On April 7, the Art of Living Foundation (AOLF) hosted a training session with expert Shravan Gunda to help calm the mind from stress in the Lincoln Resident Hall great room.

The goal of the event was to help people understand what causes stress and teach them how breathing can help calm the mind and focus on tasks.

“If you tell the mind not to do something it wants to do that,” said Gunda. “We cannot manage our mind.”

Gunda explained that the easiest way for the mind to focus is to expel all emotions since it is constantly swinging between the past and the future, but never the present. Since no one wanted to get rid of their emotions completely Gunda suggested a more simple and powerful technique: breathing.

“To the first inhalation to the last exhalation we call life and we have been breathing throughout our whole life but we have not experienced how powerful our breath is. Breath is the link between the body and the mind. The scientific community says that 80 to 90 percent of our toxins are eliminated through the breath but we only use 30 percent of our lung’s capacity.”

Gunda taught two breathing techniques. One was meant to calm a person, while the other breathing technique was meant to help to improve alertness. At the very end of the event there was guided meditation to help wrap up the event and bring it to a close.

AOLF is a nonprofit organization for development and humanities that helps people learn guided meditation, breathing techniques, and simple yoga to help improve the body. These techniques that are learned in the program are said to help improve alertness and decrease stress. The AOLF is planning on opening slots to join the club in the following weeks at UIS. The program is provided at UIUC and is hoping to expand to UIS. You can learn more about the organization at www.theartofliving.org.