During the week of Sept. 9, Tech observed National Suicide Prevention Week by promoting campus events regarding mental health. SKY Campus Happiness organized their Chocolate and Meditation event on Thursday, Sept. 12. The Technique spoke to the president of SKY at Tech Vishaal Ganesh, fourth-year BMED.
“SKY at GT is focused on helping students improve mental health, resilience and stress management through weekly workshops,” said Ganesh. SKY holds weekly themed meditation events as an invitation to practice mindfulness. There is no need to worry if you haven’t meditated before — longtime SKY members lead the guided meditations, which include breathing and sensory exercises.
“Meditation is a really powerful tool to kind of manage emotion, to manage stress, all within the power of your own mind and the breath,” Ganesh said. He said SKY aims to give Tech students the tools to employ stress resilience techniques.
SKY held the Chocolate and Meditation event in the Castleberry Room on the third floor of the John Lewis Student Center. After a quick introduction, the SKY leaders began with a controlled breathing exercise called bhastrika pranayama, or bellows breathing. The practice of commanding your breath to this extent energizes the body and focuses the mind through quick yet forceful inhalation and exhalation. The SKY leaders guided all attendees through this exercise while directing their senses, noting the noises outside the room and the cool feeling of the air-conditioning. Afterward, the leaders checked in with the attendees, who stated they were already feeling relaxed.
Next, the attendees opened their hands to the sky and practiced existing in the moment. The SKY leaders guided the attendees through progressive muscle relaxation from the bottom to the top of their bodies — flexing and relaxing muscles in tune with focused breathing allowed attendees to be mindful of their thoughts and achieve a relaxed state, as described by a first-year at the event.
The event finished with sweet treats as the SKY leaders placed a chocolate in each attendee’s hands and encouraged the attendees to feel the ridges of the chocolate, noting its temperature and scent, before finally taking a small bite. SKY places emphasis on experiencing each moment fully, exemplified by the care taken before eating chocolate. The instruction ended with a second piece of chocolate distributed among the attendees.
Although some attended Chocolate and Meditation for the chocolate, many came to appreciate SKY’s teachings as their mind became clearer by the end of the event. The lessons SKY imparts to its members are intended to help beyond the initial guided meditation. Chocolate and Meditation serves as an introduction to meditation, but SKY also offers a weekend-long retreat during the semester that immerses members in meditation.
“It’s a unique workshop, so part of it is you learn the SKY practice, but they teach life lessons, things that will stick with you and that you can remember when a tough time comes around,” Ganesh said. “We decided to do a hot chocolate stand right outside of North Ave. Simple events like that, you realize, first meditation, then doing service for others, seeing the smile [on] people’s faces is so exciting. In another workshop, we just put up a sign that said, ‘What makes you happy?’ We had sticky notes out where people wrote it down, and just seeing them write things about what makes them happy is so heartwarming.”
SKY’s focus on practicing mindfulness and awareness means they are cognizant of the mental health climate at Tech.
“As people get older, especially a lot of grad students, you’re seeing be like, I need a way to kind of manage what’s going on — I need a way to kind of focus when there’s a lot of pressure from different sides on me,” Ganesh said when asked about mental health trends at the Institute. Ganesh has seen the impact of SKY’s meetings firsthand and personally practices the lessons learned every day.
SKY is the college program of a larger international organization called The Art of Living Foundation, founded by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in 1981. Shankar visited Tech on Nov. 10, 2022, where he spoke on resilience and the power of meditation.
“He has a message for college students because he sees they’re under a tremendous amount of stress. There’s a lot of young people who are growing up kind of disillusioned with how things are goin, and they’re not able to manage what’s going on,” Ganesh said about Shankar’s speech at Tech.
“The whole point of all this — of SKY, of meditation, of wellness, is just to put a smile on your face,” Ganesh said. SKY will hold weekly meditations in the Castleberry Room on the third floor of the John Lewis Student Center throughout this semester, and their retreat will be the weekend of Oct. 4.