By Abigail Bender

On the south side of the University of Maryland Memorial Chapel lies a meditative space containing an intricate labyrinth, verdant vegetation and relaxing waterfalls, known as the Garden of Reflection and Remembrance.

The garden serves as a healing and thoughtful place for the campus community, with its centerpiece for reflection being the circular labyrinth. To support student mental health and well-being, the UMD Memorial Chapel and University Health Center will host guided meditation and labyrinth walks in the garden every Thursday in April, from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.

For the past 10 years, the garden has been a space for people to engage in three-to-five-week sessions focusing on different themes related to meditation and walking the labyrinth, said Memorial Chapel Manager Denise McHugh.

McHugh said the meditation series was named “Stillness in Motion” because people can find inner peace wherever they are.

“You can find moments where you might still be quiet, and find that stillness even if you’re actively doing something else,” she said.

Meditation practices in the garden vary with each session, but they often include deep breathing, exercises that focus on the five senses and walking the labyrinth. 

Another feature of the garden includes benches for people to sit and reflect on their thoughts, said Erin Kim, an event manager at the Memorial Chapel. 

The benches around the garden have journals beneath them, which are part of the Nature Sacred program.

“Oftentimes in those journals, we see a lot of people that use the chapel and use the space as a way to kind of calm themselves down, but also to reach out to others and try to talk to one another through the pages of the book,” Kim said.

McHugh said taking the time to participate in the meditation series will bring a sense of calmness and focus to the campus community. 

She also hopes people who engage with the series will use these methods in the future.  

“We hope that they will take that idea and implement it in some other way, you know, somewhere in their lives, beyond the time of the series,” McHugh said.

Another facilitator for the series is Olivia Mays, a mental health and stress management coordinator at the University Health Center.  

As a meditation facilitator for the series, Mays assists with the structured meditation process alongside McHugh and interacts with people for the labyrinth walk.

“The labyrinth is a self-guided experience, but I will prompt people before they go on that journey with just a question to reflect on or an idea to reflect on,” Mays said.

Mays views the meditation series as a means to educate students on how to incorporate mindfulness activities in their daily lives to enhance their well-being.

“I really value the ability to couple education with some skill-based activity so that people have a chance to put some of the knowledge that they’re learning into practice in that moment,” Mays said.

Mays said the meditation and mindfulness series is not the solution for mental health struggles, but being grounded in nature is a way for students to stay present and help foster a sense of relief.

“Because meditation isn’t about getting rid of the thoughts,” Mays said. “It’s about being able to sit with those thoughts without feeling like you have to kind of get pulled into, we use this analogy called the river of thought.”

Mays described the “river of thought” as using mindfulness practices to observe one’s bundled-up thoughts floating around instead of getting lost in the river. 

Through the meditation series, Mays hopes that the campus community will feel more open to the idea of building its own meditation practices. She wants the series to help people be less fearful about meditation and not view it as a daunting activity. 

“You know, there’s sometimes people who think that meditation has to be like 30 minutes of just no thoughts, complete silence, but it’s so much more than that,” Mays said. “And it’s really about creating an intentional practice that helps you stay in the present moment.”

Featured Image: The labyrinth walk located in the Garden of Reflection and Remembrance at the Memorial Chapel. Photo by Paige Trendell.