It’s no secret that school can be stressful, especially at Northwood. And with finals coming up, the stress will only build. Although you could destress with traditional methods like taking walks, baking or just talking to friends to manage your stress, a more spiritual outlet for your stress could be meditation.

San Francisco-based company Within Meditation offers group meditation classes led by a teacher, focusing particularly on mindfulness, which is when you bring your attention specifically to the present moment.

“Mindfulness can teach us to be present so we can actually enjoy our lives,” meditation teacher Adam Moskowitz said. “Instead of being so concerned about what’s going to happen in 10 minutes from now, 10 days from now or 10 years from now, just enjoy the moment.”

Within Meditation uses meditation as a tool to teach people how to practice mindfulness and change their perspective on the way they deal with problems.

“You have a constant whirlwind of thoughts,” Within Meditation co-founder Hannah Knapp said. “But when you meditate, you discover this inner core in you that’s unchanging, stable and calm, which can help you feel a sense of balance.”

In addition to managing stress, meditation can help relieve physical tension caused by stress, allowing you to recover physically.

“When you’re stressed out all the time, you are constantly in fight-flight-freeze mode, and that really wears your body out,” Knapp said. “Each time you meditate, you’re putting your body back into recovery mode, so you are giving your body a chance to recuperate from all of that stress.”

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Within Meditation has successfully made the transition online from their San Francisco studios to Zoom meetings, opening their services to people from all over the world. Even without in-person classes, Within Meditation works to maintain a sense of community between its meditators.

“It does feel different, meditating with other people as opposed to on my own,” meditation student Danielle Goldberg said. “With a good community of people that ask questions and share their own experiences, I just realized that a lot of people are going through the same stuff.”

Although it can be easy to write off meditation as a waste of time, meditation can be a breath of fresh air in a world where constant hustle and hard work is the norm.

“A lot of times it feels like you’re always trying to get everything done and you never get everything done,” Moskowitz said. “There is no finish line, because what happens is when we try to get to the finish line all the time, as soon as we get there, there’s another finish line. And when we live like that, it’s hard to enjoy the present moment.”

Meditation is not for everyone. But for the people that find a place in their life for it, it changes them for the better.

“One of the things I love about meditation is that you don’t need to take anybody’s word for it,” Knapp said. “You don’t have to believe anything. You don’t have to buy into anything. It’s really just about you and your experience.”

To sign up for classes with Within Meditation, visit withinmeditation.com for more information.