At 8:30 am in April 18 of 2019, host by the Student Work Department of Central South University and the Xiangya School of Nursing of Central South University and organized by the Nursing Branch of the Association of Young Scientists and Technicians of Central South University and the Graduate Association of Xiangya School of Nursing, the lecture series of “Benefits of Mindfulness” was successfully carried out in Classroom 714 in Xiaoqian Building at Xiangya New Campus.
The lecturer is Dr. Sun Shufang, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University Alpert Medical School. As a clinical psychologist who earned her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she conducted mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) research and lectured the therapy of mindfulness at many universities, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Brown University School of Medicine. College students, HIV-infected patients, rehabilitation patients, and psychiatric patients are among the targeted groups of her mindfulness-based interventions research.
Dr. Sun Shufang started this lecture by asking how many people in the audience had a basic knowledge of mindfulness, how many of them had received standard training in this respect and whether they had kept practicing it in their daily life. According to Dr. Sun, mindfulness refers to consciousness or awareness, a skill that could be acquired through training. To further illustrate the point, Dr. Sun Shufang introduced related research on brain plasticity. Then, with relevant researches and examples, she expounded the benefits of mindfulness, which could bring about changes in the brain and body of individuals and have a positive effect on their mental health level. Besides, those who practiced mindfulness would have better immune system, less anxiety and depression and more harmonious interpersonal relationships along with an increase in the span of attention and concentration.
At the end of the lecture, Under the guidance of Dr. Sun Shufang, the audience did an exercise of mindfulness, gradually relaxing their body and mind with their attention focused on what was around them. Through this mindfulness meditation exercise, the teachers and students present had a sense of the benefits brought by mindfulness. The lecture was rounded off with Dr. Sun Shufang’s encouragement for everyone to learn more about mindfulness and practice it more often.
