Struggle with Stress or Anxiety? An Untapped Resource for Students and Athletes

This year, the Wellness Center has implemented a new helpful resource for students and student athletes called the MindBody Lab. Pioneered by the director of the Wellness Center, Leigh Collins and staff clinician, Fran Speer, the aim of the program is to provide students with mindfulness and training to improve their mental wellbeing. According to them, the MindBody Lab “is a free resource for Sewanee students that combines mindfulness coaching and biofeedback monitoring to help students learn how to better manage strong emotions and increase personal resilience.” 

Through the use of a HeartMath Biofeedback program, the MindBody Lab tracks different heart activity, which affects cognitive and emotional function. Through many hours of research, Leigh and Fran have seen that mindfulness has a positive impact on managing stress, anxiety, and depression, as well as lowering blood pressure, improving sleep, improving focus, and learning to separate thoughts from emotions. This practice, paired with a biofeedback system that uses highly sensitive computerized instruments to monitor and adjust heart rates, offers a unique psychological service. This truly is such a unique opportunity for students and student athletes to learn strategies for managing anxiety, stress and other mental health issues. 

It has been well-established through research that meditation, visualizations, and biofeedback can help athletes with anxiety, stress, and focus. Any athlete knows how important their mental and physical health is for performance. By enrolling in this 4-5 session training, athletes will be provided with the proper resources to combat many of the different stressors that come with playing a sport. Leigh and Fran told us that they believe this program can be  extremely beneficial in fortifying an athletes mental strength and focus. Many athletic programs have already begun to take advantage of the Lab, including  Equestrian, Baseball, Golf and Basketball. 

Having participated in the MindBody Lab myself, I think this is a great way to invest in your mental health. The program provides you with useful skills to practice managing your heart rate and get in tune with your stress or anxiety levels. One aspect of the training I really enjoyed was how it can be personalized and adjusted to what works best for you. Since each session only takes 30-45 minutes, it was also a nice opportunity to take a break from my work load. I would recommend this program to any student or student athlete because I truly believe it has impacted my heart coherence and management of anxiety. If you are curious and would like to learn more about the MindBody Lab, call (931) 598-1270 or email Leigh Collins [email protected] .