone from both groups so invested in making Mindfulness Week a success,” Sharma said. She attributed this success to the “great deal of effort to make students at least a little bit less stressed that week.” 

When speaking about the development of Mindfulness Week, Watts was quick to praise Sharma, saying, “She took the lead on the bulk of the work and coordination between counseling, Bring Change 2 Mind, and the Honor Council. Anandita had been helping plan Mindfulness Week since October and November.” When discussing her goals for Mindfulness Week, Sharma said her main goal was “simply to get students to reflect on their mental health and how that might relate to their integrity.” 

“It was great to see more people talking about the importance of prioritizing mental health and finding other solutions to dealing with academic stress besides compromising integrity,” she mentioned. “Mindfulness Week was a collaborative effort, not just between the Honor Council and BC2M, but also between the teachers who allowed students to ‘Take a Dragon Breath’ and everyone who participated in activities to strengthen their own self-reflection.”

Ms. Lisa Ebeling, Maggie Walker’s school psychologist and a sponsor of BC2M, also chimed in, stating, “Mindfulness Week is a good initiative to support the ideas around balance and self-care.” She also noted that “exploring and revisiting these ideas are essential to incorporating good practices in everyday life.” 

“We know many students truly enjoyed participating in the week’s activities and we hope as Mindfulness Week becomes an annual event, its positive impact will continue to grow over time,” Watts concluded. All in all, Mindfulness Week was a great way to start off the second semester.