Wednesday, March 27

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By Veronica Pascucci


Today, we started the day by welcoming in Dr. Reese for our last yoga session of the term. The day before, we had been advised to bring two pillows and a blanket from home for what she called “Restorative Yoga” which is exactly what we did this morning. The restorative yoga practice involves doing a few calm positions that we had already done prior to this session, but this time, with extra padding and support given to our head and back by our yoga blocks and pillows. Restorative yoga helps us to scan and relax our entire body, and it helps all of us get a nice break before starting the day. Many students said they had fallen asleep during it. We said our last goodbye to Dr. Reese for this course, and we took a little break before starting our first intellectual activity. 



The rest of our morning was spent either finishing up our sand mandalas from yesterday or reading our chosen book for the week. Mainly everyone had finished theirs, so all of us had three 15-minute blocks to read our books and take notes on our chapters. After that, we had a mini seminar with everyone reading the same book as us, and then we decided to have a bigger seminar-style session with everyone able to voice their takeaways from the reading. I have been enjoying reading my book thoroughly, as it has allowed me to think on new and different perspectives I hadn’t thought of prior to reading this book, and my peers during our seminar told me their most interesting takeaways and their opinion on them, helping me reflect even further. 



After lunch, we back and watched a short video on the intricate creation of the sand mandalas from the Tibetan monks. Now it was our time to meditate on and dissolve our mandalas. We took some time to ponder what our design meant to us before gracefully destroying it and bagging the sand. The sand from the mandalas signifies love, creativity, luck, and curiosity. We got to take one of the baggies we had packed with sand and spread it all over the school where it was most important to us. The sand mandala activity was very meaningful - I look at it as a human relationship. It’s something beautiful and that you put lots of effort into, but it’s important to be able to let it go as well. That’s what’s so beautiful about them. 


Caroline, Veronica, and Kat’s finished sand mandala.


Camila, Mads, and Cape’s sand mandala.


Sonieya, Yazzie, and Federico’s sand mandala.



Finally, we practiced one of the relaxing meditations we had found as a group before taking ten minutes to reflect in our “52 Lists” books. After that, we did another 20 minute meditation session which served as a calming end of our day, along with written positive affirmations. This blog is being written after that session, and is a sort of reflection on how the day went for both me and my peers. We had a great, restful day, and are excited for our last day





Caroline and Kat’s graceful mandala destruction.

Sonieya spreading her sand.

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